Mexico City  - Since Felipe Calderon was inaugurated as president in late 2006, Mexico has been at war with the powerful drug cartels.

Apart from police and officers specializing in drugs, thousands of soldiers are currently active against drug trafficking, particularly in Mexico's northern states.

In order to teach soldiers - originally responsible only for the country's defence - what kind of enemy they are fighting, instructors responsible for their training at the Mexican Defence Ministry make use of the Museo de los Enervantes (Drug Museum), which is unique in Latin America.

There, they are graphically informed of the historic, cultural and current background of the drug trade.

The exhibition shows that Mexico is not just the most important country for drug in transit from South America to the United States. It is also a country in which huge quantities of cocaine and marijuana are produced, particularly in enormous areas in the Sierra Occidental, along almost all of Mexico's Pacific coast.

The phenomenon affects all Mexican states in the region, from Guerrero in the south to Sinaloa and Sonora in the north. The "Golden Triangle" with the greatest production is around the states of Durango, Chihuahua and Sinaloa. Even in the desert, huge amounts of artificially-watered marijuana plants have been found.

"Search, find, destroy, burn and smoke out," says Lieutenant Coronel Laureano Carrillo, curator of the museum in the Defence Ministry headquarters.

Poppy-seed and marijuana plantations are discovered from the air. The security forces then move in, pull out the plants by the roots and burn them. In areas which are difficult to access, the plantations are sprayed with chemicals from the air to destroy them.

However, the discovery is often not easy and can in fact be very dangerous. Since 1976, 555 soldiers have died in that war in Mexico.

"Most of them in accidents," Carrillo notes.

Illegal crops are hidden, and they often grow under maize. The cartels have men watching the fields.

Guards spend three months - the time a marijuana plant needs to mature - living beside their crops. They put up warning signs for soldiers.

"Senores Soldados, I am close by. You'd better return the way you came. If you cut off the plants, you will never get out of here alive," he said.

Every month Carrillo shows some 200 anti-drug military officers, but also colleagues from other countries in Latin America, around the museum, which is not open to the public.

They are shown transport tricks with particular care: camouflage in motor vehicles, boats and human bodies - the smugglers' fantasy knows no boundaries.

And so is the power of drug bosses, who reign over whole regions with their heavy weapons and their millions of dollars. They bribe politicians, police, judges and public prosecutors, and even churches benefit from the charity of the "Narcos."

The riches and the taste at least of the old guard of drug bosses also know few limits: large-calibre Colts are covered in gold, and adorned with golden figures of saints and virgins and with diamonds.

One Colt on show at the museum belonged to the "Lord of the Skies," Amado Carrillo Fuentes, the late boss of the Juarez Cartel, a pioneer in drug transport from Colombia to the United States using his own airplanes and secret landing strips.

The exhibition also shows the Narco culture and its marketing strategies. T-Shirts, caps, and other items are sold, similar to the merchandise around football clubs. And the music of northern bands, the so-called "narco-corridos," which tell of the feats of drug gangs.

The Capos de Mexico sing of "The Son of a Bitch," the Bravos del Norte of "The Eleven Graves" and the Huracanes del Norte have a song about a "False Dollar." (dpa)