Photo: GASTON DE CARDENAS / AFP / Getty Images
By: The opinion Posted Jul 13, 2023, 9:49 am EDT
The tentacles of organized crime often reach unsuspected places, seducing even members of law enforcement and turning them into their allies.
One such case occurred in the bowels of the United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), where two of its agents leaked confidential information to Mexican cartels.
The newspaper Milenio published the investigation of the corruption case that caused a scandal to explode in the US, since it also involves other important agencies, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), although they were not direct participants, yes allowed DEA agents to leak confidential informationalthough it was to be able to follow the operations of the traitors and locate the bosses with whom they had contact.
The interception of calls between the agents and the criminals revealed that among the “VIP clients” of the former DEA officials were Mexican drug traffickers who were priority targets for the anti-drug agency. Even so, and as part of the operation, for almost three years, they were allowed to continue extracting information of the highest level of security.
How did DEA agents operate?
Juan Constanzoan active DEA agent and Manuel Recioa retired agent from the same agency, began working together in a lucrative business in which they passed confidential information from the Drug Enforcement Agency to the bosses of the Mexican cartels and other criminals.
It all started when Recio opened the consulting company Global Legal Consulting, which provided private investigation services to criminal defense lawyers, but it didn’t take long for him to discover that the position he had, together with the contact with Constanzo, could serve him for something more lucrative, that’s how it was. how he began selling the confidential information, which they obtained through the DEA’s Narcotics and Dangerous Drug Information System (NADDIS), a tool that contains data about individuals who are or have been under DEA investigation.
According to Milenio, Constanzo and Recio’s level of cynicism reached the point of reviewing the list of drug traffickers and criminals who had been recently accused, to then contact them and offer their alert services within the agency.
Lawyers question the actions of the agencies
For more than two years, agent Constanzo was allowed to carry out illegal activities under the pretext of being able to thoroughly investigate not only his activity, but also that of his clients. But it all ended and he was accused along with Recio.
The corruption scandal broke out after the defendants’ defense argued that the US authorities allowed these operations to extend over three years to follow the criminal trail.
Constanzo’s defense lawyers have questioned the situation, asking why he was allowed to participate in high-level international investigations related to drug cases.
Now They have questioned the way of working of the DEA and the FBIIn addition, they have requested detailed reports of their process manuals, which would mean the disclosure of confidential information from US agencies.
Meanwhile, the charges being discussed are: bribing a public official; accepting a bribe as a public official and conspiracy to commit crimes of electronic service fraud, among others.
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