700 soldiers, agents patrol city to curb drug violence

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico — More than 700 soldiers and federal and state agents took to the streets of this city on the Mexico-U.S. border Sunday to help local authorities control a wave of apparently drug-related violent crime.

The influx of law enforcement came after four more killings over the weekend, bringing the total number of people killed in ambush-style shootings in Nuevo Laredo to 20 for this year.

Arturo Jimenez, a commander of the Federal Preventative Police, said in addition to the mobilization of forces, investigators would begin interviewing local police and state prosecutors in search of those who may be taking bribes from drug-smuggling gangs.

"It's difficult to combat crime when there are a lot of allies of organized crime who block our efforts," said Jimenez, who was sent to oversee the Nuevo Laredo crackdown by Mexico's Public Safety Secretary Ramon Huerta.

Jimenez said the first priority will be re-establishing law and order but that soldiers and agents would also eventually help go after key drug smugglers.

The border region in Mexico's northeast has seen an increase in drug violence after the area's alleged kingpin, Osiel Cardenas, was arrested in 2003.

Authorities say the violence has intensified in recent months because another reputed drug lord, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, has been fighting smugglers loyal to Cardenas to gain access to smuggling routes in Nuevo Laredo, which is across the border from Laredo, Texas.

More than 40 vehicles loaded down with federal agents rolled into the city Sunday morning, while soldiers arrived to patrol poorer, violent neighborhoods.

Dispatching federal and state authorities and soldiers to problem spots along the U.S.-Mexico border is not new. In recent years, special forces have descended on Tijuana and soldiers and federal agents were deployed to Nuevo Laredo amid growing violence as recently as January.

In the past, reinforcements usually have calmed violence-ridden areas for a few days, but have had little long-term effect.

In January, the U.S. State Department warned Americans that violent crime, including murder and kidnapping, has increased along the Mexican side of the border.