U.S. Examined Allegations of Cartel Ties to Allies of Mexico’s President

American legislation enforcement officers spent years wanting into allegations that allies of Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, met with and took tens of millions of {dollars} from drug cartels after he took workplace, in keeping with U.S. data and three individuals acquainted with the matter.

The inquiry, which has not been beforehand reported, uncovered data pointing to potential hyperlinks between highly effective cartel operatives and Mexican advisers and officers near the president whereas he ruled the nation.

However america by no means opened a proper investigation into Mr. López Obrador, and the officers concerned in the end shelved the inquiry. They concluded that the U.S. authorities had little urge for food to pursue allegations towards the chief of one among America’s prime allies, mentioned the three individuals acquainted with the case, who weren’t licensed to talk publicly.

Mr. López Obrador known as the allegations “completely false,” responding to questions from The New York Instances on Thursday. He mentioned the information of the inquiry wouldn’t “in any way” have an effect on Mexico’s relationship with america, however mentioned he anticipated a response from the U.S. authorities.

“Does this diminish the trust the Mexican government has in the United States?” Mr. López Obrador mentioned at a daily information convention, including, “Time will tell.”

Drug cartels have lengthy infiltrated the Mexican state, from the bottom ranges to the higher reaches of presidency. They repay the police, manipulate mayors, co-opt senior officers and dominate broad swaths of the nation.

However whereas the current efforts by the U.S. officers recognized potential ties between the cartels and Mr. López Obrador’s associates, they didn’t discover any direct connections between the president himself and legal organizations.

American officers declined to remark.

A lot of the knowledge collected by U.S. officers got here from informants whose accounts may be troublesome to corroborate and typically find yourself being incorrect. The investigators obtained the knowledge whereas wanting into the actions of drug cartels, and it was not clear how a lot of what the informants informed them was independently confirmed.

For instance, data present that the investigators had been informed by an informant that one among Mr. López Obrador’s closest confidants met with Ismael Zambada García, a prime chief of the Sinaloa drug cartel, earlier than his victory within the 2018 presidential election.

A special supply informed them that after the president was elected, a founding father of the notoriously violent Zetas cartel paid $4 million to 2 of Mr. López Obrador’s allies within the hope of being launched from jail.

Investigators obtained data from a 3rd supply suggesting that drug cartels had been in possession of movies of the president’s sons selecting up drug cash, data present.

Mr. López Obrador denied all of the allegations made by the informants.

The U.S. legislation enforcement officers additionally independently tracked funds from individuals they believed to be cartel operatives to intermediaries for Mr. López Obrador, two of the individuals acquainted with the inquiry mentioned.

At the very least a type of funds, they mentioned, was made across the similar time that Mr. López Obrador traveled to the state of Sinaloa in 2020 and met the mom of the drug lord Joaquín Guzmán Loera, who is healthier often known as El Chapo and is now serving a life sentence in an American federal prison.

Greater than a decade in the past, a separate investigation led by the Drug Enforcement Administration unearthed allegations that traffickers had donated tens of millions to Mr. López Obrador’s unsuccessful presidential marketing campaign in 2006. This inquiry, which was detailed by three media retailers final month, was closed with out prices being introduced.

For america, pursuing legal prices towards prime overseas officers is a uncommon and sophisticated endeavor. Constructing a authorized case towards Mr. López Obrador can be significantly difficult. The final time america filed legal prices towards a prime Mexican official, it in the end dropped them after his arrest induced a diplomatic rift with Mexico.

The Biden administration has an infinite stake in managing its relationship with Mr. López Obrador, who’s seen as indispensable to containing a surge in migration that has grow to be one of the contentious points in American politics. It’s a main concern for voters within the lead-up to the presidential election this fall.

Mexico can be a prime American buying and selling companion and the one most essential collaborator in U.S. efforts to gradual illicit medication like fentanyl from crossing the southern border.

U.S. legislation enforcement businesses have jurisdiction to analyze and convey prices towards officers of different nations if they will present a connection to narcotics shifting throughout the border into america.

Whereas it’s unusual for American brokers to pursue prime overseas officers, it isn’t unprecedented: The drug trial of Juan Orlando Hernández, the previous president of Honduras, started this week in Federal District Court docket in Manhattan.

Federal prosecutors in New York additionally secured a corruption conviction last year against Genaro García Luna, Mexico’s former public safety secretary, persuading a jury that he had taken tens of millions of {dollars} in bribes from violent cartels he was meant to be pursuing.

Whereas efforts to scrutinize Mr. López Obrador’s allies are not energetic, the revelation that U.S. legislation enforcement officers had been quietly analyzing corruption allegations towards them may itself be damaging.

Final month’s media reviews, including one by ProPublica, a few U.S. inquiry into 2006 marketing campaign donations — for an election he didn’t win — ignited a firestorm in Mexico.

Mr. López Obrador publicly denounced the tales, implying they had been geared toward influencing the nation’s presidential election in June, by which his protégé, the previous Mexico Metropolis mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, is main the race to switch him. He instructed the reviews may complicate talks on migration and fentanyl with the U.S. authorities, and mentioned he thought of not receiving President Biden’s homeland safety adviser for a deliberate assembly within the Mexican capital.

“How are we going to be sitting at the table talking about the fight against drugs if they, or one of their institutions, is leaking information and harming me?” Mr. López Obrador mentioned at a daily information convention days after the tales printed.

After President Biden known as Mr. López Obrador, calming tensions, the Mexican overseas minister mentioned that the U.S. homeland safety adviser informed Mexico “that this is a closed issue for them.”

The Biden administration has dealt with Mr. López Obrador with nice care, avoiding public criticism in favor of repeatedly dispatching prime officers to Mexico Metropolis to satisfy with him and press for sustained migration enforcement in non-public.

The choice to let the current inquiry go dormant, the individuals acquainted with it mentioned, was induced largely by the breakdown of a separate, extremely contentious corruption case. Within the closing months of the Trump administration in 2020, U.S. officers introduced prices towards Gen. Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda, who served as Mexico’s protection secretary from 2012 to 2018.

In a federal indictment, unsealed in New York after a multiyear investigation named “Operation Padrino,” prosecutors accused Normal Cienfuegos of utilizing the powers of his workplace to assist a violent legal group known as the H-2 cartel conduct its drug trafficking operations.

His arrest on the Los Angeles airport provoked a furor inside the Mexican authorities, significantly among the many leaders of the nation’s armed forces, which have assumed larger duties and energy below Mr. López Obrador.

The president mentioned the fees had been “fabricated” and his administration launched greater than 700 pages of communications intercepted by U.S. brokers that purported to indicate legal exercise however had been forged as inconclusive.

The Drug Enforcement Administration, which already had a checkered historical past as protagonists in a drug conflict seen as bloody and futile, suffered an amazing blow to its relationship with the Mexican authorities.

Simply weeks after the arrest happened, the U.S. Justice Division, below heavy stress from Mr. López Obrador, reversed itself and dismissed the indictment, sending Normal Cienfuegos again to Mexico.

The episode not solely broken longtime safety preparations between the 2 nations, but in addition left a deep impression on legislation enforcement officers north of the border, a lot of whom noticed the failed case as a cautionary story about endeavor related efforts towards different high-ranking Mexican officers.

Emiliano Rodríguez Mega contributed reporting.