MEXICO'S WAR ON DRUGS: TIMELINE

Ignacio "Nacho" Coronel, a top Mexican drug trafficker, has been in a
military operation that may prove to be a boon for President Felipe
Calderon's struggling war against drug cartels.

Following is a timeline of key events in Mexico's drug war. More than
26,000 people have died in drug violence in the past three and a half
years. For a full interactive timeline, visit the Los Angeles Times.

2001 - Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman escapes from a Mexican prison in a
laundry van. Mexico's most-wanted drug lord, he builds a coalition of
drug gangs from the western state of Sinaloa and vows to take control
of Mexico's vast drug trade.

2002 - Police weaken the Tijuana cartel by killing drug boss Ramon
Arellano Felix and arresting one of his brothers.

2003 - Mexican soldiers capture Osiel Cardenas, leader of the Gulf
cartel based in eastern Mexico, after a shootout between troops and
gunmen in the border city of Matamoros.

2004 - Trying to take advantage of Cardenas' arrest, Guzman sends
well-armed enforcers to border cities south of Texas to take over
Gulf cartel smuggling routes. Heavy fighting breaks out before
Guzman's fighters are eventually repelled.

2005 - Guzman seeks control of the border city of Tijuana and
trafficking routes into California. Violence escalates across Mexico
and about 1,500 people are killed over the year.

2006 - Killings spread to the resort of Acapulco, the industrial city
of Monterrey and to Michoacan in western Mexico, the home state of
Felipe Calderon, who takes office as president on Dec. 1 and
immediately sends out troops and federal police to stem the violence.
Drug gang killings rise to 2,300 and atrocities like beheadings and
torture increase.

2007 - Calderon extradites Gulf cartel leader Cardenas to the United
States and makes a historic 23-tonne cocaine seizure. US President
George W. Bush pledges $1.4 billion in drug-fighting gear and
training for Mexico and Central America. Violence escalates and more
than 3,000 are killed in the year.

2008 - Guzman's hitmen take on the Juarez cartel in the northern
border city of Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas, and quickly
becomes the drug war's bloodiest flashpoint. Drug violence kills
around 6,300 people across Mexico in the year.

2009 - Calderon sends 10,000 more troops to Ciudad Juarez but
killings continue. Violence spills over the border into Arizona. U.S.
President Barack Obama visits Mexico and vows to clamp down on
smuggled guns but the annual drug war death toll soars above 7,000.
In December, an elite navy squad tracks down and kills drug lord
Arturo Beltran Leyva, head of the cartel of the same name and one of
Mexico's most-wanted traffickers. Six bodyguards also die in the raid
on a luxury apartment in the city of Cuernavaca near the capital.

2010 - Police capture drug kingpin Teodoro "El Teo" Garcia Simental,
known for having rivals tortured, killed and then dissolved in acid,
in January. But drug gangs grow more brazen, killing three people
linked to the U.S. consulate in Ciudad Juarez, murdering a
gubernatorial election candidate in the increasingly lawless
northeastern state of Tamaulipas and setting off a car bomb in Ciudad
Juarez. Cartel murders soar to unprecedented levels, exceeding 5,000
by mid-June, as mass killings at drug rehabilitation centers and
parties become common. On July 29, top trafficker Ignacio "Nacho"
Coronel, No. 3 in Guzman's Sinaloa cartel, dies as soldiers try to
arrest him near Guadalajara, the first big win of the year for Calderon.