HIGH-LEVEL POLICE PURGE LATEST TACTIC IN WAR AGAINST DRUG CARTELS

Drug Trade And Narcotics-Realted Violence Are Big Issues In Mexico

Mexico has launched an unprecedented purge of its top police officers
as the latest step in its increasingly high-stakes campaign to combat
the drugs cartels and end a gruesome wave of narcotics-related violence.

A total of 284 federal police chiefs spread across every state of the
country have been temporarily removed from their posts.

Each of them will be extensively vetted for corruption and possible
ties to the cartels and their ruthless gangs of enforcers.

Since taking office last December, President Felipe Calderon has taken
increasingly bold measures to tackle one of his country's most
intractable problems - the unabated activities of the drug lords and
the corruption within law enforcement that protects them from arrest.

It is a crusade that has drawn wide applause from mainstream Mexicans,
who are tired of the bloodshed spawned by the drugs trade, and from
the United States Government.

However, there is so far no evidence that the assault is slowing the
distribution of drugs. Nor has it quietened the violence.

Replaced for now by agents who have already been extensively screened
for their integrity, the suspended officers will be required to take
drugs tests and undergo lie-detector tests.

Meanwhile, their relatives and friends will be interrogated and their
financial assets examined - all measures designed to detect any ties
they may have to the underworld.

The death toll last year from drugs-related killings reached 2000 and
is on track to be even higher this year.

Corruption in the police, particularly at the local and state levels,
is hardly a new problem in Mexico. It was highlighted in 2004 with the
arrests of a regional intelligence director and 26 officers in Cancun
following the killings of seven people, including three federal
agents, in the city.

Calderon has deployed 24,000 army officers and federal agents to areas
most impacted by violence.

But critics doubt if the war can be won with so much money at
stake.

About 75 per cent of all the cocaine consumed in the US is smuggled
through Mexico, generating up to US$24 billion ($31.4 billion) in
profits. As much as US$3 billion of that is believed to be spent each
year corrupting officials.

"The problem is the way the cartels are structured," said Alex
Sanchez, a Mexico analyst at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs in
Washington.

"Taking out one guy, even a top leader, just leaves a vacuum that
others fight to fill. There is a perpetual cycle of violence unless
they can take down every single member of a cartel, from the top capos
to the lowest drug runners."