Mexico shuts elite unit in blow to US war on drugs

Mexico City — Mexico has disbanded a special anti-narcotics unit that for a quarter of a century worked closely with the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to tackle organised crime, two sources said, in a major blow to bilateral security co-operation.

The group was one of the Sensitive Investigative Units operating in about 15 countries which US officials say is invaluable in dismantling powerful smuggling rings and busting drug lords around the globe. The units are trained by the DEA but under the control of national governments.

In Mexico, the more than 50 officers in unit were considered many of the country’s best and worked on the biggest cases such as the 2016 capture of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, then the boss of the powerful Sinaloa cartel.

The closure threatens to imperil US efforts to combat organised crime groups inside Mexico, one of the epicentres of the multibillion-dollar global narcotics trade, and make it harder to catch and prosecute cartel leaders.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s government formally notified the DEA in April last year that the unit had been shut down, according to a DEA agent with knowledge of the matter who declined to be identified because they aren’t authorised to speak about the issue. A second source familiar with the situation confirmed the closure of the unit.

Mexico’s public security ministry didn’t respond to repeated requests for comment. The DEA declined to comment. The closure of the unit was not reported before and Reuters was unable to find out why the Mexican government did not announce it publicly at the time.

“They strangled it,” the agent said, referring to the unit. “It shatters the bridges we spent decades putting together.”

The closure could prove costly on US streets, where authorities are battling to reduce a surge in overdoses that last year led to more than 100,000 deaths mostly linked to a new wave of synthetic drugs produced by Mexican cartels.

The elite team, founded in 1997, was the main conduit for the DEA to share leads on drugs shipments and tips obtained on US soil with Mexico’s government.

The DEA used to fly new Mexican entrants to its top facility in Quantico, Virginia, to train them on latest surveillance and policing techniques. US officials also vetted them, including with polygraph tests.

A second Mexican special unit, based inside the Attorney-General’s Office and independent of Lopez Obrador’s government, continues to operate.

For Mike Vigil, the DEA's former chief of international operations, the SIU closure and Lopez Obrador’s curbing of security co-operation will hurt both countries.

“It will mean more drugs going to the United States and more violence in Mexico,” he said.

Breakdown

The special unit’s closure is the latest example of the breakdown in co-operation between the DEA and Mexico since Lopez Obrador assumed power in 2018 and vowed to overhaul the country's security policy.

Angered by the soaring bloodshed he blamed on the heavy-handed tactics of his predecessors, Lopez Obrador sought to implement a less confrontational policing style and pledged to tackle what he says are the root causes of the violence, such as poverty, instead of hunting down cartel chiefs.

The president also made it harder for foreign security officials to operate inside Mexico, rebuking the DEA over its modus operandi which he said equated to trampling on Mexico’s sovereignty.

Privately, US officials say Mexico’s vital role in blocking the flow of migrants from Latin America — a priority for Washington — leaves them with limited leverage to pressure Lopez Obrador on other issues, such as security co-operation.

Though the unit’s reputation was damaged when its former chief, Ivan Reyes Arzate, was detained in 2017 and pleaded guilty in a US court to taking bribes to leak tips to a drug gang, the unit was seen as vital by DEA officials who needed Mexican officers to help their investigations in the country.

Reuters