THE FUSION OF INTELLIGENCE AND LAW ENFORCEMENT OPERATIONS BY THE UNITED SATES IN MEXICO IN REVIEW

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THE FUSION OF INTELLIGENCE AND LAW ENFORCEMENT OPERATIONS BY THE

UNITED SATES IN MEXICO IN REVIEW

By

Joel Vargas, Director of Operations

Assistant Director of Law Enforcement Operations

InterPort Police

Global Risk Management Consultants Global Security Consultants

10 Martingale Rd Schaumburg, IL 60173 Office: 312-650-9363

Intelligence Division

www.contingentsecurity.com

September 15, 2012

http://www.contingentsecurity.com/

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I. INTRODUCTION

In this paper the “War on Drugs or Drug War” will be reviewed and analyzed from the

context of United States’ law enforcement and intelligence activities assisting Mexican

authorities. The war on drugs can be viewed as a threat to National Security to the United States

(US) or can be viewed as a problem south of the border. As of now, the US policy has been to

contain the drug war south of the border. The context of US intervention and activities inside

Mexican and the effectiveness of the US policy of containment are under scrutiny. Some of the

recent incidents have resulted in death to US officers, consulate employees and CIA and DEA

assets inside Mexico. These recent incidents have revealed some serious problems with the US

involvement and its legal grounds by Mexican laws. The suspicious aircraft crashes of two heads

of the Department of Interior in Mexico, Juan Camilo Mourino and Francisco Blake Mora are

grounds to reflect that drug trafficking organizations may be able to engage suicide missions to

get kill someone. In a recent speech, Felipe Calderon, the current president of Mexico, indicated

that there was one time a threat to take his presidential plane down, forced him to write a

farewell letter to his children. Even when the two crashes have been ruled accidents, Camilo

Mourino’s death clearly shows that the Lear Jet he was traveling entered into a dive (as a

purposeful act), a very unusual situation on the approach to Mexico City’s International Airport.

This paper will focus on activities in Mexico by US law enforcement and intelligence agencies

from the United States operating inside Mexico.

Mexico has been subject of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) influence and

intervention from the late 60’s when the CIA became deeply involved in Mexican politics to

fight back communism. While it is important to discuss the implications of having the CIA

involved in law enforcement activities outside the US, it is equally important to discuss and

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analyze the covert, undercover, and overt activities from the law enforcement agencies from the

US. In order to set the right framework, the agencies currently involved in law enforcement and

intelligence activities inside Mexico are: The Department of Justice (DOJ), the Department of

Homeland Security (DHS), and the United Department of Defense (DOD). This paper will

explore the complexity of these operations and the role of these agencies in the drug war in

Mexico, but focus on two agencies i.e. the CIA and the DEA.

II. LITERATURE REVIEW

In the Global Information Network, New York, July 24, 2012, a report titled “Mexico:

State official claims CIA ‘manages’ drug trade,” renews the arguments of CIA involvement in

the drug trade. In the article Kevin Sabet, a former senior adviser to the White House on drug

control policy stated that the statements from Guillermo Terrazas Villanueva must be backed up

with evidence (2012). Sabet adds that most of these are conspiracy theories have no evidence.

Among the conspiracy theories lately were aired in a Chicago Federal Court from Jesus Zambada

Niebla, a high ranking Sinaloa Cartel member on trial (2012). It is clear that Sabet failed to read

congressional testimony from CIA high ranks admitting to being involved in the drug trade.

The New York Times reported on August 28, 2012 an article titled “Americans Shot in

Mexico Were C.I.A. Operatives Aiding in Drug War.” The article explains that the two

individuals were traveling in an armored vehicle with a Mexican military person. The article also

states that the reason for these CIA agents to be in Mexico is to provide support to Mexican

authorities in the drug war (2012). The 12 gunmen, plain clothes, off-duty federal police agents

attacked the vehicle that had license plates from the Secretaria de Relaciones Exteriores (SRE).

According to a source from the New York Times the agents were targeted because of their

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“affiliation.” There are a few issues that The New York Times fails to mention and will be

clarified in the next article reviewed.

A popular blog that publishes news regarding the “Narco” known as

HistoriasDelNarco.com published a note on Friday, August 31, 2012 titled “Agentes de la CIA

venian de Afghanistan y entraron clandestinamente a Mexico, Cual es la Verdad?” The title says

that the CIA agents ambushed in Morelos, Mexico came from Afghanistan clandestine and ask

what is the truth? This article talks that the agents came in under an assumed name and using

false passports and as tourists. The agents did not have diplomatic protection, which leads to

author to believe that it was the reason why they left Mexico immediately (2012). The assumed

names used are Stan Dove Boss and Phillip P. Quincannon, which were never aired in any US

media. Twelve federal police officers were detained for the US/Mexico authorities to conduct the

investigation. The article poses the issue that these agents were performing a covert operation.

