In Mexican Drug War, A Desperate Measure

"Mexico is becoming the second Colombia," said Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Tex.), whose district includes Laredo, across the border from Nuevo Laredo. "This is a serious and a ruthless situation."

Mexico's drug cartels have grown bolder as their profits have grown larger, Chabat said. Mexican drug traffickers generate as much as $10 billion a year by funneling South American cocaine into the United States, as well as by producing methamphetamines, heroin and marijuana, he said.

Mexico has had some successes in combating cartels. In the past five years, the leaders of the powerful Sinaloa and Gulf cartels have been arrested. But those victories have been muted by the failings of the Mexican justice system, Chabat said. The leader of the Sinaloa cartel, Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman, escaped from prison in 2001, and the leader of the Gulf cartel, Osiel Cardenas, is suspected of running his criminal organization from the prison cell he has occupied since his arrest in 2003.

"The Mexican government has been very effective in making arrests, but the rest of the criminal justice system -- the prisons and the judiciary -- is very inefficient and very corrupt," Chabat said.

The imprisonment of Cardenas set off a struggle between the Gulf and Sinaloa cartels for " la plaza " -- Mexican slang for drug turf. Each cartel is suspected of co-opting law enforcement officials -- and killing or intimidating those who don't go along -- to achieve their goal of controlling lucrative smuggling routes. But with Cardenas in prison, the Gulf cartel is at a disadvantage.

"The arrest provoked an imbalance, and now they are trying to reach an equilibrium," Chabat said. "There is clearly a war for control -- it's been a complicated war because after 1 1/2 years there has been no winner."

Cuellar applauds Mexico for responding with forceful measures, such as sending troops last year to quell drug violence in Nuevo Laredo. But with the violence persisting, he accuses Mexico of not being receptive enough to recent U.S. offers to help train police and prosecutors.

"They've started to work with us -- the question is: Can we get them to work with us more?" said Cuellar, who has pushed through legislation to boost border drug enforcement.

There have been signs that the two nations are collaborating more closely. Last month, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff flew to Brownsville, Tex., on the Mexican border, to announce a plan to increase cooperation with Mexican drug authorities.

Just two weeks later, the four undercover drug agents in Nuevo Laredo were killed. The killings were seen here as a setback for Mexican drug authorities. But they were soon eclipsed by the shock of the beheadings in Acapulco.

The heads were discovered April 20 outside a government building not far from the beaches that draw tens of thousands of U.S. tourists each year. The killings, coupled with grenade attacks on police stations in neighboring cities, were graphic reminders that drug-related violence has spread beyond the border and into the port and beach towns where drugs enter the country before being funneled north.

"We can't believe this is happening," said Mario Nuñez Magaña, spokesman for the Acapulco police. "This used to happen just up at the border. Here, we were only about tourism."

The slain officers, whose bodies were found wrapped in plastic miles away from their heads, had participated several months earlier in a shootout that left four suspected drug gang members dead. On Tuesday, less than a week after the gruesome discoveries, the Mexico City newspaper Excelsior posted a video on its Web site that it said showed one of the officers killing a gang member execution-style during that shootout.

The newspaper's scoop was a big deal for a few hours. But soon there was more suspected drug violence to talk about: another police officer gunned down in Nuevo Laredo.

There was no comment from Nuevo Laredo's police chief because there is no Nuevo Laredo police chief. The interim chief, named after his predecessor was assassinated last year, quit a month ago. No one else wants the job.