Photo: GASTON DE CARDENAS / AFP / Getty Images
By: The opinion Posted Sep 22, 2023, 11:20 am EDT
Because criminal groups responsible for flooding the United States with fentanyl operate in Mexico, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that “will aggressively expand” the presence of its investigative agents transnational criminal in its southern neighbor by 2024.
The announcement, made by the US Department of State, is part of the “Strategy to Combat Illicit Opioids”, prepared by the Office of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), a copy of which was obtained by the Mexican newspaper El Universal.
In this way, the US government confirmed that officers and prosecutors assigned to its Transnational Criminal Investigation Units (TCIU) They will be deployed in various regions of Mexico to promote high-profile investigations targeting Mexican cartels, in order to stop the production and transportation of fentanyl.
“In fiscal year 2025 (October 1, 2024 to September 30, 2025) HSI Mexico will aggressively expand Mexico’s TCIUs and implement several operational changes to improve their productivity and focus on the illicit manufacturing of opioids,” the Department of Transportation reported. Security, without giving official numbers on the number of prosecutors that would be sent to Mexican soil in this maneuver.
It should be noted that nowhere in the Strategy was it clarified whether the sending of more US agents to Mexico will be done secretly or without the knowledge of the Mexican government, or if President López Obrador will be notified to allow them to operate.
And it is that The Mexican president always questioned whether American investigators operate in his territory without the Mexican authorities having been informed about these agents, so he reformed the security law to restrict DEA operations in Mexico.
According to Washington, Mexican cartels manufacture fentanyl using cosmetic products purchased legally in China and then they traffic it to United States territory, where this substance has caused the worst opioid crisis in history, fueling a “continuing epidemic” of overdoses that in 2022 left some 110,000 dead in the country.
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