WASHINGTON – Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), co-chair of the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control, today released a report surveying U.S. federal agencies’ historic failure to properly oversee U.S. resources provided to Mexico to combat drug trafficking and organized crime. The report finds that U.S. officials have consistently ignored credible evidence of rampant corruption in the Mexican government, allowing corrupt Mexican officials to use U.S. resources to advance cartel activity.  

“It’s unthinkable that U.S. officials could allow bad actors in the Mexican government to put taxpayer resources into the hands of cartel bosses. Sadly, today’s report reveals that to be the case,” Grassley said. “For decades, U.S. officials turned a blind eye to corruption in Mexico while continuing to funnel billions of dollars across the border. Federal agencies were out to lunch. This report paints an ugly picture of U.S. drug enforcement efforts in Mexico and makes clear that we need an improved response and sharper congressional oversight of this issue. We must hold U.S. federal agencies and corrupt Mexican officials accountable and get serious about ending the cartels and protecting our communities.”   

In the absence of timely and complete responses from federal agencies, the report relies heavily on public records from court trials and Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. 

Findings of the report include:  

  • Beginning in 2010, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) had credible information that Genaro García Luna, then-Secretary of Public Security in Mexico, worked with the Sinaloa Cartel. DEA seemingly did not share this information with local counterparts in the State Department. Instead, García Luna continued to have access to billions of dollars in U.S. resources and intelligence for two years after the DEA knew of his corruption. 
  • The DEA had credible information that the commander of its Sensitive Investigative Unit (SIU) in Mexico, a foreign law enforcement unit staffed by personnel subject to U.S. security screening, was corrupt. Despite this, DEA continued to give the commander awards, training classes and law enforcement sensitive information. At least one DEA cooperator died because of information this commander leaked to the cartels. 
  • Trial testimony reveals that, in 1985, high-ranking Mexican official Manuel Bartlett-Diaz conspired with the Guadalajara Cartel to kill DEA Agent Kiki Camarena. Years later, as a Mexican senator, he participated in discussions advocating for and asserting a congressional role in the launch of the Mérida Initiative, a U.S.-Mexico security cooperation to combat transnational criminal organizations in Mexico. Today, he serves in Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s cabinet as head of the state-owned electricity provider. 
  • From 2009 to 2011, the U.S. government did not perform a single unscheduled inspection of the equipment donated to the Mexican government through the Mérida Initiative. Of the scheduled inspections, the U.S. only physically inspected 55 percent of equipment in 2008 and 2009, 81 percent in 2010 and a meager 10 percent in 2011.  
  • In 2009, the Colorado Department of Corrections (CDOC) Supermax facility committed to sharing drawings from the Colorado State Penitentiary 1 facility with Mexican security officials. Many of these officials were compromised by the Sinaloa Cartel, raising major concerns that this sensitive information could have been obtained by cartel operatives.  

In light of these findings, the report recommends actions to improve U.S. operations in Mexico. Among them:  

  • The DEA should direct its agents to ask cooperating sources about corruption. DEA should specifically include a section in their DEA-6 report of investigation form to memorialize that information, and should actively follow up on these leads. The DEA should also reinforce or develop improved procedures for sharing this information with host-country embassy officials and Congress.  
  • The DEA should collaborate with Congress to evaluate its SIU program, vetting practices, and compliance with Leahy vetting and the Foreign Assistance Act’s prohibition on providing funds to drug traffickers.  
  • The executive branch should coordinate with Congress on spending objectives, funding selection and management and the policing of corruption in Mexico. 
  • Congress should actively study the critical infrastructure of the cartels and develop tools to dismantle this infrastructure, both within and outside of the law enforcement context. 

Grassley has sought answers on cartel activity and drug enforcement operations at the federal and local levels. In August, he sent a letter to all 99 county sheriffs in Iowa asking for information on the local impact of cartel activity. For months, he has probed the DEA’s break with protocol in the indictment of several prolific Sinaloa cartel members and the use of irregular and anti-competitive hiring and contracting practices at the agency. Grassley’s oversight has revealed disorder and a lack of accountability at the DEA, which has repeatedly stonewalled requests for records, hampered congressional oversight and demonstrated an inability to effectively enforce the agency’s drug enforcement mission.

A copy of the full report is available HERE. Attachments relevant to each listed section are linked below. 

 

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