US government officials say they will now focus on training and equipping Mexican police in the latest joint effort to battle Mexico's drug cartels.

Under the initiative, sherriff's deputies from Texas will be sent to Mexico and Central American countries to train their peers at the national and local level. 

But US police themselves have been plagued by allegations of corruption and collaboration with Mexico's drug cartels.

Al Jazeera's Rob Reynolds reports from the US border town of Columbus.