Deaths climb in Mexico's drug war

MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- The fight against narcotraffickers is showing good results, Mexican President Felipe Calderon said, a day after authorities linked 38 deaths nationwide to the drug war.

"We are truly hitting crime's operative structure," he said on Tuesday. "This is making it so that the gangs are fighting among themselves and that is causing the deaths that are occurring in the country. For example, of all the violent deaths that we have seen, 65 percent have been in two states -- in Chihuahua and Sinaloa."

On Monday, 21 people were killed in Chihuahua, apparently by drug traffickers. The dead included 18 found in the frontier town of Juarez alone.

There is plenty at stake. Mexico has sized more cocaine and money from drug cartels than anywhere else in the world. In addition, authorities have recently seized some 16,000 arms, including more than 1,000 grenades.

Some 300 tons of cocaine are estimated to pass through Mexico to the United States each year, and Mexico is considered the largest foreign supplier of crystal methamphetamine to the United States.

Calderon attributed the wave of violence to drug cartels fighting for supremacy and said the carnage was unavoidable in the government's quest to turn back the tide.

"It will cost human lives," he said. "Because we have decided to fight to rescue our country, that unfortunately will mean that some Mexicans will lose their lives."

Calderon's campaign has met a vicious response that has resulted in more than 1,000 dead in drug-related violence since the beginning of the year. The dead include Mexico City's top federal police chief as well as four other federal police killed in an ambush this month in Culiacan.

Rampant corruption among local police in northern border states has made that area particularly violent.

Last month, a gunbattle in northwest Mexico left seven federal police dead and four wounded.

Also on Tuesday, Mexico agreed to extradite Benjamin Arellano Felix, a top leader of a Tijuana-based drug cartel, to the United States. A judge, citing double jeopardy concerns, had advised against the decision, The Associated Press reported. Felix's defense attorney said he would appeal within 15 days, according to AP.

The move came after a weekend victory by Mexican federal troops, who arrested 61 people in a crackdown on the Arellano Felix drug cartel. Soldiers also seized 5,000 rounds of ammunition and federal law enforcement uniforms. Watch what transpired in the cartel bust »

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