MEXICO DRUG SEIZURES CLIMB

Traffickers Being Extradited To U.S. For Trial, AG Says

MEXICO CITY -- Mexico's attorney general, in an attempt to show dramatic
progress in the war on drugs in the first days of President Vicente Fox's
term, announced Thursday that narcotics seizures have increased substantially.

Attorney General Rafael Macedo de la Concha said a number of Mexican
traffickers are being sent to the United States for trial and that Mexico's
powerful drug cartels are finally feeling the heat.

Cocaine seizures alone have nearly doubled during the first 100 days of
Fox's administration in comparison with that of his predecessor, President
Ernesto Zedillo, said Macedo.

In addition, more than 100 officials from Mexico's justice department have
been fired for allegations stemming from corruption, said Macedo, a former
army general.

"We will disregard no effort" in the fight against Mexico's drug cartels,
said Macedo. "I share with all of you your anxiety that security and
justice return."

Analysts outside the government, however, suggested that the attorney
general's report should be viewed with caution.

"It's only after a sustained period of two to three years of big gains that
Fox can claim progress," said Jorge Chabat, an expert on U.S.-Mexico
relations here.

Macedo released an evaluation of his department's progress during Fox's
first 100 days, a benchmark that Fox has said the public should use to
judge his administration's job performance.

Since entering office on Dec. 1, Fox has outlined a far-reaching agenda,
including everything from a crusade against corruption to a campaign to
save the country's water resources and forests.

But Fox's pledge to battle Mexico's large drug-trafficking organizations,
which account for more than two-thirds of the cocaine smuggled into the
United States, has won the most praise from Washington.

During his visit to Mexico in February, President Bush said he trusted Fox
to fight the traffickers. Officials of U.S. law enforcement agencies have
credited Fox with raising to a higher level the cooperation in the fight
against the cartels.

The first three months of Fox's administration have included several
embarrassing situations. One of the country's most notorious drug
traffickers, Joaquin Guzman, virtually walked out of a high-security prison
in Guadalajara in January.

Fox fired most of the federal prosecutors in the border state of Chihuahua
after uncovering a corruption scandal involving the selling of jobs in the
prosecutor's office for as much as $500,000 each.

But the administration's supporters said that even those incidents show
progress. Guzman supposedly escaped because he was about to be transferred
to a more secure prison cell. In the wake of the escape, the attorney
general charged 73 prison officials and guards with aiding the drug lord's
escape.

Macedo said progress had been made in nearly all categories of drug
seizures. Marijuana seizures, for instance, increased 116 percent in
comparison with the first 100 days of Zedillo's administration. Heroin
seizures climbed more than 500 percent, and seizures of mind-altering drugs
went up 40 percent.

After Mexico's Supreme Court ruled in January that the government could
extradite its citizens across international boundaries for trial, Macedo
said that 25 Mexicans are now undergoing extradition proceedings, many to
face charges in the United States.

Chabat, the independent analyst, said that while Fox has shown he's more
willing than his predecessors to confront the drug cartels, the president
still must draw upon the same police force that has built a reputation for
corruption and inefficiency.

"You can't just go to the U.S. and buy 500 good police officers," Chabat said.

"Fox basically has the same corrupt policemen, the same judicial system,
the same institutional problems" of past Mexican presidents, he said.