100-PLUS JAILED IN EL PASO-AREA RAIDS

More than 100 people were arrested in the El Paso region in a
crackdown on Mexican drug cartels in response to the killing of an
ICE agent last week in Mexico, officials said Friday evening.

In Chihuahua City, authorities announced that a high-ranking member
of the Juarez drug cartel was killed in a shootout with federal
police earlier this week.

U.S. officials said 104 people were arrested as of Friday in the El
Paso division of the DEA, which covers West Texas and New Mexico. The
division has offices in El Paso, Las Cruces, Albuquerque, Midland and Alpine.

Agents seized 19 firearms as well as an undisclosed amounts of cash
and cocaine, heroin and marijuana.

Names and charges were not released because multiple investigations
continue, officials said.

Officials would not say which cartels the suspects are associated
with or which types of weapons were seized. Officials also did not
say when the suspects would be in court to face the charges and go
through the judicial system.

The crackdown in El Paso is linked to a national multi-agency
response in retaliation for the death of U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement Special Agent Jaime Zapata in the central Mexican state
of San Luis Potosi on Feb. 15.

Zapata and Special Agent Victor Avila Jr. of El Paso were allegedly
attacked by members of the Zetas drug cartel, but U.S. agents are
going after multiple drug-trafficking organizations. Avila is
recovering after being shot in a leg.

El Pasoans reported seeing agents in tactical gear at homes and
businesses on Thursday in various parts of the city. DEA agents also
went to about 20 homes of alleged drug dealers in Dona Ana County on
Thursday, the county district attorney said.

The operation is led by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration,
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Marshals
Service, working with several federal, state and local agencies.

ICE officials in a statement described the operation as "a series of
coordinated strikes against Mexican drug cartels and their associates."

Mexican drug cartels are thought to have cells in more than 200
cities across the United States.

Nationwide, authorities have arrested 676 people and seized more than
$12 million, 1,029 pounds of cocaine, 21 pounds of heroin, 64 pounds
of meth and nearly 40,000 pounds of marijuana, 282 weapons and 94 vehicles.

"ICE stands shoulder to shoulder with our U.S. law enforcement
partners presenting a unified front and aggressively pushing back
against these violent cartels," ICE Director John Morton said.
"Through our continued coordination and cooperation with Mexican law
enforcement, ICE agents and officers will strike at the very heart of
these organizations by seizing the drugs, guns and money that fuel
their criminal enterprises."

Offensives against the drug cartels were also taking place in Mexico.
The Mexican army earlier this week arrested six alleged members of
the Zetas in San Luis Potosi linked to the Zapata homicide.

In a separate case, Luis Humberto Peralta Hernandez, alias "Condor
2," a reputed narco-trafficker on the Mexican government's
most-wanted list, was killed Tuesday in Chihuahua City, though his
death was not confirmed until Thursday.

Mexico's attorney general's office had featured Peralta on a list
issued in October of its most-wanted organized crime bosses and
offered a reward of 5 million pesos for information leading to his capture.