Sign in to comment!    Mexico creates special federal force of
5,000 gendarmes to combat widespread economic crime   Drug gangs
have long penetrated some Mexican mining and agricultural
sectors, but officials now reveal that everyone from fishermen
to tourist resorts to banana growers have been hit by the wave
of extortion, kidnapping and thefts by the gangs.  In some
cases, like the western state of Michoacan, the cartels and
gangs cut down trade so much that "even the barbershops weren't
serving customers. The whole social fabric broke down," said
National Security Commissioner Monte Alejandro Rubido.  The new
force, known as the gendarmerie, is made up of fresh recruits
whose average age is 28 and who have never served on another
police force. Its officers were trained by the Mexican army and
its commanding officers got training from police forces from
Colombia, Chile, Spain, France and the U.S.  Gendarmerie members
will be a division of the federal police and will be sent to
areas where there is an organi