Mexico Declares War on Drug Cartel

Officials on Monday announced an offensive to dismantle one of Mexico’s main drug-trafficking groups--the Juarez cartel--including dozens of arrest warrants and an offer of big rewards for information leading to the capture of its alleged ringleaders.

Authorities said they were using the powers of a new organized-crime law to take on the group, which was headed by Amado Carrillo Fuentes until his death last summer after plastic surgery.

The announcement came as some members of the U.S. Congress are trying to strip Mexico of its annual “certification” as a partner in the anti-drug fight. Critics such as Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) complain that Mexico has made little progress in fighting the groups that transport the majority of the cocaine entering the United States.

A “decertification” would poison relations between the neighbors and could result in economic sanctions against Mexico.

Mexico’s anti-drug czar, Mariano Herran Salvatti, declared to reporters Monday that authorities are ready to “do whatever it takes to totally dismantle the Juarez cartel.”

As part of an investigation into the group, he said, 76 arrest warrants have been issued against alleged cartel members since mid-January. However, he said, seven of the warrants were against people already in jail on other charges. Only four of the other suspects have been arrested so far.

In addition, Herran Salvatti announced rewards of 4 million pesos (about $465,000) for information leading to the capture of six alleged cartel leaders. They include Amado Carrillo Fuentes’ brother, Vicente, and two of the late kingpin’s alleged top lieutenants--Eduardo Gonzalez Quirarte and Juan Jose “El Azul” Esparragoza.

The Juarez cartel, based in the Mexican border city across from El Paso, remains important despite the death of its leader in July, U.S. and Mexican authorities say.

However, the group has been consumed in recent months by a bloody fight for power that has left more than 60 people dead.

Whether Monday’s announcement will mark a turning point for the Juarez cartel is unclear. Mexican authorities have had little success in recent years in finding and arresting leading drug traffickers.

And it’s not yet apparent how much success the government will have offering rewards for information, a policy allowed only after the passage of the new organized-crime law. In December, authorities announced $1-million rewards for information on the three Arellano Felix brothers, who are alleged to run the country’s other major drug-trafficking organization, in Tijuana. In response, about 200 tips have come in, Herran Salvatti said. But there have been no arrests.

Still, authorities were optimistic, saying the new law had made it easier to build a case against a cartel, rather than just against individuals.

Authorities said the case against the Juarez group stems from the investigation into the country’s former anti-drug czar, Gen. Jose de Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo. He was jailed last year on accusations that he helped Carrillo Fuentes. The arrest stunned Mexicans and raised fears that corruption was spreading among military officers who have been increasingly drafted into the anti-drug fight.

In a new sign of that possibility, about a dozen current or former military officers were among those named in the latest arrest warrants, according to Herran Salvatti.

He declined to identify them. But two captains who worked for Gutierrez were among the seven jailed suspects who were charged with additional crimes in Monday’s announcement.