Mexico President Felipe Calderon is continuing to promise that he will clean up his own government after several high profile officials were found to have been taking money from drug cartels.

From the AP (via Google News):

Calderon’s sweeping crackdown on powerful drug cartels has in recent weeks been shaken by a nationwide corruption scandal.

The government revealed that top officials within the army, federal Attorney General’s office, and federal police had been allegedly bought off by Mexico’s most powerful drug gang, the Sinaloa cartel. On Thursday, officials said that almost half of Mexican police officers examined this year had failed background and security checks, a figure that rises to nearly 9 of 10 cops in the violent border state of Baja California, home to Tijuana.

But Calderon insisted he won’t back down, promising to weed out corruption within his administration, and said officials are working to create a “new generation of police.”

“To get rid of organized crime, we must first clean up our own house,” he said.

Since taking office on Dec. 1, 2006, Calderon has sent more than 20,000 soldiers to battle drug trafficking across Mexico, helping to seize of 70 tons of cocaine and 3,708 tons of marijuana, he said.

Cartels have responded with a bloody terror campaign, dumping beheaded bodies on public streets and tossing grenades into a crowd of Independence Day revelers in September. More than 4,000 people have died so far this year in drug-related violence.