GUNS RETURNED TO DISARMED TIJUANA POLICE OFFICERS

TIJUANA, Mexico -- Police in this violent border city got their guns
back Saturday three weeks after they were forced to turn over weapons
to federal authorities because of allegations they were colluding
with drug traffickers.

Tijuana Public Safety Secretary Luis Javier Algorri said soldiers
returned all 2,130 guns to his department.

He planned to send a letter to the attorney general's office asking
for the results of the investigation so he could clear up any doubts
about his officers. No one from the attorney general's office was
available for comment Saturday.

The officers handed in their guns Jan. 4 after President Felipe
Calderon sent 3,300 soldiers and federal police to Tijuana to hunt
down drug gangs. The soldiers swept police stations and took
officers' guns for inspection to see if they had been used to protect
smugglers who traffic drugs into the U.S.

Tijuana police initially stopped patrols after their guns were taken,
saying it was too dangerous, but most later returned to work. In some
cases, officers were accompanied by armed state police. Others
patrolled in larger numbers than normal. One officer was seen holding
a slingshot that he said was for his protection.

Algorri said the drastic action put the city's safety at risk and cut
in half the number of arrests made in January compared to the same
period last year. Five officers were injured by assailants who took
advantage of them being unarmed, he said.

In several neighborhoods, residents took the law into their own
hands, grabbing suspects off the street and tying them up before
calling police to haul them off.

Dubbed "Operation Tijuana," the initiative was part of a major
military offensive launched by Calderon against drug gangs. The
president, who took office Dec. 1 promising to crack down on
organized crime, has sent more than 24,000 troops to states plagued
by execution-style killings and beheadings as rival gangs fight over
marijuana plantations and smuggling routes.

Drug gangs were blamed for more than 2,000 murders nationwide in 2006
and have left a particularly bloody trail in Tijuana, where more than
300 people were slain last year.

Meanwhile, six federal police officers involved in Calderon's
anti-drug operation were being investigated for extortion after they
were videotaped Jan. 17 taking money from a driver in Tijuana, across
the border from San Diego.

The video, recorded by the Tijuana police department, shows the
officers at a checkpoint stopping a motorist and searching his
vehicle. After a discussion, the motorist was shown giving the police
a handful of cash including at least one $100 bill.