 This action is regarded as the first major retaliation made against the cartel violence, and is generally viewed as the starting point of the Mexican Drug War between the government and the drug cartels.As time passed, Calderón continued to escalate his anti-drug campaign, in which there are now about 45,000 troops involved along with state and federal police forces.The government was relatively successful in detaining drug lords; however, drug-related violence spiked high in contested area along the U.S. border such as Ciudad Juárez, Tijuana, and Matamoros.