Chris Swecker, former FBI deputy director, says he is confident the Mexican government is complicit with the cartels –

In a recent interview in late July, former FBI Deputy Director Chris Swecker made a blunt statement about the Mexican government: “I have no doubt that the Mexican government is complicit with the cartels.”

According to El Universal, Swecker made the statement during a video interview about the arrests of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, co-founder of the Sinaloa cartel, and Joaquin Guzman Lopez, one of the sons of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.

Swecker noted, “Anyone who has been involved in drug-related crimes as long as I have on the border and in Miami, when all the action was in South Florida, knows that the reason all the activity went to Mexico is so the cartels can bribe the Mexican government and set up smuggling routes without anyone bothering you.”

According to Infobae, Swecker said drug cartels operate by bribing “federals, city presidents, police officers, civil servants and even people very high up in the hierarchy.”

For the former deputy director of the FBI’s Criminal Investigations Division, the question is not “whether the government is helping them (the cartels).” “They (members of the governments) are part of the cartels,” he said.

Swecker said things could get worse in Mexico after the capture of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, co-founder of the Sinaloa Cartel, and Joaquín Guzmán López, one of the sons of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.

“When you make these kinds of arrests, for example of high-ranking people, one of the big leaders of the Sinaloa cartel, El Chapo’s organization, things tend to get more violent, more violent. Violence is the norm in Mexico,” Swecker analyzed, according to Infobae.

Swecker stressed that things can get even more complicated within the criminal organizations themselves: “When you take out the leaders of the cartel, other leaders start buying power, rivals start moving in, and things start getting extremely bloody.”

CNN reports that “El Mayo” and Joaquín Guzman López have been arrested by U.S. authorities in El Paso, Texas. The two are accused of leading criminal operations for the Sinaloa Cartel, one of the most powerful drug trafficking organizations in the world.

Rosa Icela Rodríguez, Minister of Security and Citizen Protection, stated that the Mexican government did not participate in the arrests, but that it will continue to cooperate with the United States government.

Sources: El Universal, INFOBAE, CNN

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