U.S. Agent On Mexico Ops: "We Have Always Been There"
Officer gives more details on CIA crash, including condition of bodies, first reactions
During the administration of Mexican President Felipe Calderón, an officer from one of the three-letter agencies stationed at the U.S. embassy describes how he put on a Mexican police uniform and rode out to arrest suspected traffickers who he had gathered intelligence on. He was in theory there as a “technical adviser,” but that stretched to being with the squad that kicked down the door and helping with the interrogation of the suspects.
“I wasn’t only advising in the office in Mexico City where we were setting up the op. I was advising on the ground when we were going to go put handcuffs on the guys,” says the agent, who still works in the U.S. federal government. “You’re technically not lying. You’re advising. But you’re advising ‘Can you separate the two defendants and interview one in one room and one in the other please.’ ”
The April 19 death of two CIA operatives in Chihuahua has shined a spotlight on U.S. activities south of the border. Amid a backlash in Mexico, President Claudia Sheinbaum has ordered an investigation and the attorney general of Chihuahua resigned today.
Yet, the agent describes how U.S. officers, from agencies including the DEA, ICE, FBI and CIA, have been going with Mexican law enforcement on busts since right back to the 1970s and especially in the last two decades. The main motive, he says, is to make sure that Mexican cops and soldiers actually make the arrest or seizure and don’t take a bribe to walk away.
“In Mexico, the corruption runs so rampant that you need to have eyes on the seizure. You need to have eyes on the take-down, on the arrest,” he says. “The U.S. government is not going to take the word of any Mexican official. They are going to want the U.S. government to witness it themselves.”
The two CIA operatives died when their vehicle ran off the road into a ravine and exploded. The agent confirmed other reports they were wearing uniforms of the Chihuahua state investigation agency and went with cops on the raid on a meth mega lab in the southwest of the state near the border with Sinaloa. However, he added more details including on the immediate reaction after the crash.
The bodies of the CIA operatives, he said…
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