Their power grew as the US stepped up anti-narcotics operations in the Caribbean and Florida.
This week, Mr Romero acknowledged that a budget had been set aside for anti-narcotics intelligence.
The authorities are forming a new anti-narcotics unit -- but have difficulty finding willing recruits to even staff it.
This also happens to be where the American-trained anti-narcotics battalion is currently stationed.
President Ernesto Perez Balladares is now trying to get a multinational anti-narcotics centre set up to spend in their place.
"A significant amount that is unacceptable to many, including the Mexican government, " one U.S. anti-narcotics official said on condition of anonymity.
Most of all, American anti-narcotics agents still mistrust their Mexican counterparts, complaining that information passed to them is often misused or leaked to traffickers.
Although the DEA and some analysts disagree, others say the Zetas, a paramilitary group of turncoat soldiers and anti-narcotics police, are now running the Gulf cartel.
The accident came shortly before a visit by Barry McCaffrey, America's anti-narcotics chief, who has called for a big increase in American military aid to Colombia.
The head of the anti-drug police, General Gustavo Socha, said that several officers had already been retired over the matter and that the anti-narcotics operation would continue unhampered.
During this period, Washington provided Colombia with equipment and training for its superb anti-narcotics police, but stipulated that U.S. assistance could not be used to fight the guerrillas.
The first anti-narcotics battalion, now operational, has been dispatched to the southern province of Putomayo, a region under the control of the biggest rebel group, the 15, 000-strong Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.
Actually, there is very little practical change to the US presence in Colombia, which has been a fact of life since 1999 and the launch of the US anti-narcotics strategy known as Plan Colombia.
And then the question becomes, as it is for other anti-narcotics policies: should ending the consumption and production of illegal drugs be the be-all and end-all of all public policy, or are there important trade-offs that may not be receiving the attention they deserve?
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