The increase would triple the number of troops and federal police officers operating there as part of President Felipe Calderon’s offensive against drug traffickers.

Ciudad Juarez Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz said the added troops would give the military a higher profile by taking control of police functions, including street patrols. Currently, soldiers tend highway checkpoints, guard crime scenes and take part in special operations, such as house searches.

The city is without a police chief. Roberto Orduña Cruz quit last week after several officers were slain and someone posted threats saying more would be killed unless he stepped down.

On Wednesday, top Mexican security officials traveled to Ciudad Juarez to reassure local leaders and vowed to significantly boost the federal presence.

A little more than 2,000 soldiers and 425 federal police officers are assigned to Juarez in addition to local police, army spokesman Enrique Torres said. He said the reinforcements could begin to arrive in two weeks.

The move would represent a continuation of Calderon’s strategy of relying on the army and federal police to counter drug-trafficking gangs in the country’s main smuggling corridors. He had deployed 45,000 soldiers and 5,000 police officers across the nation as part of the crackdown, launched two years ago.

The offensive has sparked shootouts between soldiers and traffickers and triggered vicious fighting between drug gangs that has propelled the country’s fast-climbing death toll. More than 6,000 people were slain in 2008, and the figure has exceeded 900 this year, according to unofficial tallies by the news media.

Ciudad Juarez, which had about 1,600 killings last year, has been on edge over the police chief’s resignation and threats that appeared over the weekend against the mayor.

Reyes and other officials have described the police slayings and threats as “acts of terrorism.”

In a radio interview Thursday, Reyes said the city’s 1,600-member police force was too small even before officers were ordered to double up in patrol cars after the recent threats. A beefed-up military contingent will help combat other crimes, such as robberies, kidnappings and extortion, the mayor said.

Reyes has vowed to continue trying to clean up the city’s corruption-laden police force, which, like many in Mexico, has been infiltrated by drug smugglers.

Mexico to send up to 5,000 more troops to Ciudad Juarez

The State Department’s annual International Narcotics Control Strategy Report also said Afghanistan slashed opium poppy cultivation by 19 percent in 2008 after two years of record highs.

But drug trafficking and poppy cultivation continued to fuel insurgencies in Afghanistan’s less secure southern areas, it said.

The report identified 20 countries, including Afghanistan, Mexico, Nigeria and Pakistan, as “major” producers and transit points for illegal drugs. Of those, Myanmar, Bolivia and Venezuela had “failed demonstrably” to adhere to international counternarcotics agreements.

About 60 countries, including the United States, are home to financial institutions that engage in transactions identified as money laundering for drug traffickers, the report said.

The annual report on global anti-drug efforts raised concerns about a growing presence of drug trafficking groups in Central America that have been driven out in Mexico and Colombia by government crackdowns.

More than 6,000 people were killed in the battle for control of Mexico’s drug trafficking operations last year, and Mexican President Felipe Calderon has sent thousands of troops to fight the country’s violent drug cartels.

The report said because of Calderon’s successful efforts, “criminal gangs are now fighting among themselves for now diminishing profits.”

“The restructuring of security forces, coupled with the military’s strong engagement in the fight to dismantle major drug trafficking organizations, has proven to be effective,” it said.

“These efforts led to numerous arrests of key narcotraffickers, the discovery of clandestine drug laboratories, and a dramatic decline in the importation of methamphetamine … into the United States.”

The fight in Mexico has sparked concerns about spillover violence in the United States, and U.S. authorities capped a nearly two-year campaign against one of Mexico’s most violent cartels this week with 52 arrests.

Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas, has become Mexico’s most violent city as security forces take on drug cartels warring for control of smuggling routes into the United States.

US says Mexico makes progress against drug cartels

The department says the suspects were detained in a 21-month multi-agency investigation called “Operation Xcellerator.”

Forty eight of the arrests were made Wednesday in the U.S. states of California, Minnesota and Maryland.

The Justice Department says the operation led to the seizure of more than $59 million and more than 20 tons of drugs, including about 12,500 kilograms of cocaine and 7,000 kilograms of marijuana.

U.S. drug, law enforcement, tax and immigration officials cooperated with authorities in Mexico and Canada.

The Justice Department accuses the Sinaloa Cartel of trafficking drugs from Mexico into the United States through distribution cells in the U.S. and Canada.

The drug organization also is suspected of laundering millions of dollars in criminal proceeds from illegal drug trafficking activities.

The Mexican government is struggling to control powerful drug cartels that are fighting among themselves and with security forces for control of narcotics trafficking routes.

More than 6,000 people died in drug-related violence last year in Mexico.

US Announces Arrests of 755 in Mexican Drug Cartel Crackdown – War News