MEXICO CITY – The Mexican government has scored key victories in the drug war in the last several months – reducing gangland killings and squeezing the cocaine supply in American cities – senior Mexican and U.S. officials have told The Dallas Morning News in recent interviews.

And it's doing so by employing new technologies and focusing chiefly on the Gulf cartel, based along the Texas-Mexico border, officials said.

Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora's acknowledgement that the government is using more resources to eradicate the Tamaulipas-based Gulf cartel and its paramilitary enforcement arm, the Zetas, is a rare admission by senior officials.

"They have a more violent behavior, and it's more feasible to get them because of that," Medina Mora said. "Arrests have also been made in the Sinaloa cartel. But they have adapted a more low-profile strategy. They are not as vicious or as violent."

Among the most spectacular blows against the cartel since President Felipe Calderón took office Dec. 1:

•Army soldiers in late August burst into a restaurant in an upscale Mexico City neighborhood and arrested the Gulf cartel's purported chief link to Colombian cocaine suppliers, Juan Carlos de la Cruz Reyna, or "J.C."

•Authorities in the Texas-Mexico border state of Coahuila said last month that federal police and soldiers had arrested 27 members of a Zetas cell dedicated to drug crimes and kidnapping.

•In the last six months, authorities have captured five high-ranking Zetas, including so-called original Zetas, former Army special forces soldiers who defected to the Gulf cartel in the late 1990s.

Members of the Gulf cartel and the Zetas have said for years that they are being unfairly targeted and that law enforcement officials are in the pocket of the Sinaloa cartel. The Gulf cartel has lodged complaints through media outlets, faxes and e-mails to government officials. It's even posted messages on rivals' dead bodies.

But Medina Mora calls the strategy a rational one.

The Sinaloa cartel's profits generally originate from marijuana, which it cultivates in the states of Chihuahua, Durango and Sinaloa, known as the Golden Triangle. And the enterprise assures it of a healthy cash flow.

The Gulf cartel is more focused on cocaine from Colombia. And since the government crackdown has disproportionately hurt cocaine smuggling, cartel members and their Zetas enforcers have resorted to more violent practices to make money, including kidnappings and extortion, Medina Mora said.

"We're also pursuing the Sinaloa cartel," Medina Mora said. The strategy is to dismantle the "operational leaders" of both cartels, who deal with logistics, marketing and support, he said.

No cartel is getting an easy ride, said Public Security Minister Genaro García Luna.

"We have arrested cartel leaders from both cartels," he said, but the Gulf cartel's systematic use of violence to invade territory controlled by its rivals has set off "red alerts" that draw law enforcement.

The government is fighting "against them all, and I have the statistics," García Luna said.

In all, the government has captured 333 drug traffickers, including 25 from the Sinaloa cartel, 133 from the Gulf cartel, 24 from the Tijuana cartel and 151 from others.

And taking a page from U.S. police forces, it's gearing up to use computer databases, modern training techniques and powerful scanners to check cargo ships for weapons and drugs.

U.S. and Mexican senior officials credit Mr. Calderón's tough crackdown for increasing the price of cocaine in the U.S. – from New York City to Houston to California.

And former DEA administrator Phil Jordan, who lives in Dallas and follows the trends closely, said prices for the drug on North Texas streets have risen at the same pace.

Jordan said that bad weather across Latin America, along with a massive earthquake in Peru, was also partially responsible for the disruption in cocaine distribution and the subsequent rise in the street price.

John Walters, director of National Drug Control Policy in Washington, released details Tuesday of a Southwest Border Counternarcotics plan that cites rising cocaine prices in 37 cities across the nation – with the average price per gram going to about $119, from $96.

Medina Mora says the price of cocaine in general has increased by nearly 25 percent while purity has fallen from about 80 percent to 60 percent.

Deputy Chief Julian Bernal, the Dallas Police Department's narcotics commander, said that he has heard of some cocaine shortages in the Dallas area, but that the city's proximity to the Mexican border usually keeps the price of cocaine from fluctuating.

"Where you are going to see that is more in the northern cities, the cities farther from the border," he said. "We're hearing that there are shortages and the price is going up there, but here, locally, we're not seeing those prices rising."

Chief Bernal said that there has been some change in the cartel activity level in the Dallas area. But authorities largely attribute it to Operation Puma – an effort that in August targeted more than 30 people in North Texas and around the state who were believed to be affiliated with the narcotics distribution network of the Gulf cartel.

"We took out a huge chunk of the cartel in the D-FW operating here, and it was a major success for us," Chief Bernal said. "We are looking for some changes. It's very hard to gauge, though, especially so close to the border. [Cartels] are just like any other business: They try to fill the void as quickly as possible."

Any time the narcotics supply chain is interrupted, in Texas or Mexico, the effect is felt, he said.

"Those cause a momentary shortage, but they're quickly replaced based on our proximity to Mexico."

Mexican officials also say gangland-style executions and kidnappings in the country have generally fallen, though that assertion is not borne out by the overall death rate for this year in a recent report from the lower house of Congress, the Chamber of Deputies.

Ernesto Mendieta Jiménez, a security analyst, said the government's strategy has been successful in the "reactive part."

