DRUG LORDS TARGET NUEVO LAREDO COPS

Mayor pleads for federal and state assistance

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico-This border city is under attack and state police are
being deployed to combat a wave of drug-related violence that includes the
execution of two police officers and the disappearance of two others, the
mayor said Thursday.

"We are concerned about this lack of respect," Mayor Marcos Garcia said at
City Hall.

"Naturally, a border city will have problems with drug traffickers. They
aren't attacking citizens, but we consider this the time to be worried," he
added.

Garcia said he had asked the governor of Tamaulipas to send in more state
police, and is seeking investigative assistance from the Mexican army.

Nuevo Laredo also needs money to arm its own officers, the mayor said.

Two police officers haven't been seen in almost a month and are believed to
have been kidnapped by drug traffickers. Two others were killed in late
October when AK-47 fire shredded their patrol car.

The latest violence came Tuesday when the windows of a police commander's
car were shot out, but no one was injured.

No one has been arrested in connection with any of the incidents.

Police vowed they would not be intimidated by what they believe are the
efforts of international drug smuggling cartels to scare them off the job
and control this city, which has long served as a launching pad for sneaking
cocaine and marijuana into Texas.

"All we know is that someone has something against the police," said Ricardo
Gloria de la Garza, a spokesman for the Nuevo Laredo police force.

"We are professional officers. We will not be intimidated," he said.

The officers' bullet-riddled patrol car is sitting in a federal police lot
and their names have been posted in a place of honor at the Police
Department.

Meanwhile, a heavily armed team is being created to defend officers, and the
city is exploring ways to purchase weapons for a police force that is so
poor some officers don't even have handguns, including one who was recently
killed.

Blood flowed after Mexican federal police confiscated about $1 million
stashed in the ceiling of a tractor-trailer rig and, in a separate seizure,
1,000 pounds of cocaine in early October.

The drugs and cash were taken to a federal building where they were guarded
by a ring of heavily armed soldiers before being transferred to military
custody.

Preliminary information shows Nuevo Laredo is caught in a battle between the
Arrellano Felix cartel, based in Tijuana, near San Diego, Calif., and the
cartel formerly headed by Amado Carrillo Fuentes, which is based in Juarez,
across the border from El Paso.

"Those who succeed control certain parts of the river and probably have
tremendous influence over police," said Leonard Lindheim, head of U.S.
Customs Service investigations for South Texas.

"The drug business is a dangerous business. The price for crossing these
people is a piece of lead," said Lindheim, who added that U.S. Customs has
no jurisdiction in Mexico.

Events in Nuevo Laredo still are less brutal than the carnage in Juarez,
where dozens of people have been killed in machine gun attacks in bars,
restaurants and on the streets.

Other incidents that may be connected to the drug violence in Nuevo Laredo
are the death of an attorney whose body was found along a highway in early
October, as well as the shooting of a Laredo man in late October.

The Laredo man had worked with Customs during the summer as a member of the
National Guard.

There was caution and fear among Nuevo Laredoans who are aware of the
violence, which they don't expect to end anytime soon.

"There are many eyes and many ears. No one wants to talk," a man said in a
hushed tone as he shined shoes downtown. "There are at least five dead and
no one is investigating. We need someone here with guts."

Laredo Police Chief Agustin Dovalina said his officers are on alert.

"It may spill over, it may not. So far we've been lucky," he said. "It could
happen at any time. I don't want to put the community on alert. Violence can
happen at any time."

Laredo police are sharing information about drug traffickers with
authorities across the border and also have assisted in making sketches of
suspects, he said.

Checked-by: Don Beck