MEXICO CORRUPTION SWEEP NETS COPS

TIJUANA, Mexico -- The police officers were expecting to receive an
evaluation of their work.

Instead, soldiers and federal police stormed a meeting Wednesday at a state
police academy in the border city of Tecate, ordering dozens of officers --
including Tijuana's police chief -- to hand over their guns and placing
them under arrest.

The Baja California governor's office said as many as 120 police were
detained, and the federal government's Notimex news agency put the number
at about 200.

About 50 of them were flown to Mexico City under heavy guard, arriving
early Thursday morning, according to reporters at the capital's airport.
There had been no comment by the federal attorney general's office.

The mass arrest was one of President Vicente Fox's biggest corruption
crackdowns and came only weeks after Mexican authorities delivered stunning
blows to the powerful Arellano Felix gang that operated in the state for
nearly two decades.

"The important thing here is that those with responsibility are committed
to combating corruption," Baja California Gov. Eugenio Elorduy said.

Elorduy did not specify what charges the officers faced, but local media
reported they were accused of protecting drug smugglers.

State officials had called officers to the state police academy in Tecate
to discuss an evaluation of their conduct and their licenses to carry arms,
but said they did not know about the arrests until they happened.

Among those detained were Tijuana police chief Carlos Otal and his two
bodyguards, said Martin Dominguez, Tijuana's public security secretary.

The arrested officers were quickly loaded onto planes in Tijuana, which
lies 65 miles from Tecate near San Diego, and were flown to Mexico City.

The arrests came a day after the U.N. investigator into judicial
independence, Param Cumaraswamy, said corruption in the Mexican legal
system "continued unabated" despite attempts at reform.

Wednesday's arrests follow a flurry of actions against drug smugglers in
Baja California state.

On March 9, Mexican police arrested Benjamin Arellano Felix, the head of
the country's longest-running drug organization. His brother, Ramon, who
was on the FBI's 10 most-wanted list, was killed by police on Feb. 10.

A few days after Benjamin's detention, officials announced the arrest of
Manuel Herrera Barraza, allegedly the principal smuggler for the Arellano
Felixes.

The cartel is believed to have infiltrated the government, hiring officials
to give safe passage to the tons of cocaine and marijuana they moved into
the United States. In September, the former police chief in Mexicali, just
east of Tecate, was jailed for allegedly warning the Arellano Felix gang of
police operations.

Last week outside Tecate, Mexican authorities dismantled a secret,
1,000-foot tunnel under the U.S.-Mexico border that was believed to have
been used by the gang to ship tons of cocaine and marijuana into California
for more than a decade. The tunnel ran from a private home near Tecate to a
home in the mountains east of San Diego.