Mexico president dismisses US claim of cartel bounties on immigration officials | Trump administration

Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has said her government has “no information” regarding claims by the Trump administration that Mexican cartels are offering bounties for US immigration officials.

“We are requesting information but there is none,” Sheinbaum said during her morning press conference on Wednesday. “We learned of this, just like you, via [the Department of Homeland Security’s] publication.”

Sheinbaum’s comments come a day after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) claimed that Mexican crime factions were coordinating with US-based gangs to target agency officials.

The DHS secretary, Kristi Noem, later doubled down on the claims, posting on social media that Trump has been “so effective in dismantling cartel operations” in the US, that cartel members in the US “are now placing bounties on the heads of our agents”.

But organized crime experts expressed skepticism at the claims.

In interviews, a former Mexican cartel trafficker, two former DEA agents and a drug policy scholar all said it was highly unlikely that Mexican organized crime groups are directing US-based gangs to target immigration officials.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) and other agencieshave carried out widespread immigration enforcement operation in Chicago in recent weeks, provoking a backlash from protesters and lawmakers over the heavy-handed tactics.

According to the DHS, Mexican cartels have offered “targeted bounties” of $2,000 to reveal agents’ identities, between $5,000 and $10,000 to kidnap Ice officers and up to $50,000 for the assassination of high-ranking officials.

But the claims were dismissed out of hand by Margarito Flores, a former Sinaloa cartel drug trafficker in Chicago, who said that targeting US officials in the US would place unwanted attention on the criminal groups whose priorities are commercial, not political.

Flores did not discard the possibility of individual gang members attacking officials, but said the claim of cartel bounties was “ridiculous”.

After his arrest, Flores cooperated with the US government and now trains law enforcement officers around the country on topics related to Mexican organized crime.

“There’s the unspoken rule that you don’t mess with law enforcement. Period. [Mexican cartels] know the ramifications of that,” he said.

Mike Vigil, the former chief of international operations for the DEA who worked in Mexico for years, also rejected the claims.

“The cartels are not going to target Ice and CBP [Customs and Border Protection] because it would bring more heat on them,” said Vigil. “It would hamper their organizations, in terms of funneling drugs into the United States.”

The origin of the allegations remains murky. Earlier this month a DHS press release, alleged that an informant told authorities that a Latin Kings member had put out a “hit” on the border patrol chief, Gregory Bovino.

But the DHS has not provided any evidence that the alleged “hit” came from a Mexican organized crime group.

According to Flores, local gangs like the Latin Kings have limited affiliations with Mexican criminal groups. “They might be customers of the drug cartels – but they are their own organization run by gang members. Cartels don’t have authority.”

Although Mexican organized crime groups do use extreme violence to protect their drug trafficking routes and business, attacks on US law enforcement officials – especially in the US – are rare.

“We have very limited information [about the alleged threat],” said Nathan P Jones, an associate professor of security studies at Sam Houston State University. “I am immediately skeptical that this is an actual threat.”

Mexican crime groups have targeted US officials in Mexico, including a notorious case from the 1980s currently playing out in a US federal court.

In 1985, the Guadalajara cartel kidnapped, tortured and killed DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena in Guadalajara. That murder prompted the largest ever homicide investigation by the DEA, which even deployed bounty hunters to capture several of the suspects. The crackdown eventually led to the fracturing and dissolution of the Guadalajara cartel, and one of the cartel leaders allegedly responsible for the case is currently being prosecuted in a New York court.

According to Flores and Jones, the Camarena case taught Mexican organized crime groups a lesson: do not target US officials.

Vigil specifies that the Trump administration is trying to push false accusations to justify its political agenda, fomenting fear in order to “normalize putting Ice agents, acting as his Gestapo, on the streets of the United States”.

Flores warned that such rumors will directly worsen an already volatile situation.

“Imagine you’re in the field,” Flores said. “And now it’s in the back of your head that you’ve got a bounty.

“The next thing you know, every cellphone is going to be a gun.”