Allies of Mexican President Andres Manuel López Obrador met with drug cartels after he took office and received millions of dollars from the U.S., according to U.S. records and three people familiar with the matter. It turns out that law enforcement officials have been investigating for years.
Previously unreported, the investigation uncovered information indicating potential links between powerful cartel operatives and advisers and officials close to Mexico's president during his administration.
But the United States never opened a formal investigation into López Obrador, and officials ultimately shelved the investigation. They concluded that the U.S. government has little appetite to pursue allegations against the leader of one of America's key allies, according to three people familiar with the case who were not authorized to speak publicly. It is said that
In response to questions from The New York Times on Thursday, López Obrador called the allegations “completely false.” He said reports of the investigation would not affect relations between Mexico and the United States “in any way” but said he expected a response from the U.S. government.
“Will this reduce the Mexican government's confidence in the United States?” López Obrador told a regular news conference, adding, “Time will tell.”
Drug cartels have long infiltrated the lower echelons of the Mexican state and into the upper echelons of government. They pay the police, control mayors, co-opt high-ranking officials, and control large swathes of the country.
But while recent efforts by U.S. officials have identified possible links between cartels and López Obrador's associates, they have not uncovered any direct links between the president himself and the criminal organization.
U.S. officials declined to comment.
Much of the information collected by U.S. authorities comes from informants, whose testimonies can be difficult to corroborate and, in some cases, inaccurate. Law enforcement authorities obtained the information while investigating the drug cartel's activities, but it is not clear how much of the informant's story has been independently confirmed.
For example, records show that one of López Obrador's closest confidants met with Ismael Zambada García, the top leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel, before he won the 2018 presidential election, investigators said. It shows what the informant told us.
Another official said that after the president was elected, the founder of the notoriously violent Zetas cartel paid $4 million to two of López Obrador's allies in hopes of getting him released.
According to records, investigators received information from third-party sources suggesting that drug cartels had videos of the president's sons picking up drug money.
López Obrador denied all of the informant's claims.
U.S. law enforcement officials also independently tracked payments from suspected cartel operatives to López Obrador's intermediaries, two people familiar with the investigation said.
They said at least one of those payments was made around the same time López Obrador visited Sinaloa state in 2020 and met with the mother of drug lord Joaquín Guzmán Loera, known as El Chapo. It is said that it was held on He is currently serving a life sentence in a US federal prison.
More than a decade ago, a separate investigation led by the Drug Enforcement Administration uncovered allegations that traffickers had donated millions of dollars to López Obrador's unsuccessful 2006 presidential campaign. The investigation, which was detailed in three media outlets last month, ended without charges being filed. I'm being brought here.
For the United States, criminal prosecution of foreign government officials is a rare and complex undertaking. Bringing a case against López Obrador will be particularly difficult. Previously, the United States had filed criminal charges against a senior Mexican official, but ultimately dropped the charges after his arrest caused a diplomatic rift with Mexico.
The Biden administration has a significant stake in managing its relationship with López Obrador, who is seen as essential to stemming the migrant surge that has become one of the most contentious issues in U.S. politics. ing. This is a major concern for voters ahead of this fall's presidential election.
Mexico is also the United States' top trading partner and most important partner in the United States' efforts to slow illegal drugs like fentanyl from crossing the southern border.
U.S. law enforcement has the power to investigate and charge officials from other countries if they can show a connection to drugs entering the United States across the border.
While it is unusual for U.S. agents to pursue foreign officials, it is not unheard of. The drug trial of former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández began this week in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.
Federal prosecutors in New York also secured a corruption conviction last year against Genaro García Luna, Mexico's former public security chief, convincing jurors that he accepted millions of dollars in bribes from the violent cartels he was supposed to pursue. .
Although efforts to scrutinize López Obrador's allies are no longer active, the revelation that U.S. law enforcement officials are quietly investigating corruption allegations against them could be damaging in itself.
Last month, reports about a U.S. investigation into his 2006 campaign contributions, including those by ProPublica that he did not win, sparked a firestorm in Mexico.
López Obrador publicly condemned the articles, suggesting they were aimed at influencing the country's presidential election in June. His protégé, former Mexico City mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, is leading the campaign to replace him. He suggested the report could complicate talks with the U.S. government on immigration and fentanyl, and said he would not welcome President Biden's homeland security adviser to a planned meeting in the Mexican capital. He said he is considering it.
“How can we sit down at the table and talk about the war on drugs if they and their institutions are leaking information and harming me?” López Obrador said the article He said this at a regular press conference a few days after the article was published.
After President Biden called López Obrador to calm tensions, Mexico's foreign minister said the U.S. homeland security adviser told Mexico “this is a settled issue for them.”
The Biden administration has been very careful with López Obrador, avoiding public criticism by repeatedly sending government officials to Mexico City to meet with him and press for sustained immigration enforcement in private. .
Officials said the recent decision to suspend the investigation was largely due to the collapse of another highly controversial corruption case. In the final months of the Trump administration in 2020, U.S. authorities filed charges against General Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda, who served as Mexico's defense secretary from 2012 to 2018.
In a federal indictment unsealed in New York after a multi-year investigation dubbed “Operation Padrino,” prosecutors allege that General Cienfuegos used his power to control a violent criminal organization called the H-2 cartel. He was accused of supporting drug trafficking activities.
His arrest at the Los Angeles airport sparked outrage within Mexico's government, particularly among leaders of the country's military, which has assumed greater responsibility and authority under López Obrador.
The president said the charges were “trumped up,” and the administration released more than 700 pages of intercepted communications by U.S. investigators that it said showed criminal activity but were inconclusive.
The Drug Enforcement Administration, which already had a checkered history as a key player in what was seen as a bloody and futile drug war, has suffered a major blow to its relationship with the Mexican government.
Just weeks after his arrest, under intense pressure from López Obrador, the U.S. Justice Department reversed course, dropped the charges and sent General Cienfuegos back to Mexico.
The incident not only damaged the long-standing security agreement between the two countries, but also left a deep impression on law enforcement officials north of the border. Many of them saw the failed incident as a lesson for similar efforts against other Mexican officials.
Emiliano Rodriguez Mega Contributed to the report.
