Mexican Military Fights Drug Lords in Resort Town

ACAPULCO, Mexico, Feb. 18, 2007 — -- The Mexican military is waging a new war on drugs by sea, air and land.

It's an unprecedented effort to crack down on the violent drug cartels that export an estimated $13 billion worth of cocaine into the United States every year.

Shortly after taking office in December, Felipe Calderon became the first Mexican president to don military fatigues in nearly a century. It was a symbolic gesture, but an important one, as he launched the new campaign to wipe out the cartels.

Calderon said he would deploy more than 20,000 soldiers, sailors and marines to trouble spots across the country, to do the job local police and government officials have been unable to do. Past efforts to fight drug trafficking here have failed, largely due to corruption.

So far, the new campaign seems to be working.

U.S. Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty praises Calderon's new operation.

"We've seen great, courageous, bold action, and it's really unprecedented," he said.

The campaign is reaching across the country, even to the tourist resorts like Acapulco, where some 7,000 additional troops have been deployed.

Tourists notice a difference. Chicago native Ira Rosenthal has vacationed in Acapulco for the pas 20 years. He says the drug problem is now more obvious than it once was.

"There's a lot of security walking around, with armed men, which years ago you didn't see at all," he said.

That is part of the strategy. Projecting force is a key deterrent -- or so the government hopes. It has launched raids on marijuana crops, stepped-up street patrols, established dozens of roadside checkpoints, and ordered navy ships to intercept suspicious vessels at sea. Perhaps most importantly, the Mexican government has begun to extradite drug kingpins to the United States.

McNulty said that is crucial.

"Extraditions are key to breaking-up the drug cartels, because these leaders of these drug operations genuinely fear being sent to the U.S," he said. "It's the one thing they dread most."

The drug kingpins are responsible for a wave of violence that has plagued Mexico in recent years. Last year, there were more than 2,000 drug-related murders in Mexico.

After one deadly shoot-out between cartels last September, drug lords took revenge on local police, killing several officers and decapitating them, placing their heads on stakes outside the police stations.