Part 2: The Good Guys

For many police in México, there are two career paths: work for drug cartels or live under the constant threat of death from drug cartels.

Mauro Enrique Tello Quiñonez made the wrong choice. Last month, the retired Army general began working as a high-ranking anti-drug official near Cancún, in the southern state of Quintana Roo. He was killed on his first day on the job. The suspect? Cancún's police chief, Francisco Velasco, who was arrested along with five other officers for orchestrating the murder.

For years, drug cartels have won over local police with deep pockets and heavy firepower. Last year, federal officials twice confiscated the firearms of the Tijuana police department. In many parts of Mexico, anti-trafficking operations are now run entirely by the federally controlled military and police. International and Mexican experts agree that Mexican police are more susceptible to corruption because they are under-trained and under-paid.

Tijuana Secretary of Public Security Luis Javier Algorri: "Local police aren't designed to combat organized crime. Officers are easily found at home, it's easy to see what shifts they work. They can be threatened or bribed."

But local cops aren't the only ones being paid off. Late last year, Mexico's former drug czar – the man in charge of the country's anti-drug operations – was arrested for accepting $450,000 in bribes from the Sinaloa cartel. With both local and federal law enforcement compromised and a worsening cycle of deadly attacks and counter-attacks, many are now asking if México could soon collapse into a civil war.

Political analyst José Antonio Crespo: "The army used to be seen as the government's great deterrent. But now what is the big stick that can be used against the cartels?"

Next: The Cartels