Mexico shuts elite investigations unit in blow to U.S. drugs cooperation

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Exclusive-Mexico shuts elite investigations unit in blow to U.S. drugs cooperation

Drazen Jorgic
Tue, April 19, 2022, 7:10 AM·5 min read

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico has disbanded a select anti-narcotics unit that for a quarter of a century worked hand-in-hand with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to tackle organized crime, two sources said, in a major blow to bilateral security cooperation.

The group was one of the Sensitive Investigative Units (SIU) operating in about 15 countries which U.S. officials tout as invaluable in dismantling powerful smuggling rings and busting countless drug lords around the globe. The units are trained by the DEA but under the control of national governments.

In Mexico, the over 50 officers in the SIU police unit were considered many of the country's best and worked on the biggest cases such as the 2016 capture of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, then the boss of the powerful Sinaloa cartel.

The closure threatens to imperil U.S. efforts to combat organized crime groups inside Mexico, one of the epicenters of the multi-billion dollar global narcotics trade, and make it harder to catch and prosecute cartel leaders.

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Read more: https://news.yahoo.com/exclusive-mexico-shuts-elite-investigations-111035819.html

[Pisces]

1. Has anyone watched all seasons of Narcos? Dismantling and arresting is a joke. Why can't we learn

From the past? Removing 1 just replaces them with many or someone worse. There will always be a replacement. The amount of money and people we have lost to this senseless war on drugs is mind boggling. Especially since absolutely nothing has changed, in fact it has gotten way more dangerous and scary.

[Judi Lynn]

2. I remember the war on drugs seemed to explode when George W Bush declared war on Mexico's "bad guys"

with Felipe Calderon, in the "Mérida Initiative", and newspapers started printing articles mentioning all the severed heads which were appearing all over the place, even with gangsters rolling heads into bars to scare the bejesus out of their targets.
Don't forget all the bodies which also started appearing hanging from bridges, too.

Here's an article quickly google grabbed which discusses the huge car wreck Bush and Calderon created:

10 Years of the Mérida Initiative: Violence and Corruption
MERIDA INITIATIVE
/26 DEC 2018 BY ANNA GRACE

he Mérida Initiative celebrates its tenth anniversary this year. Yet since it began providing funding for security in Mexico, problems to do with violence and institutionalized corruption have worsened, suggesting flaws in both the approach and implementation of the Initiative.

The origins of the Mérida Initiative, a bilateral security cooperation agreement between Mexico and the United States, hark back to 2007 when former president Felipe Calderón appealed to the administration of President George W. Bush for assistance in tackling drugs and arms trafficking.

Since signing the agreement, the Mexican government has received nearly $2.9 billion in assistance from the United States. This assistance has supported the purchase of military equipment; training for judiciary personnel and improvement of courtroom infrastructure; military training along Mexico’s southern border; and the implementation of crime prevention programs.

Critics state that the Initiative focuses too heavily on the use of military forces to tackle organized crime. US aid to the program supported former President Felipe Calderón’s war on drugs, which led to a spike in homicide rates across the country that continue to rise today.

More:
https://insightcrime.org/news/analysis/merida-initiative-failings-violence-corruption/