Mexican troops ordered to arrest smugglers, burn marijuana and opium fields

Published: 12.12.2006

APATZINGAN, Mexico - Soldiers stopped cars and frisked passengers Tuesday, searching for drugs or weapons. Helicopters swooped low over remote mountaintops, looking for signs of opium and marijuana fields. Ships patrolled Mexico's main Pacific port, a hub for drugs arriving from Central America and Colombia.

Less than two weeks after taking office, President Felipe Calderon launched a full-scale attack on the drug trade in his home state of Michoacan, promising to bring an end to beheadings and large-scale production.

The campaign follows earlier crackdowns by Mexican presidents who ordered mass firings of corrupt police, revamped courts, sent thousands of troops to battle traffickers and accelerated drug seizures - without making much of a dent on the quantity of narcotics crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.