DRUG VIOLENCE ALONG SOUTHERN BORDER SEEPS INTO U S

Mexican President Felipe Calderon, who met with President-elect Barack
Obama on Monday, has vowed to put drug gangsters in his country out of
business - and he has backed up his words with actions. Calderon has
no other choice if he wants to keep Mexico from turning into a
narco-state, but the decision has resulted in a frightening increase
in violence, particularly along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Mexican border cities from Matamoros to Tijuana have become
battlegrounds for drug gangsters fighting each other and
law-enforcement authorities, with the body count rising by the day. In
Tijuana alone, the death toll from drug violence in 2008 reached a
reported 829. The total number of slayings because of the drug wars in
Mexico reached 5,300 in 2008, more than double the 2,477 reported in
2007.

Frankly, it doesn't take a lot of imagination to perceive that, as
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said last week, the
United States might eventually see a "significant spillover" of violence.

That's why Chertoff decided to create a "contingency plan" to combat
violence along this country's southern border. Once he has become
president, Obama must ensure that his designated Homeland Security
director, Gov. Janet Napolitano of Arizona, picks up where Chertoff
leaves off, not only in finalizing a plan to coordinate with the
Pentagon, but also working with Congress to see that the plan is funded.

Why, after all, should the United States be exempt from the violence
when our country represents the biggest market for drug consumption in
the world? For decades, the United States has been shielded from
significant security threats along its borders by virtue of enjoying
good relations with its neighbors. The relationship, as President
Calderon and Obama noted, remains strong. Still, the threat of
spillover violence is rising because of the battle to control access
to the U.S. drug market.

Last month, the Justice Department's National Drug Intelligence Center
reported that the same gangsters responsible for Mexico's violence are
taking root here. "Mexican drug-trafficking organizations represent
the greatest organized crime threat to the United States," the report
said. "The influence of Mexican drug-trafficking organizations over
domestic-drug trafficking is unrivaled."

If anything, the U.S. government has been slow to recognize the
threat. Gov. Napolitano, fortunately, comes from a border state and is
well aware of the problems caused by drug trafficking. Obama's new
national-security team will have its hands full with challenges from
the Middle East to South Asia. Some of these challenges may take
priority, but none will be closer to home than the threat posed by
drug-trafficking violence in Mexico.