Drug gangs in Guatemala are paying the runners and hit men with cocaine, driving a growing local market and leaving a trail of home-grown addicts in a country already ravaged by poverty and crime gangs.

Dozens of drug rehabilitation centers that have emerged in Guatemala City in recent years, the bed full of teenagers addicted to cocaine and other illegal drugs being sold more and more freely in the street by agents of the cartel.

One, the center of the Holy Spirit drug, patients had about 20 residents when it opened five years ago, but since the number of addicts in the capital of the balloons is expanding its facilities to hold 250 patients.

“In Guatemala is a matter of ’if you can not get drugs?” Because it is so easy. You could get about three blocks from here, “said Hugo Monton, 46, who began smoking marijuana at age 12 and was on crack for more than twenty years.

Powerful drug cartels in Mexico have moved deep into the territory of Guatemala in recent years as a Mexican army offensive has led to new routes for smuggling between South America and the United States.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration or DEA, acknowledged that three quarters of South American cocaine north smuggled through Central America. Guatemalan officials say that the cartels are paying local drug traffickers, as it is more difficult to trace than cash.

“Drug use has increased as a result of a change in the way the posters are extra. Ten years ago they paid 75 percent cash and 25 percent on drugs is now nearly 100 percent drugs, “said interior ministry spokesman Nery Morales.

COCAINE WAGES

The same pattern was seen in neighboring Mexico, where the government is waging a drug war turf wars which have killed nearly 4,000 people this year.

With large cash transfers under scrutiny, the posters who use drugs and weapons to complete the assessments to pay the people running errands, driving their vehicles, money laundering, conducting visits and police oversight.

The trend puts more drugs in circulation in regions that used to be exclusively traffic areas such as drug gang members sell their wages cocaine on the street to retrieve some money.

“The transfer of large amounts of money is more difficult because it is easy for authorities to detect,” said Edgar Camargo, head of a government commission of drug Guatemala.

There is no official survey in Guatemala on the number of drug users, but the local Division of Narcotics Anonymous says he has seen a big jump in people attending its meetings.

“We’ve seen a change in recent years. The number of young people who come now are 15, 18 or 19 is unbelievable. It’s scary because they’re just kids,” said a representative of the organization in Guatemala, he said.

They say they are addicted to drugs getting cheaper. A small bag of crack costs just over $ 4, compared with about $ 6 for five years.

An increase in drug users is likely to worsen already rampant crime. Guatemala is one of the most violent countries in Latin America with more than 6,000 murders in 2008 in a population of 13 million euros, largely due to a problem with street gangs.

Morales Interior Ministry said the use of drugs rather than pushing younger people to join street gangs that assault, extort businesses and kidnap people for cash.

A 35-year-old patient with the Holy Spirit, named Joseph, said he was imprisoned four times for armed robbery in a period of 12 years when he turned to crime to feed their drug habit.

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