1.   And the majority of those, Pennal said, were superlabs run by the Mexican syndicates.

2.   At first, Mexican syndicates were content to be paid per haul of cocaine to allow Colombian drug lords to use their established routes.

3.   Molesa said one DEA informant was gunned down in Tucson this year by drug gangsters, but that case did not involve Mexican syndicates.

4.   Mexican syndicates quickly doubled their power and exportation business.

5.   The arrests capped a string of successes that also nabbed top dealers from all the major Mexican syndicates.

6.   The Mexican syndicates also have access to large and poorly regulated supplies of many of the chemicals used to make methamphetamine, Constantine said.