Mexico is paying big for tips on drug lords

MEXICO CITY - Mexico's government yesterday offered $2 million each for information leading to the arrest of 24 top drug kingpins in a public challenge to the cartels' violent grip on the country.

The government document indicated that drug gangs had splintered into six main cartels under pressure from the U.S. and Mexican governments. The two most powerful gangs - the Sinaloa and Gulf cartels - each suffered fractures that have given rise to new cartels, according to the list published by the Attorney General's Office.

The government is offering $2 million in rewards for top members of the cartels and $1 million for 13 of their lieutenants. Arrest warrants have been issued for all 37 people on the list, the Attorney General's Office said.

The reward offer comes just days before a visit by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and a month before President Barack travels to Mexico City to discuss the growing drug problem.

Mexico's drug violence has killed more than 9,000 people in the last two years as gangs battle for territory and fight off a government crackdown. Some of that violence is spilling over into the United States, especially the Southwest, where kidnappings and killings are on the rise.

While Mexico has offered rewards for drug kingpins in the past, it has usually been on an individual basis. The new list appears to be the first offering rewards for all the most wanted cartel members at once. Some, such as Joaquin Guzman and Ismael Zamabada, are also targeted by separate U.S. offers of a $5 million reward.

The document offered insight into the reorganization of the cartels two years into President Felipe Calderon's military crackdown against them. A gang led by the Beltran Leyva brothers, once affiliated with the Sinaloa group under the Pacific cartel alliance, was listed as its own cartel. So was La Familia, which operates in central Mexico.

Calderon's government has attributed the splintering of the cartels to the crackdown, saying the arrest of drug kingpins has set off internal battles for control. It dismisses suggestions by U.S. officials that Mexico is losing control of some of its territory.