(LibertySociety.com) – On April 14th, 2023, the Department of Justice announced the indictment of multiple members of the Sinaloa Cartel for trafficking, which prompted a scathing response from Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. During a press conference, he shared that he was not aware of the investigation, calling it “an abusive intrusion, prepotent, that should not be accepted under any motive.” He indicated that Mexican forces should have been the authority to intervene and would have shared the information with the United States.
Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents infiltrated the cartel with three agents, holding high-level roles within the organization. In addition, American authorities were able to access military communications related to the drug cartels. In response to these actions, President Obrador accused the United States of conducting an espionage operation in Mexico, stating that in the future there should be a collaboration between the countries. He also said that DEA agents will not be afforded the same freedoms to move about as they were in the past.
The defendants who were charged are accused of transporting large amounts of fentanyl and other drugs using couriers, transporting them through tunnels between the United States and Mexico, while also setting up stash houses in both countries. Among the defendants arrested were three sons of the drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, along with one other relative of the family. In early March, President Obrador spoke out against lawmakers who were calling for the use of the military to take out the fentanyl manufacturing facilities within Mexico, denying that the drug was even made in the country. He also stated that any type of military intervention is “an offense to the people of Mexico.”
On April 11th, the Biden administration announced an effort to disrupt the activities of the cartels, including the Sinaloa Cartel, by working with international partners and the private sector to map their network of operations. The countries within the partnership were not named in the press release, so it is unclear if the Mexican government is involved.
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