The Drug Enforcement Administration is doing its best to keep Mexican border violence from spilling over to the U.S. side, DEA Special Agent in Charge Jack Riley told the Las Cruces Sun-News in an interview.

"We're very prepared for it and I can assure you, you won't see an increase in violence in Las Cruces. We're all over it," said Riley, who heads the DEA's El Paso sector, which includes New Mexico.

"The public needs to know this is not something that has caught us by surprise," Riley told the Sun-News.

Riley added, however, that drug-fueled violence along the U.S.-Mexico border is likely to "get worse before it gets better," saying it will be difficult to prevent all incidents, the Sun-News said.

"We've been effective in stopping this and we're continuing to do that, but it's hard to bat a thousand," Riley told the paper.

Riley told the Sun-News that as dire as the situation may seem -- more than 200 murders since the beginning of the year in Juarez, lawlessness in the smaller border town of Palomas -- the violence south of the border could be worse.

And the violence could already have spread north of the border if not for the work of his agents who have been able to cooperate better with their Mexican counterparts, Riley said.

Agents have been able to disrupt murder and kidnapping plots in El Paso, which have mostly been directed at El Paso residents involved in the drug trade, Riley told the Sun-News.

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