Mexico's Marines In Hot Water
The elite Mexican force that worked with U.S. agents to get Chapo faces a growing scandal
The footage looks like an intense action movie and has been put into videos that have got more than 20 million views on YouTube and comments like, “Who is still watching this in 2025. This is a gem that not even Hollywood could make.” Mexican marines blast their way into a house in Las Mochis, Sinaloa, receiving fire, hurling grenades and taking out sicarios. Their main target, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, escapes through a drainage tunnel, but they get him shortly after (with the help of police officers), securing his third and final capture in 2016.
The Mexican marines, or shock troops of the Mexican Navy (known as SEMAR), have acted as an elite force during the cartel wars, busting record loads of dope and arresting or shooting dead dozens of kingpins. They have also worked closely with U.S. agents, who feed them info on targets to take down. A DEA agent even went on a raid with marines dressed in one of their uniforms, and the CIA has vetted special marine units, according to a Reuters investigation.
However, SEMAR now faces a growing scandal as various officials including a Vice-admiral have been arrested on corruption charges, for taking bribes to let in boats of diesel without paying tax. Amid the investigation, a captain committed suicide (although it’s not certain if it’s connected) and another officer died suspiciously during a shooting practice. One witness has told Mexican federal investigators that corrupt marines also aided in the trafficking of fentanyl.
The story has dominated news in Mexico, where people are fascinated by corruption scandals if not shocked by them, and the marines were seen as the more honest force. It plays into the nation’s divided politics as former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) had put SEMAR in charge of customs at sea ports with the argument they would stop corruption; they were also a force favored by the former president Felipe Calderón.
From my own investigations, I believe the scandal may just scratch the surface. I went to Mexico’s biggest port in Manzanillo, Colima, in 2022 when SEMAR controlled customs and met an importer who described how corruption worked. He said you could pay 400,000 pesos ($21,000) to get a container of contraband without drugs in, and 800,000 pesos ($42,000) to get a container with drugs or precursors in.
The importer said that to arrange such deals you met with…
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