DEA: No Comment on Drug Cartel Obtaining Intelligence Reports That DEA Provided to High-Level Mexican Authorities

May 24, 2010 06:57


The Reforma article revealed that at least up until the Mexican military seized the leaked documents in May 2009, Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquin “El Chapo” (Shorty) Guzman, who remains a fugitive, was well aware of “every step” surrounding anti-drug operations by Mexico’s federal government.

By Edwin Mora at CNSNews.com


The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) declined to comment on reports that a drug cartel from the northwestern Mexican state of Sinaloa had access to documents detailing Mexico’s counter-narcotic operations, including information that the DEA had provided to high-level officials in Mexico’s Public Safety Department.

On May 10, the Mexican daily newspaper Reforma reported that the leaked documents, copies of which were obtained by Reforma, constituted  evidence that the Sinaloa cartel, one of the strongest in Mexico, “has an efficient system for obtaining information from the main intelligence agencies of the [Mexican] state, allowing it to even obtain the reports that the DEA provides to Mexico.”

In response to CNSNews.com’s request for comment, David Ausiello, a pubic affairs specialist at the DEA, said in an e-mail on May 17, “We are going to decline to comment on that report/story.”

When CNSNews.com contacted the attorney general’s office of Mexico back on May 7, spokesperson Macias Vences Viviana said the office would respond, but it has yet to provide any comment to CNSNews.com on the issue.

The Reforma article revealed that at least up until the Mexican military seized the leaked documents in May 2009, Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquin “El Chapo” (Shorty) Guzman, who remains a fugitive, was well aware of “every step” surrounding anti-drug operations by Mexico’s federal government.

The leaked documents were presumably used to anticipate steps taken by the Mexican government against Guzman’s drug cartel.


Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel. (Wikipedia Commons)

The Mexican military seized the leaked documents when they arrested cartel member Roberto Beltran Burgos on May 29, 2009. The documents were listed as evidence in the criminal charges filed against him. Burgos denied owning the Hummer truck in which the papers were found.

Reforma further reorted that the Guzman cartel was presumably able to obtain “precise information about the government’s operations and targets at just the right time, allowing it to evade them.”

FULL STORY



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