DEA HEAD PRAISES MEXICO'S DRUG FIGHT

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- The head of the Drug Enforcement Administration on
Thursday praised Mexican President Vicente Fox's anti-corruption efforts,
including the arrests of a general and two other Mexican army officers.

The arrests "indicate to me that this government is willing to take
whatever steps necessary to address the corruption problems that hamper our
ability to dismantle drug organizations," Administrator Donnie Marshall
told a news conference during meetings with anti-drug officials in Mexico City.

The army officers are charged with cooperating with Gilberto Garcia Mena,
the leader of a drug trafficking gang once known as the Gulf Cartel, who
was arrested April 9. Garcia was ordered this week to stand trial on
criminal association, drug and weapons charges.

"We are impressed by President Fox's commitment to making the fight against
drug trafficking a priority of his administration," Marshall said.

Mexican Attorney General Rafael Macedo said the two countries need to
improve their investigation of the origins of drug shipments, rather than
just seizing them.

"Ours shouldn't be just a reactive effort," he said.

Macedo said Marshall and the Mexican officials talked about strengthening
intelligence units on the border and relocating some of them inside Mexican
territory. He did not say whether U.S. agents would help staff those
intelligence posts.

Marshall also praised a recent Mexican Supreme Court decision that removed
the last roadblocks to extraditing Mexican drug suspects to the United States.

"I am convinced that trafficking will become a lot less attractive ... if
those involved are absolutely certain that they will be called to account
for their crimes in whatever country they have victimized," Marshall said.

Marshall did not mention the Fox administration's most notable setback, the
January escape of reputed top drug trafficker Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman
from a maximum-security prison, allegedly with the help of corrupt prison
authorities.

But he said "it certainly is no secret that from time to time there have
been difficulties in our work. But we have navigated our way through those
difficulties."