sentences:  The Federal Preventive Police was created by the merger of four other federal organizations in 1998 and 1999 in order to better co-ordinate the fight against the growing threat of drug cartels.The agency merged the Federal Highway Police, the Fiscal Police, an Interior Ministry intelligence unit called the Investigation and National Security Center, and military personnel transferred "en masse" from the Mexican Army's 3rd Military Police Brigade.On account of its heavily armed agents, its culture, and its origins, the Federal Police as a whole may be considered a gendarmerie.