The Central Intelligence Agency is poised to take a larger, more aggressive role under President Donald Trump in the battle against Mexican-based drug cartels, devising and evaluating plans to share more intelligence with regional governments, train local counternarcotics units and possibly conduct other covert actions, according to people familiar with the matter.
The expanded focus on cartels, which smuggle fentanyl and other narcotics into the United States, represents a new and potentially risky priority for the spy agency, which in recent years has made espionage against China, counterterrorism operations in the Middle East and Africa, and support for Ukraine after Russia’s 2022 invasion its main concerns.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe intends to shift agency resources to its counternarcotics mission and apply insights from its two decades of tracking, infiltrating and disrupting terrorist networks to fighting the cartels, said a person familiar with his plans who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the subject’s sensitivity and because the approach isn’t finalized yet.
A CIA spokesperson said in a statement that “countering drug cartels in Mexico and regionally is a priority for CIA as a part of the Trump Administration’s broader efforts to end the grave threat from narco-trafficking. Director Ratcliffe is determined to put CIA’s unique expertise to work against this multifaceted challenge.”
The emphasis will be on increased U.S. support to antidrug forces within Mexico and elsewhere in the hemisphere, people familiar with the emerging plan said. Less clear is whether armed U.S. personnel, either from the military’s Special Operations forces or the CIA, could be tasked with taking direct action against cartel leaders on Mexican soil, which former intelligence and military officials warn would spark a ferocious backlash and harm U.S.-Mexican relations, including counternarcotics cooperation.
It remains unclear what other programs in the CIA’s classified budget may be cut to fund more work on narcotics, and two former U.S. officials said the trade-off could mean pulling back on other priorities, such as China. Ratcliffe, though, has said repeatedly that gathering intelligence on China is his No. 1 priority. And amid Trump’s wide-ranging reshaping of the federal government, the CIA chief has signaled he plans to trim the agency’s workforce, offering employees there a “deferred resignation” package. It is unclear how many CIA personnel will take the buyout.
Posted by John3262005
4 Comments
We’re getting Sicario but for real
The US feds have COMPLETELY destroyed entire Latin American drug cartels in the past.
All this does is create a vaccum to be filled. Production always gets back up and running. Usually following a bloody war of attrition.
As long as there is massive demand for illegal drugs in the US, criminals will supply that demand, and Latin American criminals are the best suited to do so with their remote location, access to the US and access to the raw materials needed for drug production.
This isn’t a problem you can solve by shooting and jailing people. You’d think we’d have learned that lesson by now.
Mexican Cartels have found partners with American Law Enforcement officers, US Border Patrol, and legitimate US corporations these past couple of decades. Will the CIA nip them in the bud first, or will they just stage military exercises where only several Cartel assets are taken out so Trump can brah about it?
I mean we definitely can take out whole cartels, the issue is making sure they stay dead.