MEXICO LEADER LAUNCHES WAR ON DRUGS, CRIME

ULIACAN, Mexico - In a city plagued by drugs and violence, President Vicente
Fox yesterday declared a nationwide war on narcotics trafficking and
organized crime.

''Today we initiate this great crusade,'' Fox said in the capital of
Sinaloa, a Pacific coast state long considered the cradle of Mexico's
extensive drug trade. ''I pledge a war without mercy.''

Fox promised a complete overhaul of the nation's corrupt prison system and
strict adherence to a Mexican Supreme Court ruling last week that removed
the last barriers for extraditing Mexicans for trial in the United States.

His announcement came five days after the escape of one of Sinaloa's drug
bosses, Joaquin ''El Chapo'' Guzman, from a maximum-security prison in the
western state of Jalisco - allegedly with the help of bribed prison
officials.

Fox said his government would do everything in its power to end corruption
in prisons.

The president was accompanied by his defense secretary, his attorney general
and Public Security Secretary Alejandro Gertz, a new Cabinet secretary
appointed to fight organized crime and drug trafficking.

Gertz said his office would begin official operations next week, but he did
not provide details.

One of the first pledges Fox made after taking office Dec. 1 was to launch
an all-out war against drugs and organized crime.

Last month, he sent 1,000 officers to fight drug-related violence in
Culiacan after Sinaloa Governor Juan Millan said he could no longer fight
the scourge on his own.

In the past three years, Culiacan has experienced an average of 500
drug-related deaths annually.