WASHINGTON — The U.S. is sending more money, technology and manpower to help Mexico fight drug cartels and keep violence from spilling across the southwestern border, Obama administration officials said Tuesday.
Violent turf battles among the cartels have wreaked havoc in Mexico in recent years and led to a spate of kidnappings and home invasions in some U.S. cities.
The Obama administration’s multi-agency plan includes nearly 500 agents and support personnel. However, officials did not say where the additional agents would come from or how long they would stay at the border.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said officials were still considering whether to deploy the National Guard to the Arizona and Texas borders with Mexico, which the governors had requested.
Deputy Attorney General David Ogden said the combined efforts of the U.S. and Mexican governments would “destroy these criminal organizations.”
Authorities said they will increase the number of immigration and customs agents, drug agents and anti-gun trafficking agents operating along the border.
The government also will allow federal funds to be used to pay for local law enforcement involved in southwestern border operations, and send more U.S. officials to work inside Mexico.
Prosecutors say they will make a greater effort to go after those smuggling guns and drug profits from the U.S. into Mexico.
Napolitano acknowledged that the fight against the drug cartels is not just in Mexico but also in the U.S., where the drugs are sold.
“This is a supply issue, and it’s a demand issue,” she said.
To address the demand, she cited funding set aside for drug courts in the recent stimulus package.
