DRUG VIOLENCE SOARS THROUGHOUT MEXICO

MEXICO CITY - Sixteen months ago, Mexican President Vicente Fox
declared "the mother of all battles" against drug trafficking.

But he got more than a battle - he got a war.

Almost every week another assault by drug gangs, one more audacious
than the next, generates headlines. Grenades have been launched at
law enforcement offices. Four undercover drug agents were shot to
death last month in Nuevo Laredo. Two police officers were
decapitated 10 days ago in the resort city of Acapulco, not long
after taking part in an operation against a drug gang. Their heads
were dumped beneath a sign warning: "So that you learn to respect."

The escalating conflict has claimed more than 1,500 lives - including
police, rival drug traffickers and civilians - in the past year, more
than double the number in the previous year, according to Mexican
researchers. The death toll has risen despite increased enforcement
efforts in Mexico and by U.S. authorities across the border. The
police killings, in particular, are believed to be retribution for a
crackdown on cartels in Mexico undertaken at the urging of U.S.
officials, said Jorge Chabat, an expert in Mexican criminal justice.

Failing Justice System

The violence also coincides with the remarkable growth of Mexican
cartels, which have seized a greater share of the drug market as some
of Colombia's drug kingpins have been arrested.

"Mexico is becoming the second Colombia," said Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-
Texas, whose district includes Laredo, across the border from Nuevo
Laredo. "This is a serious and a ruthless situation."

Mexico's drug cartels have grown bolder as their profits have grown
larger, Chabat said. Mexican drug traffickers generate as much as $10
billion a year by funneling South American cocaine into the United
States, as well as by producing methamphetamines, heroin and
marijuana, he said.

Mexico has had some success in combating cartels. In the past five
years, the leaders of the powerful Sinaloa and Gulf cartels have been
arrested. But those victories have been muted by the failings of the
Mexican justice system, Chabat said. The leader of the Sinaloa
cartel, Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman, escaped from prison in 2001, and the
leader of the Gulf cartel, Osiel Cardenas, is suspected of running
his criminal organization from the prison cell he has occupied since
his arrest in 2003.

"The Mexican government has been very effective in making arrests,
but the rest of the criminal justice system - the prisons and the
judiciary - is very inefficient and very corrupt," Chabat said.

Persisting Violence

The imprisonment of Cardenas set off a struggle between the Gulf and
Sinaloa cartels for "la plaza" - Mexican slang for drug turf. Each
cartel is suspected of co-opting law enforcement officials - and
killing or intimidating those who don't go along - to achieve their
goal of controlling lucrative smuggling routes. But with Cardenas in
prison, the Gulf cartel is at a disadvantage.

Cuellar applauds Mexico for responding with forceful measures, such
as sending troops last year to quell drug violence in Nuevo Laredo.
But with the violence persisting, he accuses Mexico of not being
receptive enough to recent U.S. offers to help train police and prosecutors.

There have been signs that the two nations are collaborating more
closely. Last month, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff
flew to Brownsville, Texas, on the Mexican border, to announce a plan
to increase cooperation with Mexican drug authorities.

Just two weeks later, the four undercover drug agents in Nuevo Laredo
were killed. The killings were seen here as a setback for Mexican
drug authorities. But they were soon eclipsed by the shock of the
beheadings in Acapulco.

Police Baffled

The heads were discovered April 20 outside a government building not
far from the beaches that draw tens of thousands of U.S. tourists
each year. The killings, coupled with grenade attacks on police
stations in neighboring cities, were graphic reminders that drug
violence has spread beyond the border and into the port and beach
towns where drugs enter the country before being funneled north.

"We can't believe this is happening," said Mario Nunez Magana,
spokesman for the Acapulco police. "This used to happen just up at
the border. Here, we were only about tourism."

The slain officers, whose bodies were found wrapped in plastic miles
away from their heads, had participated several months earlier in a
shootout that left four suspected drug gang members dead. On Tuesday,
less than a week after the gruesome discoveries, the Mexico City
newspaper Excelsior posted a video on its Web site that it said
showed one of the officers killing a gang member execution-style
during that shootout.