Border Patrol and Mexican Federal Police Make History at Arizona Border
It’s great to see the U.S. and Mexico cooperating at this level. But it won’t be without some disappointment. Sharing intelligence with the Mexican federal police has its drawbacks. The organization is subject to serious corruption, and it’s likely some intelligence is going to be shared with the drug cartels. Not that the U.S. federal border agents on occasion haven’t been busted for corruption. It’s just that it’s so much more pervasive in the Mexican federal police system. But you have to give the U.S. the benefit of the doubt and figure “it must know what it’s doing.” We shall see.
By Sebastian Rotella ProPublicaNOGALES, Ariz. — In a politically sensitive operation at the Arizona-Mexico border, U.S. Border Patrol agents and Mexican federal police officers are training together, sharing intelligence and coordinating patrols for the first time.
The goal of the historic partnership: a systematic joint attack on northbound flows of drugs and migrants, and southbound shipments of guns and cash. It is part of a major, unannounced crackdown started in recent months that involves hundreds of U.S. and Mexican officers in the border’s busiest smuggling corridor.
The initiative appears likely to expand.
Read more »
Posted: February 22nd, 2010 under News Story.
Comments: none