Quote:An investigation by El Universal found that between the years 2000 and 2012, the U.S. government had an arrangement with Mexico's Sinaloa drug cartel that allowed the organization to smuggle billions of dollars of drugs while Sinaloa provided information on rival cartels.

The DEA and other U.S. agencies declined to comment to El Universal.

[UPDATE 1/14] This post has caused many to interpret that the U.S. government is actively supporting Sinaloa. That has not been established, despite claims by Zambada- Niebla's lawyer and Stratfor's source . What El Universal's investigation and the newly published court documents reveal is that there was a strong correlation from 2005 and 2009 between the rise of the Sinaloa cartel and the DEA's relatively regular contact with a top Sinaloa lawyer.

CONFIRMED: The DEA Struck A Deal With Mexico's Most Notorious Drug Cartel (January 13, 2014)

Quote:...a “simulated war” in which the Mexican and US governments are willing to show favor to a dominant narco-trafficking organization in order to minimize the violence and business disruption in the major drug plazas, or markets."

US, Mexican Officials Brokering Deals with Drug “Cartels,” WikiLeaks Documents Show (August 20, 2012)

Quote:Kent’s memorandum contains some of the most serious allegations ever raised against U.S. antinarcotics officers: that DEA agents on the front lines of the drug war in Colombia are on drug traffickers’ payrolls, complicit in the murders of informants who knew too much, and, most startlingly, directly involved in helping Colombia’s infamous rightwing paramilitary death squads to launder drug money.

The memo further claims that, rather than being simply a few “bad apples” who need to be reported to their superiors, these allegedly dirty agents are being protected by an ongoing cover-up orchestrated by “watchdog” agencies within the Justice Department.
Leaked Memo: Corrupt DEA Agents in Colombia Help Narcos and Paramilitaries

Quote:HSBC Holdings' (HSBC) agreement to pay a $1.9 billion fine to regulators for serving as a middleman for Mexican drug cartels and enter into a deferred prosecution agreement points to a lack of adequate control processes in compliance and anti-money laundering.1 Given the bank's size, it appears that it and some of its peers are too big to jail because they are too big to fail.
HSBC's Money Laundering Scandal (July 19, 2023)

Quote:...a decorated U.S. Army Special Forces soldier was arrested and charged in relation to an attempt to smuggle 90 pounds of cocaine from Colombia to Florida, but he may just be one player in a multimillion-dollar operation.

Army Master Sgt. Daniel Gould was arrested in Florida on August 13 in connection with an attempt to bring 90 pounds of cocaine into the U.S. on a military aircraft, defense officials told NBC News earlier this month. That haul would be worth several million dollars on U..S streets.

Gould was assigned to the 7th Special Forces Group based at Eglin Air Force Base in northwest Florida.

That Army Special Forces Soldier Busted For Drug Smuggling May Be Part Of A Larger Ring (Aug 30, 2018)

Quote:A former 7th Special Forces Group soldier and a West Virginia National Guard Special Forces soldier pleaded guilty Dec. 21 and Dec. 17, respectively, to two federal charges each of conspiracy to traffic cocaine, according to court documents and a release from the Justice Department.

Former Master Sgt. Daniel Gould, 36, and Sgt. 1st Class Henry Royer, 35, had planned to smuggle 90 pounds of cocaine ― about $1 million worth ― on a military transport plane from Colombia to Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, according to federal court documents.
Army Times

Quote:A classified 2009 memo from the U.S. State Department published by WikiLeaks claimed that their own incomplete official records found that none of the known Zetas had ever participated in U.S.-funded training programs using their real names, but acknowledged that other intelligence sources indicated that one former Mexican military officer trained in the U.S. was forcibly recruited by the Zetas.

According to Lt. Col. Craig Deare (U.S. Army, retired), the former Academic Dean at the Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies, the intellectual center of gravity of U.S. defense policy in Latin America since 1997, it was likely that more than 500 GAFEs trained in the U.S. with the 7th Special Forces Group (SFG), nicknamed the “snake-eaters.”
Covert Action magazine

Quote:Secret Warfare - U.S. Special Forces Expand Training to Allies With Histories of Abuse (Sept 9, 2015)

The training program was part of a shadowy and growing global engagement strategy involving America’s most secretive and least scrutinized troops. Since 9/11, Special Ops forces have expanded in almost every conceivable way — from budget to personnel to overseas missions — with JCETs playing a significant role. Special Operations Command keeps the size and scope of the program a well-guarded secret, refusing to release even basic figures about the number of missions or the countries involved, but documents obtained by The Intercept demonstrate that from 2012 to 2014 some of America’s most elite troops — including Navy SEALs and Army Green Berets — carried out 500 Joint Combined Exchange Training missions around the world.

Quote:How 34 commandos created Mexico's most brutal drug cartel

The leader of Mexico's most brutal drug cartel was arrested early Wednesday morning, but his capture will most likely have only a minor impact on what the US government has called "the most technologically advanced, sophisticated, and dangerous cartel operating in Mexico."

With a strong presence in about 17 Mexican states — or half the country — Los Zetas is the largest criminal syndicate operating in Mexico.