US drug enforcement posed as money launderers
US drug enforcement officials posed as money launderers to help a powerful Mexican trafficker and his Colombian cocaine supplier move millions of proceeds around the world in a bid to secretly dismantle their operations, it has been revealed.
Documents from the Mexican government have shown that the efforts to infiltrate and dismantle the criminal organisations caused havoc south of the US border, the New York Times reports.
The analysis of the official paperwork in the Times suggested that the boundaries between fighting and facilitating crime were blurred in the efforts to capture the innermost workings of the cartels and those involved in the smuggling of millions of dollars.
Morris Panner, a former assistant US attorney who is an adviser at the Center for International Criminal Justice at Harvard, said that there are risks involved in mixing official business with criminal activity overseas.
"It's a slippery slope. If it's not careful, the United States could end up helping the bad guys more than hurting them," he added.
In a written statement, the drug enforcement agency stated that its actions were necessary and all above board.
According to BBC News, more than 50,000 troops and federal police are actively involved in the fight against the cartels in Mexico.
