More Lieutenants Arrested

I mentioned two weeks ago how there has been a sharp uptick in high-level smugglers to be arrested in recent weeks (despite the absence of American officials on national soil, which pokes a hole in that conspiracy theory). It continues: here's a Sinaloa trafficker captured in Culiacán, a Gulf trafficker captured in Reynosa, and a Tijuana trafficker captured in (where else) Tijuana, all in the days since that last post. This is the longest sustained streak of high-level arrests that I remember in Calderón's term, and it has focused on several different organizations. It's hard to say whether it's the product of a greater emphasis on intelligence from Mexican authorities or just good luck, or if it will have a measurable impact on the Mexican drug trade (which would likely be bad news for Mexican civilians, at least in the short term), but it is a trend to keep an eye on.