FOX ADDS HUNDREDS OF POLICE TO DRUG FIGHT

Border-Crime Battle Given High Priority

TIJUANA - Hundreds of federal police arrived in Baja California
yesterday to root out drug traffickers as part of the Fox
administration's latest effort to attack crime in this border state.

The police are expected to be assigned to Tijuana and Mexicali. Exact
numbers haven't been released, but an official in the federal attorney
general's office said two planes arrived yesterday, capable of holding
200 to 300 agents. Other estimates placed the number as high as 1,000.

This is the second time since Vicente Fox became Mexico's president
that the government has sent a large contingency of federal police to
the Baja California border. As before, their arrival is expected to
touch off a wave of house raids and traffic stops.

The federal police will work with other law enforcement agencies to
support ongoing work, but they will also undertake their own actions
and investigations. They are expected to target areas close to the
border, where drug dealers often set up shop.

Fox has made crime-fighting along the border a high priority for his
administration, and he emphasized his commitment to the effort when he
visited Tijuana on Jan. 9.

Last January, 770 federal police were sent to the border after Fox
vowed to "eradicate crime" in Tijuana. Their two-week presence raised
hopes that some high-level drug traffickers, perhaps even the leaders
of the Arellano Felix drug cartel, would be captured.

But the results of their work were far less dramatic. State officials
said the visiting police helped state agents detain 12 people and
recover 12 stolen cars. They also helped uncover a drug manufacturing
lab and handled an arrest warrant, according to the State Attorney
General's Office.

During their stay, Baja California Human Rights Office officials said
the office received at least three complaints about officers from the
Federal Preventive Police breaking into homes and, in one case,
stealing items. But state authorities said that they found no evidence
that the intruders were federal police and that they could have been
been members of other law enforcement agencies.