Mexico sends troops into Tijuana as part of drug trafficking crackdown

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.

The offensive expands a crackdown on organised crime by President Felipe Calderon, who sent 7,000 troops to his home state of Michoacan immediately after taking office on December 1.

“We will carry out all the necessary actions to retake every region of national territory,” Mexican Interior Secretary Francisco Ramirez Acuna said. “We will not allow any state to be a hostage of drug traffickers or organised crime.”