Mexico’s president announced on Thursday that a special narcotics unit that collaborated with the US on drugs operations was shut down last year, confirming a Reuters report and stating that the squad had been infiltrated by criminals.
According to Reuters, Mexico has abolished the organization that for the last quarter-century has worked closely with the American Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to combat organized crime.
According to security experts, the shutdown hinders US attempts to battle organized crime in Mexico, one of the main hubs of the multibillion-dollar global illegal drug trade, and makes it more difficult to apprehend and prosecute drug kingpins.
President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador claimed the narcotics unit was disbanded “almost a year ago” and that collaboration with foreign security organizations would continue as long as Mexico’s sovereignty was honored.
Mexico’s ties with the United States have been “put in order,” according to the president. He said that previous administrations had enabled those relationships to intrude on Mexico’s sovereignty.
Of Mexico, the agents in the Sensitive Investigative Units (SIU) police forces were regarded as among of the best in the nation, and they worked on some of the country’s most high-profile cases, including the apprehension of capo Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the former Sinaloa Cartel head, in 2016.
DEA authorities saw the SIU as crucial after its former commander, Ivan Reyes Arzate, was caught in 2017 and pled guilty in a US court to collecting bribes to leak tips to a drug cartel.
Following the Reuters article, U.S. congressman Michael McCaul, the chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, expressed his dissatisfaction with Mexico’s stance.
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