CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico – It's practically a daily ritual: Accused drug traffickers and assassins, shackled and bruised from beatings, are paraded before the news media to show that Mexico is winning its drug war. Once the television lights dim, however, about three-quarters of them are let go.

Even as President Felipe Calderon's government touts its arrest record, cases built by prosecutors and police under huge pressure to make swift captures unravel from lack of evidence. Innocent people are tortured into confessing. The guilty are set free, only to be hauled in again for other crimes. Sometimes, the drug cartels decide who gets arrested.

Records obtained by The Associated Press showed that the government arrested 226,667 drug suspects between December 2006 and September 2009, the most recent numbers available. Less than a quarter of that number were charged. Only 15 percent saw a verdict, and the Mexican attorney general's office won't say how many of those were guilty.

___

EDITOR'S NOTE — This is one in an occasional series of reports by The Associated Press examining why — four decades and $1 trillion after Richard Nixon declared war on drugs — the U.S. and Mexico continue to fight a losing battle.

___

The judicial void is a key reason why Mexican cartels continue to deliver tons of marijuana, methamphetamines, heroin and cocaine onto U.S. streets.

"It in effect gives them impunity," U.S. Ambassador Carlos Pascual told the AP, "and allows them to be able to function in ways that can extend themselves into the United States."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100727/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_failed_drug_war_mexican_justice

theres more at yahoo...

and we wonder why drugs are always around... money makes the world go round.

Yeah this story was in the local news here last week. Apparently this is a common practice because the drug lords control the smaller governments in towns and cities because they have more money than those municipalities.

yup got people in their pocket and they're prolly letting people go after arrests and arresting them again to keep it looking like they are doing something wiht a lot of arrests - to keep that law enforcement funding...

sick

the only way to win the wa on drugs is to reuce/eliminate the demand - so the next time u sit down for a blunt or a line think about who u r supporting with that activity

it's good idea always to consider who you support with the choices u make...

You do know that you will never decrease the demand...correct? Regardless of whether buying drugs supports illegal immigrants or terrorism, those tactics have never worked. You should really study the drug trade more before you start assuming what will and what won't work.

Unless you are from the US. Then they throw you in Jail and your family is blackmailed for months til the State Department can get you released.

i grow my own... cheaper that way

Really?

Source?

A lot of people do now.

they need to go in with their army... but it looks like everyone is on the druglords payroll.

Mexico is so corrupt it isn't even funny. Their entire economy is pretty much financed by the illegal drug trade and other illicit activities. They are the Old Wild West.

Ol Hose B Filipe Calderone the president of Mexico did an interview a couple weeks ago. I'm looking for it and will get back to you.


Mexican President Felipe Calderon denounced as "racial discrimination" an Arizona law giving state and local police the authority to arrest suspected illegal immigrants and vowed to use all means at his disposal to defend Mexican nationals against a law he called a "violation of human rights."

But the legislation, signed April 23 by Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, is similar to Reglamento de la Ley General de Poblacion — the General Law on Population enacted in Mexico in April 2000, which mandates that federal, local and municipal police cooperate with federal immigration authorities in that country in the arrests of illegal immigrants.

Under the Mexican law, illegal immigration is a felony, punishable by up to two years in prison. Immigrants who are deported and attempt to re-enter can be imprisoned for 10 years. Visa violators can be sentenced to six-year terms. Mexicans who help illegal immigrants are considered criminals.

The law also says Mexico can deport foreigners who are deemed detrimental to "economic or national interests," violate Mexican law, are not "physically or mentally healthy" or lack the "necessary funds for their sustenance" and for their dependents.

AZ should counter sue Mexico, if nothing else, on the grounds of hypocrisy.