DRUG LORDS AND TERRORISM

Capture of 'El Teo' Add to Mexico's Momentum

The arrest last week of reputed Mexican drug lord Teodoro "El Teo"
Garcia Simental underscores this newspaper's contention that Mexico is
in the midst of a counter-terrorism war, which President Felipe
Calderon must continue pursuing with full vigor in spite of pressures
for him to reverse course.

By capturing Garcia and putting him on trial, Calderon not only sends
a strong message to his own people about respect for the rule of law
but helps Americans drug users better understand the violence and
misery they are helping fund across the border.

Simental wasn't a mere pot pusher. Authorities accuse him of carrying
out 300 killings, including the assassinations of dozens of Tijuana
police officers. He reportedly liked to behead his victims, hang them
from overpasses or dissolve them in vats of caustic soda. He is
reported to have sliced off the face of one victim and had it stitched
onto a soccer ball.

If this isn't terrorism at its sadistic worst, then what is? The fact
that El Teo was captured on the heels of last month's killing of drug
kingpin Arturo Beltran Leyva signifies real progress in restoring
order to Mexico's streets.

It also emphasizes the vastly improved level of cooperation and
intelligence-sharing between Mexican and U.S. law enforcement
agencies. The U.S. Department of Justice once listed El Teo as one of
the 10 most wanted figures in the Arrellano-Felix drug cartel that
ruled northwestern Mexico.

He is reputed to have been a hit man for the cartel but broke away to
join forces with a rival group. A subsequent turf battle turned the
streets of Tijuana and other western border cities into killing
fields. The Drug Enforcement Administration supplied information to
Mexican authorities that prompted a five-month surveillance operation
leading to Garcia's arrest.

There's no mistaking the message this sends to those who would follow
down Garcia's twisted path. In addition to drug trafficking, his
organization profited through kidnappings and extortion. Whether it's
Hezbollah and its eight-year reign of terror with kidnappings of
Westerners in Lebanon or al-Qaeda with its ongoing atrocities in Iraq,
Pakistan and Afghanistan, these are the acts of people devoid of
compassion who think of killing and maiming only in terms of how they
can more effectively intimidate the public into submission. That's
what terrorism is all about.

Americans' hands are not clean. We would never accept the presence of
people in our country who send money to al-Qaeda, and yet we think
little of the billions that American recreational users spend on
drugs, trying hard not to notice how these very proceeds fund ongoing
terrorist operations in Mexico.

Calderon is doing his part to dismantle a menace that has besieged his
country. What he needs most from Americans is to stop funding the enemy.