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Published: 06.06.2007
Power struggle between border drug cartels called "outright war"
ARTHUR H. ROTSTEIN
The Associated Press
A power struggle between drug cartels in northern Mexico is "an outright war" and its bleed-over into Arizona is a major concern, law enforcement officials attending an annual Arizona-Sonora police conference say.
Three weeks ago, some 50 gunmen arrived in a convoy in Cananea in northern Sonora and killed seven people, including five police officers, before Army troops and police pursued them, killing 16, according to Mexican authorities.
The shootings have remained a prime topic of discussion among lawmen on both sides of the border, including at the 23rd conference of Policia International Sonora-Arizona meeting in Tucson this week.
The conference is designed to let officials on each side of the border get to know each other, talk about major issues and come up with strategies to address major common concerns while fostering cooperation.
"Obviously, the Cananea thing is big, but also it's what's going on with the drug cartels in Mexico and the effects in the U.S.," said David Gonzales, U.S. marshal for Arizona.
"The overall power surge, killings of officials and citizens to establish their power base - it's an outright war," Gonzales said.
"And the cartels are going to go against the (Mexican) government" and anyone in their way, he said. "They will kill and spend any amount of money to establish" their dominance.
Public security issues and killings in Sinaloa stem primarily from organized crime's drug trafficking and production, said Jesus Alfredo Lopez Reyna, an official with that Mexican state's attorney general's office.
With the situation in Cananea, he said, "It's important that the state give the proper and effective response to these types of incidents."
"Criminals do not recognize the border; for them it's porous. So we have to be on alert that any time something does happen of a violent nature in Mexico, especially along the border . . . that there'll be the overflow or the bleed-over here into the United States." said Deputy U.S. Marshal Luis Noriega, the Mexico investigative liaison.
Law enforcement officials on both sides of the border say they believe Mexico's government will prevail in the long run in its heightening battle with drug interests.

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/local/53753.php