Critical to the effort is U.S. military help -- expertise, equipment and firepower -- to these forces but there is no indication if the results signal a long-term end to the drug trail from Colombia to North America.

More than 28,000 people have been killed in fighting between government forces and drug traffickers since December 2006.

Industry reports showed that U.S. weapons were being used on both sides of the conflict and quantities bought on the U.S. open market were regularly acquired with drug proceeds smuggled across the border along with tens of millions of dollars of surplus cash.

The latest shootout left 25 people dead but it raised new questions whether Mexican President Felipe Calderon's policy of eliminating gang leaders would remove the threat.

Two other drug gang chiefs, Arturo Beltran Leyva and Ignacio "Nacho" Coronel, died while fighting Mexican marines and soldiers in previous raids.

Sergio Villarreal Barragan, a leader of the Beltran-Leyva drug cartel, surrendered to authorities Sunday without a fight, the second drug gang leader to give up without bloodshed since the Aug. 30 capture of his rival, U.S.-born Edgar Valdez Villarreal, also known as "La Barbie."

Despite the similarity in the gang leaders' names, the two sworn enemies aren't related.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Philip J. Crowley congratulated the Mexican government on the capture. "We are confident that Mexican authorities will continue making progress in its effort to dismantle drug trafficking organizations," Crowley told reporters in Washington.

"We have been supporting Mexican authorities both through equipment, through training, and the exchange of important intelligence information. And that cooperation and support will continue," Crowley said.

He said both governments face the challenge of stemming the flow of weapons and cash from U.S. criminal gangs to counterparts across the border.

"The flow of weapons on our side of the border and the flow of money from our side of the border back to Mexico is a part of this challenge," Crowley said. "We pledge to do everything that we can to take on our responsibility."

Asked about the effectiveness of Mexico's current war on drugs, Crowley said, "what it reflects is both the determination by the United States and the determination, in particular, by the Mexican government under the leadership of President Calderon.

"This is decisive action, and as always, intelligence plays a vitally important role. It's a reflection of the ongoing close cooperation between the United States and Mexico that yields these results. We hope that'll continue."

Although Mexican officials said the drug gang leaders had succumbed to the government forces' "superior power," analysts said the passive surrender of the men could be part of a more sinister strategy of the criminal organizations that were left intact despite the arrests.

Villarreal Barragan was presented to the media after his capture but government agents had no immediate explanation why the gang leader bore three different nicknames -- "El Grande," or "the Big One," "King Kong" and "The Child Eater." There was speculation the nicknames had something to do with the gang leader's various criminal activities in the past.

Villarreal Barragan had a $2 million reward for his capture on a government list of Mexico's most-wanted drug traffickers. It wasn't clear if anyone had come forward to claim the reward -- itself an invitation to voluntary death sentence by the feared gangs.

Analysts said the government was under pressure to match the cartels' increasing firepower with more advanced arsenals, most of them supplied by the United States. Most of Mexico's foreign procurements are also funded from U.S. sources though details of the transactions remain cloaked in secrecy.

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