FBI DEPLOYED BY US TO FIGHT MEXICAN DRUG LORDS

. Washington fears carnage will spread across border

. Proposals echo battles to control mafia

The White House yesterday revealed plans for a crime-fighting
operation targeting Mexican drug cartels on a scale not seen since
the battles against the US mafia.

Washington is dispatching more federal agents and equipment to its
south-western border with Mexico to target the cartels. Among them
are a newly formed FBI unit, to deal with the ringleaders, and
treasury officials who will track drug money. An extra 100 customs
officers are to be sent to the border within the next 45 days.

The moves reflect growing concern in Washington that the carnage in
Mexico involving the cartels is in danger of spilling over the
border. A White House statement said: "The president is concerned by
the increased level of violence, particularly in Ciudad Juarez and
Tijuana, and the impact that it is having on the communities on both
sides of the border."

The homeland security secretary, Janet Napolitano, at a White House
press conference yesterday, singled out Houston, Texas, and Phoenix,
Arizona, as recording increases in violence and kidnapping. Other
officials have also mentioned El Paso, Texas, and San Diego, California.

The plan to beef up operations came the day before the secretary of
state, Hillary Clinton, is due to visit Mexico City for discussions
about the drug war with the Mexican president, Felipe Calderon.
Barack Obama is to visit Mexico next month. As well as sending more
agents to the border, the White House is providing $700m (UKP 476m)
to the Mexican government for five new helicopters, a surveillance
aircraft and other crime-fighting equipment.

Calderon has dispatched more than 45,000 Mexican troops to combat the
cartels, which responded with thousands of kidnappings and murders,
including beheadings. Despite a string of arrests and drug busts -
last week, soldiers captured two drug bosses - a record 6,300
drug-related killings occurred last year.

Other measures announced by the White House yesterday included
dispatching more mobile x-ray units to the US side of the border to
screen vehicles involved in gun trafficking. Napolitano said that
over the last week, the US had stopped 997 firearms en route to
Mexico. Absent from the announced plans were high-visibility moves
such as deployment of the National Guard or expansion of the border
fence started under George Bush. But the Obama administration argues
that these are not necessarily effective.

David Ogden, the deputy attorney general, said that the best way to
fight the cartels was through intelligence-based operations, "the
same approach as we took towards the Cosa Nostra".

The Obama administration view is that the strategy pursued against
the Cosa Nostra, tracking the money with a view to locking up the
leaders, is better than piecemeal arrests.

Napolitano said she was still considering a request from the governor
of Texas, Rick Perry, to send 1,000 National Guard members to the
border and would discuss the issue with him tomorrow.

The Mexican government on Monday offered $2m each for information
leading to the arrest of the top 24 drug lords representing the six
biggest cartels, including the Pacific and Gulf. A further $1m each
is offered for 13 of their lieutenants.