Mexican border-drug crackdown launched

by Josh Meyer

The Obama administration this morning unveiled an ambitious multi-agency plan to help Mexico attack the growing trans-national problems created by powerful Mexican drug cartels, vowing to surge U.S. money, manpower and technology to the southwestern border as soon as possible.

The plan, to be funded with $700 million from Congress and a lot of reshuffling of existing monies, will bolster existing efforts by Washington and Mexico's Calderon administration to fight violent trafficking in drugs and humans into the United States. It will also tackle the southbound flow of laundered money and precursor chemicals from the United States that for years have allowed the narco-traffickers to flourish, and created tensions between the two countries.

The plan has been in the works since even before Obama took office, and reflects the growing U.S. concern over the increasing power of the cartels and the possibility of more spillover violence and corruption on the U.S. side of the border.

A Mexican government crackdown on the cartels over the past two years has resulted in a sharp increase in violence, as the traffickers fought back, and battled each other over turf. More than 7,000 people have been killed since January 2008, with violence also surging in some U.S. border states such as Arizona.

The cartels have also raised alarm bells in Washington by spreading their trafficking networks into at least 230 American cities and towns, and senior Obama administration officials said the new plan is designed to reverse that trend, as well as better secure the border and assist Mexico in dismantling the multi-billion dollar crime syndicates.

``The President is concerned by the increased level of violence, particularly in Ciudad Juarez and Tijuana, and the impact that it is having on the communities on both sides of the border,'' the White House said in a position paper disclosing the details of the plan. ``He believes that the United States must continue to monitor the situation and guard against spillover into the United States. And the President is firmly committed to ensuring our borders are secure and we are doing all we can to reduce illegal flows in both direction across the border.''

The announcement was made at the White House by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Deputy Attorney General David Ogden, one day before Secretary of State Hillary Clinton leaves on a trip to Mexico. Deputy Secretary of State Jim Steinberg

Napolitano and Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. are scheduled to travel to Mexico next week to meet their Mexican counterparts at an international conference on weapons trafficking, and Obama himself plans to visit Mexico City in April.

In general, the plan calls for additional personnel, increased intelligence capability and better coordination with state, local and Mexican law enforcement authorities.

"This issue requires immediate action," Napolitano said. "We are guided by two very clear objectives. First, we are going to do everything we can to prevent the violence in Mexico from spilling over across the border. And second, we will do all in our power to help President Calderón crack down on these drug cartels in Mexico."

Through ``strategic redeployments,'' DHS plans to send more than 360 officers and agents to the border and into Mexico, Napolitano said. Costs across the board, totaling up to $184 million, will be revenue neutral, funded by realigning from less urgent activities, fund balances, and, in some cases, reprogramming, she said.

Many of the initiatives outlined today continue or expand on programs that already existed with the departments of Justice and Homeland Security in the Bush administration, including the $1.4 billion, multi-year plan known as the Merida Initiative. An undisclosed number of border agents, counter-narcotics agents and weapons-trafficking specialists will be sent to the border. And the Justice Department will send additional lawyers to border areas to increase and coordinate prosecutions of cartel-related cases, according to Obama administration officials.

The Pentagon is also working closely with the Mexican military, which Calderon has placed on the front lines of the battle against the cartel, especially in some parts of the country believed to be at least partially under the control of the traffickers and corrupt local law enforcement officials.

Obama also could deploy National Guard troops to the U.S. Mexico border if the violence appears to be overwhelming the response of civilian authorities, although administration officials have portrayed that as a worst-case scenario.

Obama's initiative was welcomed by congressional lawmakers from both parties, particularly those from border states most affected by the cartel-related violence and corruption.

Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Lamar Smith (R-Texas) said he supported the Administration's efforts to address border violence, but expressed concern about the specifics of the plan.