In a Wall Street Journal article titled “U.S. News: Fresh Criticism of Fast and Furious,”

Evan Perez goes into detail about how the DEA and the FBI have been working with the ATF

during the so called “Fast and Furious” operation. The objective was to allow gun purchases to

go into Mexico and track them later during shootings, investigations, or arrests. Perez goes on to

say, “Federal officials in Arizona and Washington made multiple missteps that led to the botched

Fast and Furious gun-trafficking operation, including failing to put together information

collected by several agencies, according to a report by congressional Republicans” (2012). It

appears that the FBI and DEA in several occasions alerted ATF that the names of the so called

arm traffickers were tied to on-going investigations but there was no cooperation (2012). This is

an example of a failed undercover operation by the DOJ.

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III. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

The framework for this paper will be based on the issues that are not extensively covered

during cover and undercover operations by US law enforcement agencies, the CIA and the

Intelligence Community (IC), and the US Military Forces. This paper will not cover the

extensive work by the CIA during the 1960-1980’s when the Communist Parties and subversive

groups became violent in Mexico. Instead, this paper will exclusively focus on activity failures in

the name of the war on drugs including overt and covert operations by the US and the recent

fusion of missions between the CIA and DEA.

IV. HYPOTHESIS

In this research paper, I hypnotize that the current activities from the US government,

which includes law enforcement, intelligence, and military activities are causing a fusion in

missions in Mexico. A second argument is that the CIA’s involvement in law enforcement

activities will cause a significant and irreversible damage to the CIA in Latin America, as it will

be forever viewed as a law enforcement agency and not as an intelligence agency. This research

paper scrutinizes the activities by the US personnel in Mexico and the fusion of intelligence and

law enforcement operations.

V. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS

The methodology that will be applied to this research will be to collect information

sources in Open Source Intelligence (OSINT), journals, newspapers, and books, not using any

classified documents and the application of a qualitative research method. These materials

collected will help deduce conclusions. There are variables that play a role in this research:

Corruption in Mexico, the participation of US forces training and providing support to Mexican

authorities, technology deployments (including Unmanned Aerial Vehicles), the political climate

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in Mexico, and the use of SIGINT commonly used in low and high intensity conflict zones by

the US. This research paper will have a framework limited to the operations in recent years

during the drug war inside Mexico by the US.

VI. ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

The line that divides intelligence activities normally handled by the CIA in Mexico,

clandestine operations by the DOD, and law enforcement activities by agencies of the DOJ has

disappeared. Today, the CIA and DEA are engaged in covert and overt operations in Mexico like

never before in history. It is possible that the CIA will forever lose its position playing against

terrorism and political intervention in Latin America because of the role it is playing in law

enforcement. Simply put, the CIA may not be able to reach out to criminal enterprises in Latin

America in the future in order to assist because these criminal organizations will not be sure if

the CIA is or not playing the law enforcement role. This is by far the greatest loss to the US, as

the world still has terrorist organizations, states and non-state actors looking to attack US

interests. The following headings support the thesis in this paper.

A. THE CIA STRONGER THAN THE DEA

The argument between the DEA and CIA regarding operations where they have collided

goes back to the 70’s or even earlier (of course DEA had a different name before). The article

titled “How the CIA Infiltrated the DEA Operation Two-Fold,” by Doug Valentine explains the

CIA and DEA problems (2012). Valentine states that “While investigating traffickers, federal

drug agents are always unearthing the Establishment’s ties to organized crime and its proxy drug

syndicates… in 1998, for example, in a series of articles in the San Jose Mercury News, reporter

Gary Webb claimed that the CIA facilitated the flow of crack cocaine to the street gangs in Los

Angeles” (Valentine, 2012). According to Valentine, the CIA Inspector General later admitted

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that Webb was partially right (Valentine, 2012). Most claims that the CIA has been involved in

the drug trade in the last 50 years have a way to disappear from the US media very quickly.

Valentine writes about Operation Twofold that involved hiring CIA officers to spy on

ranking officials of the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (BNDD), during the Johnson

Administration (Valentine, 2012). This was the first time the CIA was hired to root out

corruption with the high ranks of the BNDD and this operation resulted in zero dismissals

(Valentine, 2012). In later years, DEA top officials expressed their concern with CIA operations

and how they could cause conflict that would ultimately embarrass the US narcotic reduction

effort (Valentine, 2012). Operation Two-Fold is just the tip of the iceberg. Since Operation Two-

Fold, it appears that the CIA has priority over DEA during narcotic investigations.

