GUATEMALA (By Will Weissert, Associated Press) November 7, 2005 — The dark, volcanic-sand beaches of this town just south of the Mexican border are mostly empty, populated by plump black pigs and an occasional surfer. It's the perfect spot for cocaine runners.

They arrive by sea and steer past the choppy waves of the Pacific into unguarded lagoons and lakes to unload their product.

A geographic midpoint between the jungles of Colombia and northern Mexico's coveted border smuggling corridors, 75 percent of the cocaine that reaches American soil passes through Guatemala, according to anti-drug authorities at the U.S. Embassy.

Drug traffickers have focused on this Central American nation in part because the government long did little to stop them. Police corruption, funding shortfalls and an ineffective judicial system helped smuggling flourish.

President Oscar Berger took office in January 2004 promising to undo the damage of his predecessor, Alfonso Portillo, who caused Washington to drop Guatemala from its list of anti-narcotics allies. But he has made little progress.

Most drugs arrive aboard "go-fasts," speedboats outfitted with powerful motors that slip ashore along the Pacific Coast and in and around the crowded Caribbean port of Puerto Barrios.

"They come like a streak. Zzzzzoooom! And if they hit you, they tear your boat in two," said Concepcion Morales, a 24-year-old fisherman on the Pacific side who strings light bulbs across the bow of his blue fiberglass skiff during overnight expeditions to warn against such collisions. "You have to avoid them."

While U.S. certification has been restored, cocaine seizures have actually fallen. American investigators say Berger has made an effort to slow the drugs flowing through Guatemala, but there are far too many obstacles to overcome.

The president claims the drop in seizures shows smugglers are moving less frequently through Guatemala, using other routes into Mexico and on to the U.S. Portillo often said the same.

Foreign Secretary Jorge Briz said, "The efforts of our government are enormous."

But they don't look like much in Ocos, a town of 29,000 people located 185 miles west of Guatemala City.

"The smugglers, they aren't from here. They come from outside," said Marta Perez, who runs a thatched-roofed seafood eatery on the trash and debris-strewn beach. "Everyone knows who they are. Nobody does anything."

U.S. investigators say smugglers sometimes pilot speedboats straight into Mexico. But riding the high seas off Ocos, it's easy to spot Mexican vessels and aircraft that guard their country's maritime border. By contrast, Guatemala has almost no presence on the water.

"Our state institutions here are very weak, without the technology that we should have, without the resources that we should have and operating only on land," said Guatemala's top anti-narcotics investigator, Adan Castillo.

The U.S. Coast Guard patrols the seas off of Central America, but its jurisdiction usually stops within two miles of land.

Near Ocos and shrouded by high reeds is the Rio Suchiate, which separates Guatemala and Mexico. U.S. investigators say smugglers move up and down the river, using safe houses on either side to lay low if they encounter border agents from either country.

"So many people cross here, you can't count them all," said David Sabillon, a 22-year-old Honduran who lives by the river. "They carry everything, migrants and guns. But drugs are the most common."