Mexican gangs try to bribe army as drug war flares

By Lizbeth Diaz
REUTERS
7:53 a.m. February 8, 2008

TIJUANA, Mexico – Mexican drug gangs are trying to corrupt the army into siding with them in a turf war near the U.S. border, threatening to blunt President Felipe Calderón's offensive against the cartels.

Military men from generals to foot soldiers say they are being offered up to hundreds of thousands of dollars to turn a blind eye to shipments or call off anti-drugs operations in Baja California state, where there has been a surge of violence this year.

“These groups are coming to us to try to negotiate, to take us over to their side, trying to break us down,” Gen. Sergio Aponte, who co-heads the military operation in Baja California, told reporters.

Since the late 1990s, Mexico has convicted at least five army generals for taking drug money, including the man who was once its anti-drugs czar and led the war against the gangs but was later found to be on the payroll of the Juarez Cartel.