New drug-war tactic: try making friends

Like many officials whose job it is to ply the hardscrabble lands of the US-Mexico border, Martin Cuellar Jr. knows a lot about the bumps on the road to cross-border cooperation.

But like other American officials, both along the border and in Washington, the south-Texas antinarcotics officer is seeing signs of a smoother ride ahead.

While years of highs and lows in cooperation lead to caution on both sides, some high-profile action in law enforcement over recent months is feeding optimism for long-term improvement.

The way Lieutenant Cuellar sees it, his success on the job rides on the strength of his relationships on the Mexican side. So he's made a habit of crossing the border to Laredo's twin city in Mexico. There, he might follow up on a tip from a captain in the federal highway patrol, or share confidential information with a state police officer. Or the visit might be more social - like lunch or a pistol-shooting competition with local law enforcement.

"To do my job as efficiently and as productively as possible, I have to be in close communication with Mexican police," says Cuellar, head of the Texas Department of Public Safety's narcotics unit here. "Now we have a clearer understanding of how they work, and it's making a difference. That is something we didn't have in the past."

The warmer relations, say many US officials, have happened largely because of newly elected Mexican President Vicente Fox, who broke 71 years of one-party rule. Since taking office in December, President Fox has declared war on corruption and drug trafficking, fired all but two district customs chiefs, and set up a new organized-crime unit.

"The Fox administration has come out very strongly against drug traffickers," says Joseph Keefe, the chief of operations for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in Washington. "And our relationship with upper management [in Mexican drug-fighting agencies] has been more open and more straightforward than ever before."

Mexico's new approach is highlighted by the recent bust of a major cocaine-smuggling operation based in Nuevo Laredo. For the past year and a half, the DEA has worked closely with a variety of law-enforcement agencies in Mexico and Colombia. Last month, agents arrested 83 people in 16 US cities. They also identified 14 suspects in Mexico, and Mexican officials followed up with arrests. DEA agents say that the bust - called Operation Marquis, after the name of the cartel - was one of the largest of its kind in recent history.

In the past, when Mexican officials went after one drug cartel, it was often to protect others. But that seems to be changing, says Mr. Keefe. "To date, they seem to be going after all the organizations, instead of just one or two." In addition, the Mexican Supreme Court recently allowed the country to begin extraditing drug kingpins to the US. Since May, several key cartel leaders have been extradited to San Diego - the first such extraditions in Mexico's history.

But while experts agree that new attitudes and strategies in the top echelons of government are important, it takes local police to implement them - and that doesn't always happen easily after 71 years.

Take Carlos Ambia Reyes. In his few months as commander of the federal preventive police in Nuevo Laredo, he has actively policed the drug trade and make arrests, even within his own department. He has charged gotten rid of half of his staff, and several are charged with extortion.

Looking over his glasses, Commander Ambia calls the level of cooperation "excellent, the kind that really hasn't existed in the past."

But Ambia is the kind of paradoxical hero that US law enforcement routinely encounters. Last year, the federal preventive police accused him of extortion, and Mexico's National Commission of Human Rights accused him of human rights abuses in the state of Coahuila, where he served prior to his posting in Nuevo Laredo. To date, those accusations have not resulted in any formal action against him. But US officials say that situations like this are important reminders of the need to build relationships gradually and keep a certain amount of distance.

Still, US agents can't work too slowly. Mexican officials are transferred frequently in order to keep police from getting too close to the community and the drug lords who control much of it.

"It's hard because they change their people so regularly," says Alfonso Moreno III, head of the Border Patrol's intelligence unit in the Laredo sector. "Overall, they are always very willing to help. But you build a relationship with someone, and then they are replaced."

Yet the ties are getting stronger. In addition, US officials have noticed a willingness among Mexican law enforcement to take part in testing and training.

"They seem to be making an honest effort to improve their image, trying to emulate what we do on this side," says Jose Flores, the US attorney in Laredo. His office is prosecuting several "Operation Marquis" arrestees.

Still, he is cautious about the rhetoric, having heard it all before: "Only in the long run will we know the full effect."