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January 09, 2007

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Mexico: Unarmed police in Tijuana receive wave of death threats

By LUIS PEREZ, Associated Press Writer

TIJUANA, Mexico- Police in this violent border city have received a wave of death threats since soldiers took their guns away on allegations of collusion with drug traffickers, officials said Monday.

President Felipe Calderon sent 3,300 soldiers and federal police to Tijuana last week to hunt down drug gangs. The soldiers swept police stations and took officers' guns for inspection on Thursday amid allegations that some officers supported smugglers who traffic drugs into the U.S.

The soldiers have not said when they will return the guns.

Tijuana Public Safety Secretary Luis Javier Algorri said the city's police officers have been inundated with death threats on their radios and blamed the drug gangs.

The Tijuana police initially stopped patrolling when their guns were taken, saying it was too dangerous.

Most police returned to work without their guns during the weekend. In some cases, officers have been accompanied by armed state police. Others have patrolled in larger numbers than normal. One officer was seen holding a slingshot which he said was for his protection.

Dubbed "Operation Tijuana," the army mobilization to the Mexican border city is the second major military offensive against drug gangs by Calderon, who took office on Dec. 1 promising to crack down on organized crime.

Last month, Calderon sent 7,000 troops to his native state of Michoacan in western Mexico that has been plagued by execution-style killings and beheadings as rival gangs fight over marijuana plantations and smuggling routes.

Drug gangs were blamed for more than 2,000 murders nationwide in 2006 and have left a particularly bloody trail in Michoacan and Tijuana, where more than 300 people were slain last year.

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Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Associated Press Writer Olga R. Rodriguez in Monterrey contributed to this report

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