VISITING MEXICAN FEDERAL POLICE OFFICERS LEAVE TIJUANA

Force Sent To Border For Anti-Drug Efforts

TIJUANA -- Most of the 770 Mexican federal police brought here two weeks
ago in a show of force against drug traffickers were sent back to Mexico's
interior Thursday and yesterday.

"If necessary, they will return," said Enrique Tellaeche, spokesman with
the Baja California Attorney General's Office. "The best result of this is
that we will be in constant communication with federal officials."

The arrival of the police Jan. 19, a month after Mexican President Vicente
Fox vowed to "eradicate crime" in Tijuana, 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 recuperate 12 stolen cars. They also helped uncover a drug
manufacturing lab and handled an arrest warrant, according to the State
Attorney General's Office.

Raul Ramirez, head of the Baja California Human Rights Office, said the car
stops and house raids affected only ordinary citizens.

"They came as they left -- with almost nothing," he said.

Carlos Atilano P&etilde;na, who heads a coalition of state bar
associations, said better planning might have helped.

"They came very suddenly, without warning, without any kind of strategy,"
he said.

Just 12 members of the original police force remain, and Tellaeche said
they will continue to work on on-going investigations with state officials.

The rest left by bus and plane for Mexico City and Jalisco. Tellaeche said
they will likely be assigned to similar operations throughout the country.
The pull-out began a day after Fox visited Tijuana, urging citizens to join
the fight against crime by turning in criminals and denouncing corruption.
Alejandro Gertz, who holds a new cabinet post in charge of law enforcement,
accompanied Fox to Tijuana and said the federal police were never meant to
be a permanent force here.

Gertz met with state and local officials the day before Fox's visit to
evaluate the group's successes and to discuss what didn't work. His
assessment of the crime figures: "These are reasonable results."

Tellaeche said state and federal officials will meet every two weeks to
discuss crime matters and whether to bring the force back.

Elsa Jimenez of the Baja California Human Rights Office said the office
received at least three complaints in January about officers from the
Federal Preventive Police breaking into homes and, in one case, stealing items.

But Baja California's Attorney General, Juan Manuel Salazar Pimentel, said
his investigators had found no evidence that the intruders were federal
police, and that they could well have been members of other police forces.

Staff writer Sandra Dibble contributed to this report.