Mexico says some 80 drug cartels at work in country, up from 8 reported by previous government

Mexico's new attorney general said Tuesday that as many as 80 small and medium-size drug cartels are operating in the country, a number far higher than the last formal government assessment. Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam's critique extended an attack by the new Mexican government on the security policy of former President Felipe Calderon, who focused on killing and capturing the heads of cartels. This week, the new administration of President Enrique Pena Nieto began blaming that strategy for splintering Mexico's relatively few large cartels into a larger number of more dangerous small and mid-size organizations. Murillo Karam told MVS Radio that officials are working to identify all the country's 60-80 small- and mid-size drug trafficking organizations. Interior Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio Chong launched the critique of Calderon's strategy by telling a meeting of the National Security Council on Monday that financial resources dedicated to security had more than doubled but crime had increased, and with the capture of dozens of drug capos, drug cartels had splintered and become more dangerous...more