Border Police Chief Only Latest Casualty In Mexico Drug War

Aguilar announced that hundreds of soldiers and federal agents had been ordered into areas racked by drug violence. He also called on U.S. authorities to help stop the flow of weapons into Mexico. He said much of the high-powered weaponry and other technology used by the drug cartels is smuggled in from the United States.

Law enforcement officials trace the current violence to the Fox administration's arrests of 15 leaders of billion-dollar criminal organizations. Rivals have tried to move in and violently take over their territory. There have also been bloody battles within cartels, as lieutenants fight to move up the ladder because of new vacancies at the top, Mexican officials said.

Officials in Washington have continually praised the efforts of Fox, noting he has jailed more top cartel leaders than any Mexican president in history. Since he took office, the Mexican government has arrested more than 46,000 people on drug charges, destroyed numerous clandestine landing strips and wiped out thousands of acres of poppy and marijuana fields.

The aggressive new efforts to combat drug traffic by elite federal police teams have, however, often ended in tragedy. Last month, for example, a federal police officer chasing a bulletproof Ford Expedition in the border city of Matamoros was shot and killed by the occupants, who escaped on foot. The vehicle was found to contain four grenades, five AR-15 rifles, three MP5 submachine guns, two telescopes, 11 cell phones and more than 2,000 rounds of ammunition.

In the past, Mexican and U.S. officials said, law enforcement officers might not have given chase, either out of fear or because they were on the drug cartels' payroll. Officials believe Ezequiel "Tony Tormenta" Cardenas, the brother of jailed cartel boss Osiel Cardenas Guillen, was a passenger in the SUV.

"The war goes on, and we're on the good side," said Carlos Diaz, 22, the partner of the slain officer. "Maybe not everyone is brave enough to come and work here, but many people do, and they are very brave. You know the danger. You know that when you leave your house, you might not come back."

A number of analysts have begun pointing out that Fox's much-applauded effort against drug traffickers has not reduced the supply of drugs reaching U.S. streets from Mexico. Instead, they said, all Mexico has gotten for its effort is more violence and a rapidly rising drug consumption problem.

"The good news is that there are more capos in jail; the bad news is that it doesn't change anything," said Jorge Chabat, an academic who studies justice issues. "There's no change in the amount of drugs available on the street, and you have more violence. The logical question is, 'What are we doing this for?' "

Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, the nation's top organized crime prosecutor, said in an interview that it was important to prevent Mexico from becoming like Colombia, where drug traffickers in the 1980s took over much of the country by bribing, intimidating or killing politicians, police officers, judges and prosecutors. If Mexico does not attack the drug traffickers, he said, "our children are going to be suffering tomorrow, with big drug traffickers who try to dominate . . . our institutions, to run the justice system, the media, even our lives."

Currently, Mexico's most notorious drug baron is Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who escaped from a maximum-security prison in January 2001, a month after Fox took office. Salazar noted that the country's weak prison system has not been able to contain the leaders, several of whom have escaped, while others who remain confined have recently been found to be ordering cocaine shipments and assassinations by cell phones.

"They can't control the capos in jail, so how can they do it on the streets?" Salazar said.

Guzman is believed to be hiding in the mountains of Sinaloa, his home state. The U.S. government has posted a $5 million reward for his arrest. Officials said local police and residents have been sheltering Guzman and tipping him off whenever law enforcement officials show up.

Vasconcelos lamented that Guzman, who he said freely spreads cash around in poor communities, is regarded as a hero by many in his home state. The prosecutor implored the Mexican media to help "change that image."

"Help me make the people realize that this peso or this dollar that the drug trafficker gives is dripping in blood," he said.