MEXICO TRIES TO SHOW RESOLVE WITH BIG DRUG SEIZURE

MANZANILLO, Mexico -- Mexico tried to send a pointed message to the
world on Wednesday that it took its fight against drug trafficking
seriously. Officials burned one of the largest shipments of narcotics
ever seized, sending about 23 tons of cocaine into the tropical sky in
a black plume.

The shipment, seized on Oct. 31 in this sleepy Pacific port, was
destroyed as the United States Congress considered a plan to give
Mexico $1 billion in aid over the next two years to help curb drug
trafficking.

The measure is part of an accord between the countries under which the
Bush administration promises to increase efforts to stop the flow of
arms and cash southward.

"Mexico is doing its part," the attorney general, Eduardo Medina Mora,
said as the contraband blazed. "We have put in all the resources
within reach of the Mexican state. We have lost comrades. We have made
an enormous effort, and the Mexican part of this is certain. Now we
need the United States to keep its promise."

Since being sworn in almost a year ago, President Felipe Calderon has
taken a hard line against traffickers. Mexico has extradited more than
20 ranking cartel members to the United States to stand trial and has
sent more than 10,000 troops and federal agents to areas that drug
gangs once controlled.

Law enforcement has also stepped up seizures at ports like Manzanillo.
The cocaine powder, with a street value of $2.7 billion, United States
law enforcement estimated, was found in containers on a ship that
arrived in late October from Colombia. The seizure was made three
weeks after agents seized 11 tons in Tamaulipas. All told, the
government says it has seized about 45 tons of cocaine this year.

One reason is that the United States and Mexico are sharing more
intelligence on drug shipments than in the past. The chief of
operations for the Drug Enforcement Administration, Michael A. Braun,
said American agents had a role in finding the shipment here, the
largest on record in the Americas.

"We developed the intelligence that led to this seizure," Mr. Braun
said by telephone from Washington. "We are sharing information like we
never have before."

Advocates for better enforcement say the size of the shipment
demonstrates that Mexican and Colombian traffickers have had extensive
networks of corrupt officials. The major cartels are so confident of
their ability to bribe officials that they are willing to risk
shipping huge quantities of cocaine in a boatload.

"What worries us as a society is that even if this year nearly 50 tons
of cocaine have been seized, most of the traffic of narcotics is not
detected, so the perception of impunity and corruption continues to be
very high," said Maria Elena Morera, president of Mexico United
Against Crime, an advocacy group.

It is a measure of the distrust of the authorities that military
officials let Ms. Morera and students test random packages of the
cocaine with a chemical kit before the burning to assure that it was
indeed the narcotic.

The incineration was carried out with pomp and ceremony at the Sixth
Naval Base with the port cranes in the distance. Thousands of small
bricklike packages wrapped in plastic and packing tape were piled on a
platform. Officials and military officers gave speeches while platoons
of marines stood at attention in the scorching sun.

Around the perimeter, sentinels with automatic rifles stood guard
every 10 yards. As drugs were set afire and smoke climbed, the
officials and soldiers sang the national anthem.

Mr. Calderon's push against traffickers has had an enormous cost. The
crackdown has unleashed an underworld war that has claimed more than
2,000 lives this year, among them more than 120 police officers,
including high-ranking officers.

American officials have praised the efforts. The prices of cocaine and
methamphetamine have spiked sharply in American cities, and American
drug enforcement officials say the sustained Mexican campaign has been
a major factor.

"It's a campaign, not a surge operation," Mr. Braun said. "This
administration is in it for the long haul."

On Oct. 31, customs officials found the shipment on the Esmeralda,
registered to Hong Kong. It had docked here after taking on cargo in
Buenaventura, Colombia. As they searched the containers, the officials
found more and more packages of cocaine in its purest form.

Later, the officials said they had evidence that the shipment belonged
to traffickers in a cartel controlled by Joaquin Guzman, one of
Mexico's most wanted criminals. Mr. Guzman, called El Chapo, or
Shorty, is one of a group of traffickers from Sinaloa known as the
Federation. They control the border crossings near Ciudad Juarez.