Mexico says it axed US-trained unit fighting drug cartels

Mexico has dissolved a special unit educated by US authorities to combat drug cartels as it become infiltrated by way of criminals, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Thursday.

Some members of the institution had been detained over the allegations, Lopez Obrador instructed newshounds.

The police unit, which obtained schooling from the US Drug Enforcement Administration, turned into disbanded greater than a year in the past, however, the decision was now not introduced at the time.

“There’s still cooperation (with US authorities) but that group that was supposed of a very high strategic level was infiltrated (by organized crime) and its leaders are being investigated,” Lopez Obrador told reporters.

The unit, whose closure was first reported by the Reuters news agency, was created in 1997 and worked on cases such as the capture of notorious drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.

In December 2020, Mexico announced steps to restrict the activities of foreign agencies like the DEA, following a row over the arrest of a former defense minister in Los Angeles for drug trafficking.

Lopez Obrador expressed irritation that he had no longer been informed approximately the research into retired well-known Salvador Cienfuegos, who become in the end despatched lower back to Mexico, in which he turned into exonerated via prosecutors.

In October America and Mexico agreed to overhaul their combat in opposition to drug trafficking to address the basis reasons and step up efforts to minimize cross-border hands smuggling.