DEFEAT THE CARTEL

Make That A U.S.-Mexico Priority

A dozen years of frustration in trying to counter the Tijuana-based
narco-trafficking cartel known as the Arellano Felix Organization leave one
conclusion obvious:

This criminal cancer infecting both sides of the Southwest border won't be
eliminated until doing so becomes a top priority in Mexico City and Washington.

At present, Mexico's traditionally weak law enforcement and criminal
justice institutions simply aren't up to the challenge of overcoming a
hugely wealthy and brutally intimidating criminal enterprise like the AFO.
Mexico's new president, the refreshingly and courageously reformist Vicente
Fox, knows his government doesn't have a chance against his country's drug
cartels unless he can first attack law enforcement's institutional corruption.

To Fox's great credit, he's trying. Several recent arrests, including that
of a former chief of the binational drug task force, serve notice that Fox
is sincere and determined. But he faces huge odds.

Building honest, professional law enforcement institutions takes many
years, if not decades. Yet, Mexico cannot wait years or decades while its
drug-cartel empires destabilize the country, distort its economy and wreck
Mexico's aspirations for achieving an indispensable rule of law.

The answer must be urgent help from the United States. The Bush
administration must recognize that cross-border narco-trafficking cannot be
contained, let alone reduced, without effectively attacking Mexico's
predatory drug cartels, starting with the AFO.

And the AFO cannot be defeated and its leaders apprehended and brought to
justice unless Mexico and the United States work ever more closely together.

The closer alliance now required should include U.S. advice and technical
assistance in helping Fox reform Mexico's police agencies. It should
include renewed efforts to foster effective sharing of intelligence, which
won't happen unless Mexico's police first become less prone to penetration
and corruption by the drug traffickers.

No less important for Washington, the Bush people will need to understand
the grim threat posed all along the Southwest border by the AFO and its
attendant violence and corruption.

Finally, an effective counterattack against the Tijuana cartel will also
require renewed leadership at the local level.

The days of Alan Bersin wielding authority as Janet Reno's designated
border "czar" are long gone. But the Bush White House and Justice
Department should be thinking very carefully about what is needed in a U.S.
attorney here to mobilize the region's law enforcement resources for an
effective assault on the AFO.

A dozen years of the Arellano Felix Organization's criminal depredations
ought to be more than enough. It's time to restore the rule of law.