MEXICO is sending 3,300 soldiers and federal police to fight drug gangs in the border city of Tijuana, which has become a major smuggling route for cocaine and methamphetamine entering the United States.

Mexico’s newly sworn-in president sent more than 6,500 soldiers, sailors and federal police to violence-plagued Michoacan state to crack down on drug turf wars that have left hundreds dead in a wave of execution-style killings and beheadings.

At least 19 people were killed when a strong earthquake shook west-central Mexico sending panicked residents spilling into the streets of major cities and knocking out power to many areas, officials said today.