But he said it so far lacks the critical element that will cut the cartels off at the knees: drying up their access to billions of dollars that buys police departments and politicians alike.

Estimates by media organizations show that the number of drug-related executions has risen to about 7.5 per day through July of this year. Last year, the report said gangland killings were at about 6 per day or 2,200 for the entire year.

Mexican officials acknowledged that killings rose as police and the military stepped up their fight against drug cartels after Calderón took office Dec. 1.

But in recent months, the cartels have toned down their violence.

In August, federal police reported 195 executions, or about 6.5 a day, down from 319 in March, or more than 10 a day, Medina Mora told The News.

The string of attacks in recent weeks serves as a reminder of the drug traffickers' persistence, impunity and strategy. Drug kingpins continue what some U.S. law enforcement officials have described as a systematic campaign to assassinate police chiefs, police officers and politicians.

A study by Reforma, the Mexico City newspaper, reported that at least 58 police chiefs, 160 agents and 22 military officers have been assassinated in the last nine months – and none of those cases has been solved.

"We're in the thick of it, folks," said a senior U.S. law enforcement official speaking on the condition of anonymity. "It won't be easy."

"This is a muddy, bloody, uphill climb. ... Failure is not an option," he said, citing a favorite phrase of Mr. Calderon.

Most disturbingly, he said, not long after the arrest of de la Cruz Reyna, suspected drug traffickers tracked down two members of a super-elite federal police unit, killing one commander and two police officers traveling with another in Monterrey. The attack was a sign that drug traffickers are taking on law enforcement in new, sophisticated ways.

Additionally, a former mayor of a small town in the state of Durango was seriously hurt in an attempted assassination.

In Texas, Mario Espinoza Lobato, a businessman and city councilman from Ciudad Acuña, was gunned down last week at his home in Del Rio.

And in Baja California this week, an attack on a police station left two officers killed, prompting Gov. Eugenio Elurdoy to declare: "Let's be clear: This is war."

"This is far from being over," Medina Mora said.

Staff Writer Jason Trahan contributed to this report from Dallas.

Public Security Minister Genaro García Luna says Mexico has some new tricks in the escalating fight against drug cartels, which are increasingly taking territory and corrupting police officers. It's something police have lacked for a long time: basic technology.

Part of the reason Mexico wants a $1.4 billion aid package from the U.S. is to buy modern equipment that it cannot afford, though critics say it's not technology that's lacking, but focus.

José Arturo Yañez Romero, a Mexico City detective trainer, said García Luna's federal police get priority, though they cannot investigate crimes or bring cases to a prosecutor. New funds should go to investigators and prosecutors, he said.

"The crime fight that the Federal Preventative Police wants to carry out exclusively using technology is destined to failure without the lead participation of the attorney general's office," Yañez Romero said.

Here's a look at some items Mexican law enforcement will soon have and some still on the wish list:

National Center for Control and Trust: Soon to open, the center would be responsible for recruiting, selecting and evaluating police to avoid corruption. Through lie-detector tests, drug testing, psychological evaluation and medical testing, police commanders would decide which officers stay and which go.

Pros: García Luna said the center, run by the federal government but open to state and local police forces, would guarantee that police are not compromised.

Cons:

Yañez says Mexico has been down this road before, and corruption remains. He says not even the FBI believes in the infallibility of lie detector tests.

National Criminal Date Base "Plataforma México ": A searchable database that would allow local, state and federal police to quickly determine if a person is wanted on charges in another jurisdiction. Such a database has been impossible in the past because of the different technologies used by police organizations. A national network would bring them all together.

Pros:

The nation's police could easily communicate with each other; send out alerts; view a person's criminal record; review arrest warrants; and use audio and video to determine the true identity of someone detained.

Cons: The platform relies on local governments, along with the courts and other agencies, to openly offer information for the database. Mr. Yañez says the system lacks accountability and there is a lack of trust among various political parties that control local governments.

Radar planes, helicopters and "fast-boats": Drugs arrive in Mexico mostly through the open seas (about 85 percent) and through gaps in radar coverage. More than a third of the country does not lie along air routes. This is an area where aid from the U.S. would be most helpful, since the U.S. already uses this equipment.

Pros: Radar planes would monitor airspace where there is no coverage, allowing more interceptions of drugs from Colombia or Central America. "Fast boats" would give Mexican law enforcement a tool the narcos already have, resulting in more sea seizures. Helicopters offer a tactical advantage to police since few drug traffickers have them.

Cons: Imagine any or all of these tools in the hands of the narcos, and the balance shifts away from police and back to the bad guys, Mr. Yañez says.

Gamma Ray scanners: Would allow Mexico to scan the containers used by cargo ships to import and export goods. Mexico's limited capacity to search ships results in the illegal import of arms and narcotics. Even Mexico-bound shipments that go through the U.S. are not scanned stateside.

Pros: Guns and drugs could be detected more efficiently.

Cons: Again, the technology depends on officials who can be corrupted. Authorities are already going after Customs officials who have allegedly allowed massive quantities of pseudoephedrine, used in the production of amphetamines, to enter the nation in recent years.