This Bi-National Strategy, which will be implemented beginning in 1998, reflects the principles of bilateral cooperation specified in the Declaration of the United States and Mexico Alliance Against Drugs, which was signed by the two presidents at their meeting in May 1997. The goals of the cooperative strategy include reducing the demand for illicit drugs through the intensification of anti-drug information and education efforts, particularly those directed at youth, and through rehabilitative programs, as well as reducing the production and distribution of illegal drugs in both countries, particularly marijuana, methamphetamine, cocaine, and heroin. Law enforcement efforts will focus on criminal organizations and those who facilitate their operations in both countries. Another goal of the strategy is to ensure that fugitives are expeditiously and with due legal process brought to justice and are unable to evade justice by fleeing to one of the countries or remaining in the other. Other goals pertain to countering illegal firearms trafficking; money laundering; the diversion and illicit use of precursor chemicals; and drug shipments by air, land, and sea. Other efforts will focus on training and technical cooperation, the exchange of information and evidence, and asset forfeiture.