MEXICAN GOVERNMENT SEEKS TO DISABLE TIJUANA DRUG CARTEL.

Mexican drug-enforcement authorities have taken bold steps to immobilize the Tijuana drug cartel, thought to be responsible for the explosion of violent crime in the northwestern state of Baja California.

In mid-May, Mexico's chief drug-enforcement officer Mariano Herran Salvatti announced

the arrest of Ismael Higuera Guerrero, considered a top lieutenant in the cartel led by the Arellano Felix family. Higuera, known in drug-trafficking circles as "El Mayel," was detained in the port city of Ensenada along with eight other people.

Arrest called major step

Herran said Higuera's arrest was a major step in the effort by the federal drug-enforcement agency (Fiscalia Especializada para la Atencion a Delitos contra la Salud, FEADS) to curb drug trafficking in northwestern Mexico. Higuera reportedly was in charge of organizing the manufacture, receipt, storage, and security of most of the Tijuana cartel's drug shipments.

"We're dismantling the [Arellano Felix] organization with the goal of leaving it totally inoperative," Herran said.

In Washington, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) acting administrator Donnie Marshall called Higuera's arrest "a major victory for both Mexican and US law enforcement." Marshall also said the arrest was a significant step in the campaign to bring the Arellano Felix family to justice.

A DEA report said Higuera frequently resorted to "violence, intimidation, and corruption" to ensure the loyalty of cartel members.

Mexican authorities arrested Higuera only a few weeks after the battered bodies of three drug-enforcement officers were discovered in an overturned van along a Baja California highway.

One of the dead agents was Jose Patino Moreno, a special prosecutor appointed in March to head an elite unit charged with capturing the leaders of the Arellano Felix cartel. The three agents had assisted in the investigation that led to the arrest of Jesus "Chuy" Labra, allegedly in charge of coordinating the Tijuana cartel's financial operations.

"We will not be stopped by events like this," Herran told reporters. "We are going to redouble our efforts against drug traffickers."

Notwithstanding his public optimism, Herran privately concedes that eradication of drug trafficking is almost impossible because the cartels have infiltrated all enforcement institutions, including the Procuraduria General de la Republica (PGR), the armed forces, and police forces at various levels.