MEXICAN OFFICIALS SAY DRUG CARTELS TRYING TO REACH NONAGGRESSION PACT

MEXICO CITY: Mexico's two main drug cartels are reaching out to each
other in an attempt to end a recent round of bloody turf battles,
Mexican and U.S. officials confirmed Monday.

The officials told The Associated Press the talks are aimed at
stopping battles to control lucrative trafficking routes to the U.S.
market.

The circumstances of the negotiations between the Sinaloa and the Gulf
cartels -- first reported in The Dallas Morning News' Monday -- were
not clear.

The gangs decided that the turf battles were costing them too much
money, too much weaponry and too many deaths in their own ranks,
leading them to seek a sort of nonaggression pact, according to a top
official in the administration of President Felipe Calderon.

"They realized they couldn't fight the government and each other at
the same time," said the official, who was not authorized to be quoted
by name. Since taking office in December, Calderon has sent more than
24,000 troops to areas plagued by drug violence.

A U.S. official in Washington, also speaking on condition he not be
quoted by name, confirmed reports that the cartels may be reaching out
to each other.

"We've had rumblings, intelligence information that the two cartels
. are trying to come to an agreement to stop causing each other
trouble," the U.S. official said.

No one at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration was available to
comment Monday.

Both officials denied reports -- among those, a column in the Mexican
newspaper Reforma -- suggesting that the government may have been a
party to the talks, which came as drug-related executions appear to
have dipped slightly from their peak of several dozen per week earlier
this year.

In past administrations, Mexican officials have agreed to leave one
cartel untouched in return for secret payments.

The clearest case was that of Mexico's former drug czar, Jesus
Gutierrez Rebollo, who was arrested in 1997 after investigations found
that former cocaine kingpin Amado Carrillo Fuentes was paying
Gutierrez Rebollo for protection.

Gutierrez Rebollo is serving a 71-year sentence for drug trafficking
and racketeering.

Also Monday, authorities announced the arrest of a former Mexican army
soldier and key member of the Gulf cartel.

Luis Reyes Enriquez, an alleged member of the Zetas, a group of Gulf
cartel enforcers that includes former soldiers, was arrested in
central Hidalgo state, said deputy attorney general Noe Ramirez.

Reyes Enriquez deserted the army in 1999 while he was based in
Tamaulipas state, a state on the border with Texas, and joined the
Gulf cartel where his job was to safeguard transportation of Colombian
cocaine bound for the U.S., Ramirez said.