Argentina’s government staged a massive show of force against drug traffickers, deploying more than 3,000 agents in the slums around the city of Rosario to destroy scores of “drug bunkers” and to break up the a violent gang war plaguing the town.

Security Minister Sergio Berni called it the biggest drug trafficking crackdown in Argentine history, and provincial governor Governor Antonio Bonfatti of the Socialist Party says the raids mark “a before and an after” turning point in Rosario’s history.  Officials say forces will remain after the drug operations are crushed to “pacify” areas controlled by drug gangs.

These slums are called “misery villages” that surround Argentina's leading port city, where legitimate agricultural products such as soybeans are often used as decoys to move illegal drugs to Europe and the rest of the world.  It’s so bad that in some circles, Rosario is known more as a drug exporter like Bogota, Colombia, than for its soy products.

The crackdown comes against the backdrop of increasing concern about rising violent crime in Argentina.  People are fed up, and have formed lynch mobs.  An 18-year old purse-snatcher was captured by a mob and beaten to death in Rosario last week.  Mobs caught up with purported criminals on Tuesday in two other provinces.  President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and Pope Francis, an Argentinean himself, have called for and end to the lynch mobs.