"While I support the administration's plan to increase resources and personnel along the border, I am concerned that the redeployment may come at the expense of other critical law enforcement activities,'' Smith said. ``The administration appears to be using border violence as an excuse to reduce interior enforcement of our immigration laws and enact gun restrictions. With hundreds of federal law enforcement officers being relocated to the border, we must ensure that we do not undercut our national security and immigration enforcement responsibilities."

Here are some additional details of the plan as outlined by the White House today:

Under the plan, the Treasury Department also is ramping up personnel and efforts directed at the Southwest border, to track traffickers' money flows. As part of the effort, the United States also will renew its commitment to reduce the demand for illegal drugs by American consumers, who Mexico has blamed for creating much of the narco-trafficking problem in the first place.

Because the effort will have so many facets, it will be coordinated at the White House through the National Security Council and Homeland Security Council as part of the broader U.S.-Mexico portfolio, administration officials said.

As part of the new initiative, the Department of Homeland Security plans to double the number of Border Enforcement Security Task Forces (BEST) teams that incorporate foreign, federal and state/local law enforcement and intelligence officers.

It plans to triple the number of DHS Intelligence Analysts working along the Southwest Border and increase the number of its Immigrations and Customs Enforcement attaché staff in Mexico in support of Mexican law enforcement efforts.

DHS also plans to double the Violent Criminal Alien teams located in Southwest Border Field Offices and quadruple the number of Border Liaison Officers working with Mexican law enforcement entities.

Homeland Security officials will also bolster their Secure Communities Biometric Identification capabilities, increase southbound rail examinations, enhance the use of technology at ports of entry and increase engagement with state and local Southwest border law enforcement.

For its part, the Justice Department plans to more directly confront the criminal enterprises responsible for violence in Mexico and trafficking drugs, illegal arms and bulk cash across the Southwest border through the creation of a Mexican Cartel Strategy, led by Ogden.

Justice also hopes to work closely with federal prosecutor-led multi-agency task forces to identify, disrupt and dismantle the Mexican drug cartels, including extraditing key leaders and facilitators to the United States for prosecution, and through the seizure and forfeiture of their assets.

Justice also will sharpen its focus on investigations and prosecutions of the southbound smuggling of guns and cash that fuel the violence and corruption, and by attacking the cartels in Mexico itself in partnership with its Mexican counterparts.

Justice's Drug Enforcement Administration is placing 16 new positions in its Southwest border field divisions, forming four additional Mobile Enforcement Teams (METs) to specifically target Mexican methamphetamine trafficking operations and associated violence along the border and throughout the United States.

Justice's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives plans to relocate 100 agents and support personnel to the border in the next 45 days, to fortify its Project Gunrunner weapons-trafficking effort and its eTrace Initiative, which works with Mexican officials to forensically track weapons used in drug cartel violence.

And the FBI, also a part of the Justice Department, is stepping up its efforts along the Border by creating a Southwest Intelligence Group (SWIG), which will be a clearinghouse of all FBI activities involving Mexico. It will also increase its focus on public corruption, kidnappings, and extortion relating to border issues. It will also bolster its Transnational Anti-Gang initiative, which coordinates the sharing of gang intelligence between the U.S. and El Salvador; many of those gang members are believed to be working for the cartels.

Congress has appropriated (FY08 Supp, FY09 Omnibus) $700 million to support Mexico's security and institution building efforts under the Merida Initiative. These funds will help Mexico to improve law enforcement, crime prevention and strengthen institution building and rule of law.

That money will provide Mexico with money to help stem illegal flows of drugs, laundered cash, weapons and smuggled humans in both directions across the border, and for training for rule of law and judicial reform efforts. It will also provide Mexico with information technology to enable its prosecutors, law enforcement, and immigration officials to communicate securely, and funding to help Mexican prosecutors' offices develop effective witness and victim protection programs.

The money will also pay for five helicopters to increase air mobility for the Mexican Army and Air Force, and a surveillance aircraft for the Mexican Navy, although that hardware might be delayed until as late as 2011, congressional lawmakers said recently.