| | |  Editorials | Issues | March 2009 
Mexico: The War Next Door - Part 3
 CBS News
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Beltran may not look like your typical drug lord, but when she was arrested after five years on the run, she was brought to prison under heavy security.
Mexican authorities denied our request to talk to her but we showed up anyway on visiting day at the prison. Surprisingly we got in.
Beltran's accused of being part of a trafficking operation that smuggled cocaine into the U.S. and now faces extradition. She denies the charges, but certainly seems to know a lot about drug trafficking.
"There are more and more people involved in drug trafficking now than ever before. With more people going into business, there is always someone who wants to control that business. And that's the reason for the murders, the fights to control the cities and to control the drug routes," she told Cooper.
Beltran was born into a drug trafficking family, and two of her husbands were assassinated. Both were cops, allegedly working for cartels.
"In Mexico there's a lot of corruption. A lot. Large shipments of drugs can't come into the Mexican ports or airports without the authorities knowing about it. It's obvious and logical. The government has to be involved in everything that is corrupt," Beltran charged.
Asked if she thinks the government can win this war against drug traffickers, Beltran said, "I don't think so. You'd have to wipe out the government to wipe out drug trafficking."
Wiping out government corruption is one of Attorney General Medina Mora's jobs, but even his office has been tainted: 35 members of his elite intelligence unit were recently accused of taking bribes from a drug cartel.
"The former drug czar himself was accused of receiving I think it was nearly half a million dollars every month from drug cartels," Cooper remarked.
"It is a matter of disappointment. And it's a matter of certainly surprise," Medina-Mora acknowledged.
"Why have drug cartels been so effective at corrupting police forces, corrupting politicians?" Cooper asked.
"Essentially because they have a tremendous economic power, and a tremendous intimidation power that comes from cash and weapons," he replied.
Mexican authorities are now trying to rebuild the federal police force from the ground up. They're using background checks, polygraph tests, and new technology to monitor what local police departments around the country are doing.
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