| | |  News Around the Republic of Mexico | December 2008 
FBI Chief in Mexico to Hone Fight Against Drug Traffickers
 Agence France-Presse
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| | US Federal Bureau of Investigation director Robert Mueller | |
Mexico City — US Federal Bureau of Investigation director Robert Mueller met here Thursday with top Mexican officials to coordinate the joint fight against drug traffickers, the US Embassy said.
Joint Mexican-US efforts to dismantle drug cartels and mafias on both sides of the border are reinforced by such meetings, US ambassador to Mexico Antonio Garza said in a statement.
He said he hoped the joint efforts would continue and grow under the incoming US administration of Barack Obama, who takes over from President George W. Bush on January 20.
Mueller met with Mexico's attorney general and ministers of the interior and public security, as well as with Mexico's intelligence agency (Cisen) chief Guillermo Valdes Castellanos.
The US Congress in June approved the Merida Initiative, 1.6 billion dollars in aid over three years for Mexico, Central American and Caribbean nations to deal with organized crime in their regions.
Since December 2006, Mexico has deployed 36,000 military troops and thousands of police around the country in an operation aimed at clamping down on organized crime.
Despite the show of force, more than 4,500 people have been killed this year, 1,500 of them in Ciudad Juarez, across the border from the US state of Texas, and 685 in Tijuana, across from San Diego, California.
The two northern cities are where most illegal drug shipments flow into the United States, the world's top consumer of cocaine which is processed almost exclusively in Latin America. |
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