Mexico gets nasty on Drug Lords

Nearly 2,000 Mexican soldiers and armed federal police poured into the border town of Ciudad Juarez last weekend.

The city - just across from El Paso in Texas - has been ravaged by drug gangs. Just this month 250 people were killed there by hitmen fighting for lucrative smuggling routes.

Between federal police and Mexican Army soldiers up to 2,000 law enforcement officers swarmed the streets of Juarez over the weekend to join the 2,500 already there - and there are more to come - The soldiers are the first contingent of as many as 5,000 troops and federal police being sent to Juarez.

Mexico has deployed some 45,000 troops across the country to try to crush drug gangs, but clashes between rival cartels and security forces killed around 6,000 people last year.
Juarez is a city of 1.6 million.