B. CIA INVOLVED IN DRUG TRAFFICKING

A plausible deniability from any covert operation by the CIA has always been the goal.

Allegations of drug trafficking came to the forefront when an article by The New York Times

titled “Anti-Drug Unit of the C.I.A. Sent Ton of Cocaine to the U.S. in 1990,” details an incident

that begins in Venezuela (1993). In the article government officials admitted that a shipment of

nearly pure cocaine was shipped from Venezuela by the CIA and that the drugs ended up being

sold in the streets of the US (Weiner, 1993). It appears this one incident showed poor judgment

by CIA agents and resulted in one officer resigning and the second one was disciplined (Weiner,

1993). In the article Weiner writes “Its exposure comes amid growing Congressional skepticism

about the role of the C.I.A. in the war on drugs, (Weiner, 1993). During the Regan years the CIA

was given the authorization to get involved in anti-drug programs in the major cocaine-

producing and trafficking capitals (Weiner, 1993). During this operation a shipment of drugs

would travel to the US but the DEA decided not to participate. DEA has resisted for the most

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part in participating in questionable activities with the CIA, but the agency has witnessed many

illegal activities and did nothing to stop them.

During this incident, the CIA and General Guillen from the Venezuelan National Guard

went along with the plan and the 1 Ton was shipped to the US and the drugs were sold in the

streets of the US. Other shipments were intercepted by US authorities that belonged to Guillen,

which begs the question, was the CIA continuing to run these operations? Attempts to indict

General Guillen only cause the Chief of the State Department Melvin Levitsky providing general

immunity to the General (Weiner, 1993). Counter-narcotic centers falling under the banner of

liaison relationships with foreign intelligence continue to operate and the activities are never

disclosed to Congress (Weiner, 1993). This and many other incidents have caused a significant

doubt regarding the commitment of the CIA in drug interdiction and eradication. It all points to

the contrary.

C. CIA, DOJ, DOD, DHS IN MEXICO’S DRUG WAR

In an article by The New York Times titled “U.S. Widens Role in Battle Against

Mexican Drug Cartels,” Ginger Thomson writes that CIA and retired military personnel have

been posted in different military posts (2011). Thomson adds that consideration for private

security contractors are also part of the plan in order to assist Mexican officials in what Thomson

refers as “embedding” of contractors inside Mexican counternarcotics police units” (2011). The

idea of training and support works well for the Mexican government. DHS and DOD are doing

the same providing some kind of training and support to the different Mexican agencies. On the

other hand, Mexican law prohibits the operation of military and foreign intelligence bodies but

due to the pressures from the drug cartels, Mexico is willing to bend the rules (2011). While the

role from the agencies and contractors from the DOD, DHS, and DOJ are clearer, the role from

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the CIA remains an issue of serious concern to Mexicans, academics, law professors, politicians,

and high ranking people in every government agency in Mexico (civil and military).

D. THE CIA CRIME AND NARCOTICS CENTER (CNC)

There is an office in the CIA that has been commanded to fight the drug war. However, it

appears that the level of operational involvement has jumped outside the mission for which it

was created. The office is called “Center and Narcotics Center (CNC)” The CNC was created to

support intelligence and analysis. According to the CIA’s website the CNC is “a leader in the

Intelligence Community in crafting analysis and supporting or conducting operations to counter

illicit drug activities, transnational crime, and war crimes that threaten US national Security

Interests” (CIA.gov). It appears the role as claimed in the website is to provide support and write

policy suggestions as well as set up so called sensors to figure out crop production. The CNC has

also been asked to learn about organized crime, traffickers and terrorists (CIA.gov). Everything

appears CNC is involved in the intelligence analysis and research, but the mission statement also

talks about operational support specialists and program managers to support their colleagues

overseas (CIA.gov). The fusion of these different targets is what makes the CIA’s role in the

drug war more complicated. While analysis of Criminal Intelligence (CRIMINT) can be done by

similar methods (compared to other kinds of intelligence) and the same members of the IC, a

more difficult task is to figure out when these targets become entangled or form conspiracies to

carry out similar acts. And lastly, the DEA has its own intelligence apparatus that basically

fulfills a comparable mission as the CNC, so why duplicating activities?

