MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican forces allegedly raided a drug lab under President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, according to government data seen by Reuters and leaked military documents. dramatically increased the number of
Documents found in a pile of millions of emails leaked last year by the Guacamaya Hacker Group trace hundreds of inactive labs to a list seized by the military under President López Obrador. indicates an upward revision due to the inclusion of The figures for the years of the previous administration have not changed.
In response to a Freedom of Information request in February, the Mexican military says it seized 635 synthetic drug laboratories during the first three years of Lopez Obrador’s administration, 2019, 2020 and 2021. period.
The military also said it had seized nearly 500 laboratories in 2022, according to the military’s response to a Reuters request in January, the highest annual figure this century.
Two former law enforcement officers from Mexico and the United States, and two Mexican security sources, said the increased numbers were unreliable.
“These numbers are outrageous and not worthy of the paper being written,” said a former U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration formerly based in Mexico who retired from the agency last year when presented with Reuters’ analysis. (DEA) Regional Director Matthew Donoghue said. of data.
In his view, the numbers were “intended to appease the United States and make it look like they were up to something, but clearly they weren’t.
Donahue said Reuters was unable to independently verify his claims, but said his claims were based on past experience working in Mexico.
Accounts of the drugs the Mexicans say they seized in the lab also cast doubt on the accuracy of the lab’s data, two of the security sources said. Nearly all the labs tested are labeled as methamphetamine labs, and none are labeled as producing the synthetic opioid, fentanyl.
After China classified fentanyl as a controlled substance in 2019, it’s very possible that the fentanyl lab raid never happened, as Mexican crime syndicates pivoted to mass-producing the drug in their country. low.
“We have no information to answer your request,” Mexico’s Defense Ministry (SEDENA) said in response to Reuters’ detailed question about the revised number of laboratories. His military overseer, SEDENA, also declined to answer additional questions about claims that the seizure list included “inactive” laboratories and that the figures were unreliable.
The president’s office did not respond to multiple requests for comment on the data changes. rice field.
The White House and the DEA declined to comment on Reuters’ findings. A State Department spokesperson said the United States supports Mexico’s efforts to “effectively seize and investigate secret drug laboratories” and will work with Mexico’s counternarcotics agency to report such seizures. He said he was “establishing protocols” to do so.
Fentanyl or not?
The raids of laboratories, often located in hard-to-reach mountainous areas, have historically been a key indicator of Mexican security force activity in targeting drug trafficking groups.
The data revision comes weeks before Lopez Obrador’s visit to the White House in July 2022, and calls for more money to be sent to Mexico to combat fentanyl production and human trafficking, according to documents seen by Reuters. amid increasing US pressure to do so. Mexico denies that fentanyl is produced there.
At the president’s daily press conference on Wednesday, officials again hit back at U.S. claims that fentanyl is produced in Mexico, with the current administration raiding 153% more drug labs than the previous administration. I presented a video that said.
Mexico’s foreign ministry said on March 13 that Mexican security officials had “no record” of producing fentanyl in the country, despite DEA claims that Mexican cartels controlled the entire global fentanyl supply chain. rice field.
The recent seizure of fentanyl on the southern border with Mexico by US authorities has broken records year after year. U.S. officials seized 14,104 pounds (6,397 kg) of fentanyl in fiscal 2022, a 33% increase from the previous year, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded to Reuters’ questions about lab raid data by forwarding Wednesday’s statement from Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrado on fentanyl trafficking, saying that while fentanyl was compressed into tablets in Mexico, the drug itself was imported from Mexico. said it was not manufactured in
Ebrard said the drug was imported into Mexico from the United States and unspecified “Asian countries.”
Relations between the United States and Mexico have been strained under Lopez Obrador, who has curbed security cooperation, accused him of trampling on Mexican sovereignty, and condemned the actions of DEA agents in Mexico.
DEA Director Ann Milgram told Congress last month that the agency was “very concerned about secret laboratories across Mexico” where “nearly all” of the fentanyl seized in the United States is produced. added.
“Inactive” Lab
The military published a high number of lab raids in its recent monthly security report, but has not provided a public explanation for the changes in the data and has previously noted that inactive labs were included. Not reported.
In addition to former DEA regional director Donahue, three other Mexican and foreign security sources said they doubted the veracity of the lab seizure figures.
Guillermo Valdes, Mexico’s head of civilian espionage from 2007 to 2011, said when Reuters showed the data it was “a mockery”. , it would be a shame to bet on its reliability.”
Internal military documents found in millions of leaked military emails published by a hacker group in Guacamaya indicate that the military has identified an “inactive and abandoned” laboratory in June 2022 to tally seizures. It shows that it has started to include.
In a draft report on crime-fighting statistics attached to an email dated May 30, the military said 232 laboratories had been raided under López Obrador (2019, 2020, 2021). year, and part of 2022). A week later, in a revised version of the same report sent on June 7, the military increased that total to 873, stating that 232 were active labs and the rest were “inactive abandoned” labs. explained.
Four former security officials interviewed by Reuters said there was no apparent reason to put an inactive lab on the seizure list, which may have been neglected for years.
One Army data set, provided in response to an August 2022 Freedom of Information request, shows 14 laboratory raids that took place on 1 June 2022 and 12 raids that took place two days later. It shows the destruction of the laboratory. old counting.
Mexico’s Office of the Attorney General (FGR) also tallies raids on laboratories, including seizures by other security agencies. The FGR data historically closely match, but are slightly higher than, the figures provided by the Army, which is responsible for the majority of air raids.
In 2021, the FGR recorded 23 lab seizures, while the Army now claims to have made 217 (up from 21 in previous data).
In 2022, the FGR reported 18 laboratory raids by all security agencies, in contrast to the Army’s 492 raids.
FGR did not respond to a request for comment.
Reported by Drazen Jorgic, Jackie Botts, and Stephen Eisenhammer. Additional renditions by Sarah Kinosian, Dave Graham, Lisbeth Diaz, and Alex Alper.Edited by Claudia Parsons
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