U.S. DRONES FIGHT MEXICAN DRUG TRADE

WASHINGTON - Stepping up its involvement in Mexico's drug war, the
Obama administration has begun sending drones deep into Mexican
territory to gather intelligence that helps locate major traffickers
and follow their networks, according to American and Mexican officials.

The Pentagon began flying high-altitude, unarmed drones over Mexican
skies last month, American military officials said, in hopes of
collecting information to turn over to Mexican law enforcement
agencies. Other administration officials said a Homeland Security
drone helped Mexican authorities find several suspects linked to the
Feb. 15 killing of Jaime Zapata, a United States Immigration and
Customs EnforcementImmigration agent.

President Obama and his Mexican counterpart, Felipe Calderon,
formally agreed to continue the surveillance flights during a White
House meeting on March 3. The American assistance has been kept
secret because of legal restrictions in Mexico and the heated
political sensitivities there about sovereignty, the officials said.

Before the outbreak of drug violence in Mexico that has left more
than 34,000 dead in the past four years, such an agreement would have
been all but unthinkable, they said.

Pentagon, State Department, Homeland Security and Mexican officials
declined to comment publicly about the introduction of drones in
Mexico's counternarcotics efforts. But some officials, speaking only
on the condition of anonymity, said the move was evidence of the two
countries' deepening cooperation in efforts to prevail over a common threat.

In addition to expanding the use of drones, the two leaders agreed to
open a counternarcotics "fusion" center, the second such facility in
Mexico, where Mexican and American agencies would work together, the
officials said.

In recent years, the United States has steadily stepped up its role
in fighting Mexican drug trafficking, though officials offer few
details of the cooperation. The greatest growth involves intelligence
gathering, with Homeland Security and the American military flying
manned aircraft and drones along the United States' southern border -
and now over Mexican territory - that are capable of peering deep
into Mexico and tracking criminals' communications and movements,
officials said.

In addition, the United States trains thousands of Mexican troops and
police officers, collaborates with specially vetted Mexican security
units, conducts eavesdropping in Mexico and upgrades Mexican security
equipment and intelligence technology, according to American law
enforcement and intelligence officials.

"It wasn't that long ago when there was no way the D.E.A. could
conduct the kinds of activities they are doing now," said Mike Vigil,
a retired chief of international operations for the Drug Enforcement
Administration. "And the only way they're going to be able to keep
doing them is by allowing Mexico to have plausible deniability."

In addition to wariness by Mr. Calderon's government about how the
American intervention might be perceived at home, the Mexican
Constitution prohibits foreign military and law enforcement agents
from operating in Mexico except under extremely limited conditions,
Mexican officials said, so the legal foundation for such activity may
be shaky. In the United States, lawmakers have expressed doubts that
Mexico, whose security agencies are rife with corruption, is a
reliable partner.

Before Mr. Obama met with Mr. Calderon at the White House, diplomatic
tensions threatened to weaken the cooperation between their
governments. State Department cables obtained by WikiLeaks had
reported criticism of the Mexican government by American diplomats,
setting off a firestorm of resentment in Mexico. Then in February,
outrage in Washington over Mr. Zapata's murder prompted Mexican
officials to complain that the United States government paid
attention to drug violence only when it took the life of an American citizen.

In the end, however, mutual interests prevailed in the March 3
meeting after a frank exchange of grievances, Mexican and American
officials said.

Mr. Calderon told Mr. Obama that his country had borne the brunt of a
scourge driven by American guns and drug consumption, and urged the
United States to do more to help. Mr. Obama, worried about Mexico
falling into chaos and about violence spilling over the border, said
his administration was eager to play a more central role, the officials said.

The leaders emphasized "the value of information sharing," a senior
Mexican official said, adding that they recognized "the
responsibilities shared by both governments in the fight against
criminal organizations on both sides of the border."

A senior American administration official noted that all
"counternarcotics activities were conducted at the request and
direction of the Mexican government."

Mr. Calderon is "intensely nationalistic, but he's also very
pragmatic," said Andrew Selee, director of the Mexico Institute at
the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. "He's not
really a fan of the United States, but he knows he needs their help,
so he's willing to push the political boundaries."

Mexican and American officials said that their cooperative efforts
had been crucial to helping Mexico capture and kill at least 20
high-profile drug traffickers, including 12 in the last year alone.
All those traffickers, Mexican officials said, had been apprehended
thanks to intelligence provided by the United States.

Still, much of the cooperation is shrouded in secrecy. Mexican and
American authorities, for example, initially denied that the first
fusion center, established over a year ago in Mexico City, shared and
analyzed intelligence. Some officials now say that Mexican and
American law enforcement agencies work together around the clock,
while others characterize it more as an operational outpost staffed
almost entirely by Americans.

Mexican and American officials say Mexico turns a blind eye to
American wiretapping of the telephone lines of drug-trafficking
suspects, and similarly to American law enforcement officials
carrying weapons in violation of longstanding Mexican restrictions.

Officials on both sides of the border also said that Mexico asked the
United States to use its drones to help track suspects' movements.
The officials said that while Mexico had its own unmanned aerial
vehicles, they did not have the range or high-resolution capabilities
necessary for certain surveillance activities.

One American military official said the Pentagon had flown a number
of flights over the past month using the Global Hawk drones - a spy
plane that can fly higher than 60,000 feet and survey about 40,000
square miles of territory in a day. They cannot be readily seen by
drug traffickers - or ordinary Mexicans - on the ground.

But no one would say exactly how many drone flights had been
conducted by the United States, or how many were anticipated under
the new agreement. The officials cited the secrecy of drug
investigations, and concerns that airing such details might endanger
American and Mexican officials on the ground.

Lt. Col. Robert L. Ditchey, a Pentagon spokesman, said Tuesday that
"the Department of Defense, in coordination with the State
Department, is working closely with the Mexican military and supports
their efforts to counter transnational criminal organizations," but
did not comment specifically on the American drone flights.

Similarly, Matt Chandler, a Homeland Security spokesman, said it
would be "inappropriate to comment" on the use of drones in the
Zapata case, citing the continuing investigation.

Though cooperation with Mexico had significantly improved, the
officials said, it was still far from perfect. And American officials
acknowledged there were still internal lapses of coordination, with
the Pentagon, Department of Homeland Security and the Drug
Enforcement Administration at times unaware of one another's operations.

More than anything, though, officials expressed concern about
reigniting longstanding Mexican concerns about the United States'
usurping Mexico's authority.

"I think most Mexicans, especially in areas of conflict, would be
fine about how much the United States is involved in the drug war,
because things have gotten so scary they just want to see the bad
guys get caught," said Mr. Selee of the Wilson Center. "But the
Mexican government is afraid of the more nationalistic elements in
the political elite, so they tend to hide it."