Ex-president of Mexico criticizes U.S. role in drug trade

The former president of Mexico is calling on the United States to curb Americans’ appetite for illegal drugs.

Vicente Fox, who was in Peoria Thursday to kick off the West Valley city’s Hispanic Heritage Month, told a press conference that Americans spend over $50 million to buy drugs that are grown in Central American countries, then transported through Mexico to the U.S.

He said that money is then used to bribe Mexican police officers and send guns to Mexico and that has resulted in tragedy.

“Eighty thousand kids have been killed in the last five years because of the drugs consumed in this nation,” he said.

Fox also criticized the U.S. government’s Fast and Furious botched illegal-guns operation. “I think it was stupid.”