MEXICAN LEADER PLANS TO BROADEN ANTIDRUG ENFORCEMENT OFFICES

MEXICO CITY - In an effort to fight harder against a growing domestic
drug problem, President Vicente Fox announced Monday that the
Constitution had been amended to allow local officials to investigate
certain federal crimes, including drug trafficking.

Currently all drug-related crimes, even low-level street deals, are
considered federal offenses, and only federal agents are empowered to
enforce laws against them. The authorities have long complained that
there are not enough federal officers - about 20,000 - to stop the
huge loads of drugs being shipped through this country to the United
States, much less to stop the growth in small-time dealing on the streets.

In a news conference on Monday, Eduardo Medina Mora, the secretary of
public security, said Congress approved the change to the
Constitution earlier this month so that state and local police
forces, which employ an estimated 380,000 officers, would be able to
join the drug war. Mr. Medina said he was confident the reforms would
take effect next month, when Congress is expected to pass changes to
the criminal code to accommodate the constitutional changes.

"The problem of drug dealing is a problem that has not only taken on
important dimensions, but it is also a problem that affects in an
essential way our communities and our families," Mr. Medina said.
"And it should be precisely community instruments that are used to
confront the problems in its midst."

Mr. Medina also announced a deal with the Mexican telephone monopoly,
Telmex, aimed at stopping inmates from making threatening calls from
prisons. According to the agreement to be signed Tuesday, a recorded
message would identify calls made from the more than 1,000 pay phones
in prisons in Mexico City and the State of Mexico, and allow the
person receiving the call an opportunity to accept or hang up.

Mexico has had little success at stopping inmates from sneaking
cellphones into jail. But now, under an agreement with the nation's
cellphone companies, all cellphone transmissions from jails and
prisons would be blocked.

During this year alone, federal authorities have reported thousands
of calls from inmates threatening people or attempting extortion.
Often, law enforcement authorities said, inmates have called wealthy
or middle-class people, threatening to kidnap them or their children.

Law enforcement authorities said one inmate, Jose Luis Canchola,
directed the kidnapping of a popular soccer coach, Ruben Omar Romano,
from prison. Mr. Omar was rescued in September after two months.