Here’s an article in El Diario, in Spanish, which was originally posted in El Universal.
The story makes the unremarkable claim that the DEA met with certain Drug Trafficking Organizations in Mexico to get information on the DTO’s rivals.
[David Gaddis, then director of the DEA’s office in the Distrito Federal, said, “En gran parte porque estamos ahí [México] en operación para recabar datos de inteligencia para apoyar las investigaciones en Estados Unidos. En ese sentido, he entrevistado a varios miembros de cárteles y narcotraficantes como Zambada-Niebla en México. No es como entrevistar a un fugitivo que camina en mi oficina en San Diego. En San Diego puedo arrestar al fugitivo. En México no puedo”, afirmó el agente de la DEA Manuel Castañón en su declaración por escrito integrada al proceso de Vicente Zambada Niebla en Chicago.”
It’s no secret that the DEA extensively uses the services of Confidential Informants in the United States to maintain a satisfactory number of arrests and convictions. What’s less acknowledged is the extent of their tolerance of their CI’s criminal activities. To catch the bigger players, the CI’s have to be big fish themselves. That is accomplished by allowing these monkey’s paws to import or distribute large quantities of illegal drugs into the United States.
It’s kind of like Fast and Furious. In reverse. With drugs instead of guns.
It also, in my opinion, makes the U.S. Government a member of a vast criminal conspiracy.