Reuters AlertNet Lite - Mexico creates elite force to fight drug bosses

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Mexico creates elite force to fight drug bosses

21 Dec 2006 19:10:15 GMT
Source: Reuters

MEXICO CITY, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Mexico is grouping thousands of soldiers and federal police from different agencies in a central force to fight increasingly violent drug cartels and other serious crime, the government said on Thursday.

The new body will combine 15,000 officers from the Federal Preventive Police, responsible for highway patrols and riot control, with the Federal Investigation Agency, an elite force that chases down drug capos and kidnappers.

The new group, to be called the Federal Police Corp, will also include 10,000 soldiers, Public Security Minister Genaro Garcia said in a copy of speech sent to Reuters.

New President Felipe Calderon has promised to crack down on crime and has moved fast against drug bosses, who are often more powerful than police.

Almost 3,000 people have been killed in the past two years in an increasingly violent war between drug cartels, mostly the Gulf Cartel from northeastern Mexico and smugglers from Sinaloa and Tijuana in the northwest.

Calderon last week sent more than 7,000 soldiers, sailors and police to Michoacan, a state overrun by gangs feuding over territory used to transfer cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamines smuggled north to U.S. consumers.

The new police agency is meant to improve slack coordination between Mexico's more than 1,500 police departments.

"We're trying to combat crime by using the Federal Preventive Police's reach combined with the Federal Investigation Agency's intelligence area," Garcia said.

Mexico's municipal and state police, poorly paid and badly equipped, are widely perceived as inept and highly corrupt.

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Last updated:Thu Dec 21 19:12:06 2006