Sheinbaum responds to the DEA: “Investigate in the U.S. first.”

President Claudia Sheinbaum responded in her morning press conference to the allegations made by the director of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Terry Cole, regarding claims that Mexican officials link them to cartels.

The president rejected the statements made by the head of the DEA and described them as “very unfortunate,” “unsubstantiated,” and “baseless,” maintaining that those accusations clashed with the 48% reduction in intentional homicides that her government presented as proof of its security strategy.

During her morning conference, the president defended the decrease in crime, which contradicted any accusations regarding alleged links between her administration and organized crime. For Sheinbaum, if a government were linked to a criminal group, it would not be able to show a decrease in murders.

The president also stated that the pronouncement had a political intention. She even pointed out that the statement appeared on the same day her administration reported a drop in intentional homicides, although it was clarified that Terry Cole‘s remarks occurred on Monday night, during the first Fentanyl-Free United States Summit, and not on Tuesday after the security report.

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Terry Cole, head of the US Drug Enforcement Administration. Credit: DEA

“I find it a very unfortunate statement. It is a political statement and a statement without substance. What he is saying has no foundation,” said Sheinbaum to the press.

Sheinbaum maintained that the drop in homicides refuted any link to drug trafficking

The president’s response focused on one idea: the reduction of high-impact crimes was incompatible with the accusation launched from the United States. “If a government is linked to a criminal group, there cannot be a reduction in homicides. It is a contradiction,” she stated.

With that argument, Sheinbaum denied that there was a relationship between the Mexican government and drug trafficking. Her position was that the results in security refuted such claims by themselves.

Part of the seizures shown by the anti-drug agency. Credit: DEA

The president insisted that the head of the DEA must present evidence and not political statements. In her view, the statements lacked support and that is why she openly disqualified them.

The president asked the DEA to focus on the United States

Sheinbaum requested that the U.S. agency focus its efforts on combating the production, distribution, and consumption of drugs within the United States. She also proposed that it should investigate cases of alleged corruption within the organization itself.

“There are many things that the DEA has to do in its own country and within its own organization, rather than making statements that are actually political,” the president stated.

At another time, he reinforced the same claim with a direct criticism of the agency’s role outside of U.S. territory. “The DEA has a lot of work in the United States, it usually dedicates its work abroad, it should be dedicated to work within its own country,” he pointed out.

Sheinbaum reiterated that Mexico maintained a willingness to collaborate with United States authorities, but made it clear that this relationship must take place under conditions of mutual respect. The president closed her response with a total rejection of the official’s statements.

“We categorically deny the statements of the head of the DEA and we urge him to work hard in the United States and within his own organization and to continue, in any case, collaborating with the government of Mexico in a respectful manner, because Mexico is to be respected,” he responded sharply.

“There is a United States series that explains this precisely, and just as this series seems like fiction, it is a reality; there is production and distribution of methamphetamine in the United States, as well as the largest drug sales. Who sells it, how they sell it, how they distribute it, how they launder the money—that is something the DEA should be investigating,” he noted.

He also recalled another relevant fact in this context, as there are several DEA agents who worked in Mexico and were directly involved in organized crime.

Nicholas Palmeri, head of the DEA in Mexico, reportedly dismissed over ties to cartel lawyers

The case referred to concerns Nicholas Palmeri, former head of the DEA in Mexico, who was dismissed allegedly for ties to drug lord lawyers

“The regional director position in Mexico is the most important of the DEA’s foreign operations, and when something like this happens, it is problematic,” said Mike Vigil, the agency’s former chief of international operations.

The DEA quietly removed its highest-ranking official in Mexico last year for inappropriate contacts with drug traffickers’ lawyers, a shameful end to a brief tenure marked by deteriorating cooperation between the two countries and a record flow of cocaine, heroin, and fentanyl into the United States, the AP agency noted.

This portion of a photograph posted on Twitter by the DEA’s New York division on August 30, 2019, shows Nicholas Palmeri. In 2022, the DEA quietly removed Palmeri from his post as head of the U.S. anti-narcotics agency in Mexico due to inappropriate contacts with drug traffickers’ lawyers.

The fact that Nicholas Palmeri socialized and vacationed with Miami lawyers who represent drug traffickers, activities detailed in confidential records reviewed by The Associated Press, ultimately led to his downfall after only 14 months as the powerful regional director of the anti-narcotics agency, which oversees dozens of agents throughout Mexico, Central America, and Canada.

But separate internal investigations raised other red flags, including complaints about the lax handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, as a result of which two sick agents had to be flown out of Mexico. And another, released last week, found that Palmeri approved the use of anti-drug funds for inappropriate purposes and requested to be reimbursed in order to pay for his own birthday party.

“The regional director position in Mexico is the most important of the DEA’s foreign operations, and when something like this happens, it is problematic,” said Mike Vigil, the agency’s former chief of international operations.