VII. CONCLUSION AND FURTHER RESEARCH

In 1988, President of Mexico Carlos Salinas de Gortari was elected president. In 1992, an

arrest of Carlos Enrique Cervantes de Gortari (Salinas’ cousin) and Magdalena Ruiz Pelayo (who

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worked for Carlos’ father) were convicted of drug trafficking in the US and this was by far the

first link between drug trafficking and the president of Mexico (Lupsha). The same year,

President Salinas enacted the first written regulation on the DEA that required them to turn over

any assets in Mexico and regulated locations where DEA would be station. The regulations put

into law included how many DEA agents would be stationed inside Mexican territory and where.

The restriction also stated that DEA agents would not carry weapons (Lupsha). This could be a

way to get back at the DEA for the series of arrests from not only relatives of the Mexican

President Salinas, but also heads of important drug cartels in Mexico.

This paper perhaps provides more questions than answers to the involvement of the CIA

and DEA in Mexico. In a recent article by CNN World, titled “Are criminals, terrorists, and

Bolivarians teaming up against America? Patrick Stewart provides a series of reasons for why

the CIA and DEA are recently becoming partners in Latin America. Stewart points to the

complex relationships between criminal networks, terrorists, and sovereign anti-American states

(2012). According to Stewart, criminal networks and terrorists have a greater degree of success

depending on the governability of a state. Stewart writes “the connections between transnational

criminals and transnational terrorists are growing. In the past, it has been commonplace to

describe these relationships as at best episodic and tactical” (Stewart, 2012). True that a cartel

needing guns could resort to purchase them from a terrorist organization. Likewise, terrorist

organizations resort to the use of the supply channels of the cartels to sell their drugs.

Stewarts point at two similarities between these two groups as criminals are engaging in

terrorist acts to attack other rival groups and the sate and terrorists are also engaging in drug

trafficking to raise funds (Stewart, 2012). Stewart states that there is an increasing presence of

Hezbollah in the Americas and the links to major criminal organizations, insurgent groups and

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governments (Stewart, 2012). Further research is necessary to assess the position of the CIA in

Mexican operations against the drug war. A threat outside the drug war still exists in Latin

America. The Bolivarian states: Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia and Nicaragua are anti-American

and can not be ignored. The CIA’s involvement in law enforcement activities will most

definitely debilitate its effectiveness. While the drug war is a law enforcement problem, the CIA

must be able to address the looming threats of four countries with some serious ties to terrorist

organizations, anti-American sentiments and adversary states. And here is where the mission of

the DEA is not compatible to fight a threat where the CIA is highly effective i.e. an insurgency

or subversion. In a lesser role, Argentina is also implementing socialist policy and becoming

close ally to Hugo Chavez.

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REFERENCES

Archibold, Randal C. and Eric Schmitt. Americans Shot in Mexico Were C.I.A. Operatives

Aiding in Drug War. The New York Times, August 28, 2012. Accessed on September 1, 2012.

www.nytimes.com.

“Agentes de la CIA venian de Afganistan y entraron clandestinamente a Mexico, Cual es la

verdad? Historiasdelnarco.com, August 31, 2012. Accessed on September 1, 2012.

www.historiasdelnarco.com

Arsenault, Chris. Mexico: State official claims CIA ‘manages’ drug trade. Global Information

Network. New York; 24 July 2012. Accessed on September 1, 2012 via ProQuest, AMU.

Perez, Evan. U.S. News: Fresh Criticism of Fast and Furious. Wall Street Journal. 31 July 2012:

A.4. ProQuest Document. Accessed August 18, 2012.

Stewart, Patrick. Are criminals, terrorists, and Bolivarians teaming up against America? CNN

World. September 12th

, 2012. Accessed September 15,2012.

http://globalpublications.blogs.cnn.com/2012/09/12/are-criminals-terrorists-and-bolivarians-

teaming-up-against-america/

The CIA Crime and Narcotics Center. Accessed on September 10, 2012. www.cia.gov.

Thomson, Ginger. U.S. Widens Role in Battle Against Mexican Drug Cartels.” The New York

Times, August 6, 2011. Accessed on September 9, 2012. www.nytimes.com.

Valentine, Douglas. How the CIA Infiltrated the DEA Operation Two-Fold. Deep Politics Forum,

06-07-2012. Accessed on September 9, 2012. https:deeppoliticsforum.com.

Weiner, Tim. Anti-Drug Unit of the C.I.A. Sent Ton of Cocaine to U.S. in the 1990.” The New

York Times, November 20, 1993. Accessed on September 9, 2012.

http://www.nytimes.com/1993/11/20/world/anti-drug-unit-of-cia-sent-ton-of-cocaine-to-U.S.-in-

1990.

Documents

THE FUSION OF INTELLIGENCE AND LAW ENFORCEMENT OPERATIONS BY THE UNITED SATES IN MEXICO IN REVIEW