Mexico to extend anti-drug operations (to other states)

AP on Yahoo ^ | 12/14/06 | E. Eduardo Castillo - ap

[NormsRevenge]

MEXICO CITY - Mexico's government said Thursday it would send troops and police to root out drug smugglers in several states, expanding an offensive that began this week in one violence-plagued state where soldiers clashed with traffickers trying to protect a marijuana field.

Attorney General Eduardo Medina said raids could take place simultaneously in various states, apparently to prevent traffickers from fleeing between regions. He declined to name the states.

"The operational design in each state will be different," he said. "The war against drug trafficking is very complicated, but it is a winnable war."

He said the idea was to wrest income and turf from drug traffickers.

"This operation doesn't aim to be spectacular, it aims to be effective and the focus is on territory, recovering geographical space for the public," Medina said.

On Tuesday, some 6,500 troops and federal police rolled into Michoacan state to round up traffickers and burn marijuana and opium fields. Smugglers in the state have defied authorities with beheadings and large-scale drug production.

In the first major clash since the troops arrived, soldiers killed a suspected trafficker and wounded another Wednesday in a gunbattle in the Michoacan mountains.

The Defense Department said the soldiers were attacked by gunmen protecting a marijuana field near Aguililla, a remote farming community overrun by a drug cartel some 120 miles southwest of the state capital, Morelia. One gunman escaped.

In that raid and others in Aguililla, soldiers and police seized a dozen assault rifles, pistols, radios, a satellite phone and a press used to pack marijuana.

Michoacan's violence continued even as police set up highway checkpoints Thursday around the state capital. Javier Morales Gomez, a 28-year-old musician for the band Los Implacables del Norte, was shot to death by unidentified assailants in the town of Huetamo. Prosecutors had no immediate information on the possible motive.

There have been more than 2,000 drug-related killings across Mexico this year. Michoacan, the home state of President Felipe Calderon, has been one of the worst hit.

On Wednesday, Calderon, who took office Dec. 1, said he was assigning 10,000 soldiers and sailors to the federal police force, which is used in operations from riot control to drug interdiction. Many members of the federal police are on loan from the military.

"We must, at all cost, prevent this public safety problem from becoming a national security problem, to the extent it challenges the Mexican government," Calderon said in announcing the transfers. "This task will not be easy or quick, but the public demands results and we must act immediately."

Also Thursday, the attorney general discounted fears that the shooting death of first lady Margarita Zavala's cousin could have been a retaliation for Calderon's anti-drug campaign. Medina said there was no indication that Luis Felipe Zavala's killing was related to organized crime.

Zavala's body was found in his minivan just west of Mexico City on Tuesday — the day after Calderon announced the crackdown. Medina told reporters the timing was a coincidence.

Meanwhile, in the border city of Ciudad Juarez an alleged drug trafficker who was involved in a standoff with Texas authorities in January was shot to death inside a medical clinic, authorities said Thursday. Cesar Gandara, 30, killed Tuesday night by several gunmen wearing ski masks.

The Jan. 23 standoff strained relations between Mexico and the U.S. after Texan officials accused Mexican soldiers of being part of a group they confronted near the border. Both countries eventually concluded that no Mexican military officials had been involved.

[Jazzman1]

uh, oh. The big dealers must be holding back on the bribe money. Happens every few years , then its back to the shakedown for protection. Mexico is one dismal, corrupt and hopeless country.

[Brad from Tennessee]

[. . . in one violence-plagued state where soldiers clashed with traffickers trying to protect a marijuana field.]

This sounds like the town where I live. About twice a year law enforcement goes out on a sweep and arrests the same group of penny-ante crackheads.

Mexico produces opium and heroin from their domestic poppy crop as well as methamphedamine, all for illegal export to the U.S. They trans-ship cocaine into the U.S. as well as ephedera--in 55-gallon drums--a precursor of methamphedamine("crank.") In addition, Mexico legally imports tons of pharmaceutical narcotics (hydrocodone, morphine, etc.) in pill and tablet form which is sold illegally and smuggled into the U.S.