They call him the Eagle: How the U.S. lost a key ally in Mexico as fentanyl took off - "Cellphone videos of the attack pinged around social media, along with questions about why the military was using so much force. The navy said it was necessary: Patrón Sánchez’s bodyguards had been using the third floor as a sniper’s nest, to pick off the special forces troops in the street. That explanation didn’t satisfy Mexico’s future president.
"'Why did they annihilate them [the bodyguards]? Why, if they investigate, and supposedly have foreign intelligence assistance, do they massacre them?' López Obrador asked in a speech in Nayarit the next day. He demanded to know whether the operation was carried out to appease Trump.
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"Some U.S. diplomats thought López Obrador had an instinctive mistrust of American technology. He rejected a U.S. offer to provide six giant X-ray scanners to look for drugs in trucks crossing the U.S. border. Also nixed were handheld detectors for port authorities to identify narcotics or chemicals used in the production of synthetic drugs. Millions of dollars in anti-drug aid for Mexico was returned to the U.S. Treasury.
"Inside the daunting hunt for the ingredients of fentanyl and meth For the new Mexican president, sovereignty was the bigger concern. His team was astonished to discover how much the U.S. government quietly pulled levers in the country. For example, U.S. officials were training police, prosecutors and prison officials in Mexican states — many led by López Obrador’s opponents.
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"Less than a year into López Obrador’s term, his strategy suddenly seemed to take a tougher turn. On Oct. 17, 2019, soldiers and police surrounded a posh townhouse in the Sinaloan capital, Culiacán, and detained Ovidio Guzmán, one of El Chapo’s sons. He was one of the top traffickers of fentanyl and meth to the United States, according to Mexican officials. The U.S. government was requesting his extradition.
"It was the kind of operation that Águila would have led before 2019. But this time, the Mexican army was in charge. Its soldiers had no search warrant. As they waited for the paperwork, hundreds of cartel gunmen streamed into the city, some wielding .50-caliber rifles that fired armor-piercing bullets the size of carrots.
"Gunmen blocked roads to the airport, preventing the army from flying in reinforcements. The operations base built by Águila had been dismantled. Fearing an all-out battle that could leave hundreds dead, López Obrador told army commanders to let Guzmán go. He remains a fugitive." [ed. note: Andrés Manuel López Obrador is a punk bitch]
A DEA agent tracked the source of fentanyl in Mormon country — a Mexican cartel
Inside the daunting hunt for the ingredients of fentanyl and meth
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