MEXICAN FEDS RETURN GUNS TO POLICE

TIJUANA, Mexico (AP) -- The federal government Saturday rearmed police in
this violent border city three weeks after they were forced to turn over
weapons to federal authorities on allegations of collusion with drug
traffickers.

Tijuana Public Safety Secretary Luis Javier Algorri said soldiers returned
all 2,130 guns to his department, a sign that "there was not any problem"
with his officers, although he added that Mexico's Attorney General's
office must still make that call.

Algorri said 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.

The Tijuana police initially stopped patrolling when 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, Algorri said.

He said th ecity's police officers were inundated with death threats on
their radios and blamed the drug gangs.

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 against drug gangs launched by Calderon, who took office Dec. 1
promising to crack down on organized crime. Calderon has sent more than
24,000 troops to three 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.