Mexico Puts New Officers on the Job at Customs

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In a sweeping move to root out corruption among customs agents and reduce the influx of huge quantities of illegal drugs into the country, the Mexican government replaced hundreds of inspectors at airports and border crossings over the weekend, officials said.

The operation was aimed at closing a gaping flaw in the government’s fight against drug traffickers: the inspectors who are supposed to examine cargo but who have long been known to look the other way for a price.

The hundreds of customs inspectors who were replaced were not fired, a spokesman for the Tax Administration Service, Pedro Canabal, told The Associated Press. Instead, he said, their contracts, which came to an end over the weekend, were not renewed.

Some of the employees will be permitted to reapply for their positions if they meet new, stricter hiring requirements.

The newspaper Reforma, which reported the overhaul on Sunday, put the number of ousted customs workers at 1,100. They were replaced, the newspaper reported, by 1,470 new personnel who had undergone training and background checks.

Customs workers have been implicated in numerous scandals involving illegal drugs.

The move is the latest bold action by the government of President Felipe Calderón to combat corruption and drug trafficking. Mr. Calderón’s government has disbanded police departments and replaced the officers with soldiers, arrested local politicians accused of working with traffickers and rooted out top-level government officials found to be on the payroll of the country’s powerful drug cartels.

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