Meena's GAOC

According to Reuters International, in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, the Mexican army disarmed Mexican police and mounted street patrols on Tuesday in three cities on the U.S. border on theory that agents there work for drug suppliers. Soldiers seized 300 guns from town policemen in the city of Nuevo Laredo, across from Laredo, Texas, to check if the weapons were legal or had been used to commit crimes. "We expect the inspection to finish in two or three days. In the meantime, the army will patrol the city," a spokesman for Nuevo Laredo's municipality told Reuters International. Troops conducted similar operations in the cities of Reynosa and Matamoros, Mexico. All the cities have suffered frequent drug violence in recent years as the local Gulf Cartel fought off a challenge from the rival Sinaloa gang moving into its territory. Poorly paid police have often been accused of taking sides in the fight between the two cartels, which cost more than 2,500 casualties last year. The army's move came two days after troops arrested a powerful drug lord, Alfredo Beltran Leyva, a key operator for the alliance of smugglers based in the Sinaloa state.