US, Mexican Authorities Join Forces To Combat Drug Cartels

Mexican and U.S. law enforcement officials have announced they will work together from Chicago to target international cartels they say are using the metropolis as a distribution base for illicit drugs and arms.

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Anthony Williams, chief of operations for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), made the announcement on Wednesday from the agency’s Chicago headquarters. 

The project is aimed at cutting the finances of drug cartels in order to cut the flow of arms and drugs, he said. 

Capturing cartel finances was key in stopping the flow of drugs because "the sole purpose of these entities is one thing and one thing only –money," Williams told the media.

Brian McKnight, special agent in charge of Chicago's DEA, suggested the U.S. drug issue was in fact Mexico's fault: "To be crystal clear, the drugs are being manufactured in Mexico and the Mexican cartels control the routes into the United States for distribution."

McKnight was flanked by FBI and Illinois and Chicago police officials, as well as Mexico's acting Attorney General Alberto Beltran, CIA Chief Director Omar Garcia and members of Mexico's Defense Ministry.

The purpose of the collaboration, McKnight said, is to crack down on all levels "from the local Chicago-based gangs to those who traffic in multi-ton quantities of heroin and fentanyl… to those cartel leaders poisoning the neighborhoods of Chicago."

Though vague on details, the new phase of bilateral coordination in the U.S.-led 'war on drugs' will allow authorities to pursue drug dealers and cartel leaders on both sides of the border, according to organizers.

Mexican authorities are also offering a US$1.56 million (30 million pesos) bounty for the capture of Nemesio Ruben Oseguera Cervantes, or 'El Mencho' — leader of one of the country's most powerful criminal networks, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).

Matthew G. Donahue, director for the DEA's North and Central American Region, said the CJNG is a "rapidly expanding brand" both in Chicago and globally.

The Mexican government says El Mencho masterminded a 2015 killing spree of 15 federal police officers and an uptick in violence in the state of Jalisco over the past two years. The CJNG was also allegedly responsible for the kidnapping and killing of three film students in Guadalajara in late April.

U.S. authorities just announced a US$5 million reward for information leading to the capture of Cervantes.  

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As recently as 2016, the CJNG's closest cartel rival, the Sinaloa Cartel, controlled Chicago and the entire U.S. territory from Kansas City eastward, the DEA reports.

But Sinaloa has been losing its grip on the North American drug trade to the CJNG since its leader, 'El Chapo' Guzman, has been in and out of jail since 2014. Guzman is heading to trial this week in Brooklyn, New York.

Donahue on Tuesday told the AP that the United States wants to take advantage of recently changed Mexican laws he says will help expedite investigations and prosecutions between the two countries.

"The new game plan is... pick up the speed and arrest more people faster," Donahue told reporters. 

"That's what we're really trying to push — the cooperation that we currently have with Mexico to be a little more efficient, a little bit more aggressive."

The two countries already have a decades-old, US$2.9 billion Merida Initiative in place that channels U.S. funds and anti-drug projects to Mexico supposedly to fight organized crime and drug trafficking. But the project hasn't staved the flow of cocaine and opioids northward, or arms south.

The senior DEA official also said the United States intends to do more to help stem the flow of guns into Mexico that is causing violence in the country to skyrocket. A record-setting 31,000 people were murdered, mainly by shooting, in Mexico last year.

Mexican officials said they were confident President-Elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, or AMLO, will be on board with the U.S.-Mexico anti-mafia collaboration. Lopez Obrador has said he would like to implement an amnesty plan for drug cartel members, rather than jail.

"We are sure the next president of the republic will be willing to collaborate in the fight against organized crime," Felipe de Jesus Munoz Vazquez, Mexico's deputy attorney general for the specialized investigation of federal crimes unit, said in Chicago.

AMLO’s incoming cabinet gave no immediate response to Wednesday’s announcements.

Chicago Police Department Superintendent Eddie Johnson was grateful for the cross-border effort against drugs and violence that will be based in his city, saying: "We can't do it alone at CPD. It's not just a Chicago problem, it's an international problem."