U.S., Mexico open anti-organized crime office

14:06, September 01, 2010      
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Mexico and the United States has formally opened an office that will follow the two nations' joint 1.4-billion anti-organized crime plan, Mexico's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The office, known as the Bilateral Oversight Office (OBS), will bring together public officials and technical staff, the statement said. It was first promised by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during her March 2009 visit to Mexico City. A second meeting of more junior officials took place on March 23 this year.
The opening ceremony was presided over by Mexico's junior foreign minister with special responsibility for North American affairs, Julian Ventura Valero, and David Johnson, the assistant secretary for international affairs in the U.S. Department of Justice.
The office will have specific responsibility for training and equipment transfers, and OBS officials will not carry out operative or intelligence gathering work, following a specific request from Mexico.
"The OBS reflects the high degree of confidence, strength and depth that bilateral relations have reached in the matter of fighting transnational organized crime," the statement added.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon has staked his reputation on breaking up Mexico's drug trafficking gangs, a fight that has cost 28,000 Mexican lives since the president sent troops into the nation's most violent cities in December 2006.
Calderon has said that government efforts have been so successful that the criminals have turned to other criminal enterprises including kidnapping and extortion.
Last week, 72 migrants were shot dead, apparently by drug trafficking gang Los Zetas, after the gangsters failed to extract a ransom from migrants' families.
Source: Xinhua