Some 25,000 troops are battling the drug gangs
nationwide |
A reward of $2m (£1.37m) each will be paid to informers who
help arrest Mexico's 24 most-wanted drug gang chiefs, the attorney general has
said.
Correspondents say the most-wanted list is a public challenge to the cartels.
Some 8,000 people have died in the past two years, as drug gangs fight for
territory amid government crackdowns.
US and Mexican agencies are increasing their co-operation as the gang
violence spills over the border, where kidnaps and killings are on the rise.
The reward offer comes two days before a trip to Mexico by US Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton, and a month before President Barack Obama is due to
visit.
'Cartels splintering'
Washington is expected to confirm in the next few days that it will be
deploying more federal agents along its border with Mexico - to tackle the
increase in drug trafficking and related violence.
emp_load.getEmpEmbeddedParams("emp_7959707");
The BBC's Matthew Price reports from Juarez, Mexico, on the
drug violence
The drug gangs have splintered into six main cartels, under pressure from
both the US and Mexican governments, according to the attorney general's office
in Mexico.
For example, one gang once affiliated with the Sinaloa group under the
Pacific cartel alliance was now listed as its own cartel, the office said, as
was La Familia, which operates in central Mexico and was once considered a gang
that answered to the Gulf cartel.
Among the men on the most-wanted list are the alleged head of the most
powerful Sinaloa cartel, Joaquin "el Chapo" Guzman, and the suspected heads of
the La Familia and Los Zetas criminal groups.
Some of the men, such as Guzman and Ismael Zamabada, allegedly of the Pacific
cartel, are also targeted by separate $5m (£3.43m) bounties from the US
government.
The Mexican announcement offers "up to 30m pesos ($2m) to whomever provides
information that is useful, true and leads to the location and arrest" of the
listed traffickers.
While Mexico has offered rewards for the capture of drug lords in the past,
this is the first concerted offer for all the most-wanted cartel members at
once.
|