Mexican police investigated for bribery

Six federal police officers involved in President Felipe Calderon's anti-drug operation were being investigated for extortion on Friday after they were videotaped taking money from a driver in the border city of Tijuana, officials said.

The men, part of a force of more than 3,300 police and soldiers sent to Tijuana to clamp down on drug gangs and corruption, will be punished if found guilty, the Public Safety Department said in a statement.

A videotape recorded by the Tijuana city police department shows the officers at a checkpoint stopping a motorist and searching his vehicle. After a discussion, the motorist was shown giving the police a handful of cash including at least one $100 bill.

The videotape, taken Jan. 17, was released to the media and posted on Mexican news Web sites on Friday.

Soldiers involved in the anti-drug offensive known as Operation Tijuana have been inspecting firearms belonging to Tijuana's 2,000 city police for three weeks, in response to allegations by federal investigators that a network of officers supports smugglers who traffic drugs into the United States.

The Tijuana police have held demonstrations, complaining they need their guns for their jobs and stand a higher risk of being shot dead without them.

More than 300 people were slain in Tijuana last year, including 13 police officers.

On Monday, the Tijuana police department announced it had issued some officers slingshots and ball bearings to defend themselves.

Calderon narrowly won the presidency last year on a law-and-order platform and has promised to dismantle drug gangs who killed more than 2,000 people across Mexico last year.

Since December, he has sent more than 20,000 police and soldiers to regions across Mexico that have been ravaged by drug-related violence, such as Tijuana and the Pacific resort of Acapulco. Last week, he also extradited four alleged drug kingpins to the United States.

Karen Tandy, chief of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, has described Calderon's battle against drug gangs as "an enormous leap forward."