Federal gov't takes over law enforcement agencies in Mexican state

Mexico City, May 27 (EFE).- The federal government has started the process of cleaning up the law enforcement agencies in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas, Government Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio Chong said.

The Defense Secretariat plans to start training, evaluating and certifying the state police in June, Osorio Chong said following a meeting on Monday in the port city of Tampico.

"In the case of the state police's investigative division, all the personnel will be removed and we will concurrently start a training course on security conducted by federal agencies," Osorio Chong said.

The Federal Police will take over the work of the state police's investigative division.

The state government's Command, Computing, Control and Communications Center, or C-4, will be overhauled and the Defense Secretariat "will immediately take over the center's operations while local capabilities are developed," the government secretary said.

The federal government said earlier this month it was deploying more security forces units in Tamaulipas and planned to purge the state's law enforcement agencies in an effort to stop the surge in drug-related violence.

Osorio Chong had announced the expanded deployment on May 13 in the border city of Reynosa, unveiling a "new phase" of the federal security strategy for Tamaulipas aimed at restoring to residents "the peace and safety they deserve."

Patrols will be stepped up at ports, airports, customs posts, border crossings and highways, with inspections of prisons and nightspots where criminal activities occur being expanded, Osorio Chong said.

The Gulf and Los Zetas drug cartels have been fighting for control of Tamaulipas and smuggling routes into the United States for years.