CIA Reveals It Supported AMLO Government Against the Sinaloa Cartel

"Socalj" for Borderland Beat

William Burns, Director of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), revealed that this agency has collaborated with the government of the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, in the recent coups against the Sinaloa Cartel and the production of fentanyl.

Burns testified before the US Senate Intelligence Committee last Wednesday, where he responded to a question from Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn about the number of American lives lost to fentanyl addiction.

The hearing took place in a context in which Republican legislators propose that the US military combat Mexican drug cartels, an initiative that has been repeatedly opposed by the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

“Just last year we lost 108,000 Americans to drugs that cross the Southwest border, approximately 71,000 of those deaths were caused by synthetic opioids, fentanyl,” Cornyn explained during the hearing and exemplified:

“This is like losing a large passenger plane every day for over a year. If, in fact, passenger planes fell from the sky every day for a year, we would react overwhelmingly. However, the Attorney General of the United States has said that he is doing everything he can”.

In that context, he asked Burns what additional resources are needed to save American lives from this threat.

The CIA director responded: “We have tried to transform our strategy through our Counternarcotics Center, working with partners across the intelligence community and domestic and foreign partners as well, focusing on the entire network that you described: in other words, chemical precursors, financial flows, the production of fentanyl pills and the equipment that is used, in addition to interrupting that traffic as well”.

And it was there at that moment that Burns mentioned collaboration with the Mexican government.

“Section 702 I think has helped us illuminate that network and has helped us in some recent successful actions where the intelligence collected by the CIA abroad has contributed so much to the recent successes that our Mexican partners have had against the Cartel. of Sinaloa, as well as recent successes against fentanyl production and processing teams in Mexico and the United States.

“I couldn't agree more with you about the seriousness of this problem; For all of us, protecting the lives of Americans is our top priority," the official said.

Section 702 to which Burns referred is a section of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) that allows the collection of calls, e-mails, and SMS from non-US persons without the need for a warrant. judicial.

At the Senate Intelligence Select Committee's annual hearing on global threats, Cornyn also questioned Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines.

Source Proceso, US Senator John Coryn