Thread: Former U.S. officers to train Mexican police in cartel fight

Former U.S. officers to train Mexican police in cartel fight

Posted 4m ago

By Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — The U.S. and Mexico are drawing up plans to dispatch up to 300 former U.S. law enforcement officials to Mexico later this year to train thousands of Mexican police investigators in their escalating fight against drug cartels, federal officials said.

Mexican government officials would select about 9,000 Mexican policefor training at undisclosed locations in Mexico, one U.S. diplomatic and one federal law enforcement official said. The goal would be to quell rampant corruption and violence, much of it fueled by warring drug organizations.

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The officials have been briefed on the proposal but asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to comment. They said the plan would create a law enforcement academy where Mexican investigators could be trained in narcotics and weapons trafficking, money laundering, fingerprint examination and other disciplines key to their battle against the cartels and other criminal groups. The State Department would oversee the U.S. side of the program. Among the remaining issues that need State's approval: how the costs will be shared by the two governments, the full scope of the curriculum and how soon training could begin.

William Esposito, a principal in a consulting firm run by former FBI director Louis Freeh, said that Mexico's secretary of public safety, Genaro Garcia Luna, contacted the firm about six to eight weeks ago to discuss the training operation.

"They were looking for advice," said Esposito, a former deputy director of the FBI. "They are trying to change the whole policing structure." He said the proposal represents a "window of opportunity" for the U.S. and Mexico to collaborate on a threat to both sides of the border.

Garcia Luna did not return calls seeking comment.

Scott Erskine, executive director of the Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI, said recruiters for the mission in Mexico have approached his group about the availability of former agents to serve as trainers.

"This is a major step," Ed Nowicki, executive director of the International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association, said when informed of the plan. "Law enforcement in Mexico is in a sad state; training is terribly inadequate. It's like a patient with wounds all over the body."

Claremont McKenna College professor Roderic Camp said the proposal would mark a "radical change" in Mexican policy that has resisted large-scale training of its military and police forces by U.S. personnel.

David Wilson, who spent 32 years as an agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration, said when told of the talks between the two countries that they represent Mexico's "acknowledgement that they need help."

"We have got to be involved, because we're too much involved in the problems they are having down there," he said. Wilson said such a program would have to ensure that the Mexican participants have no ties to the cartels.

Mexican embassy officials in Washington did not respond to several requests for comment.

Nowicki, who has trained police in Italy, Spain and Venezuela, said such a program could prompt an escalation of violence as the criminal groups try to reassert their authority. "Unless the top-level officers (in Mexico) buy into this, the investigators and cops on the street won't be effective," he said.

The training plan is the latest in a series of steps the U.S. is taking to try to contain the violence in Mexico, where 7,000 have died in the past 14 months. In March, the White House said it would send 100 extra Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents to the border to cut the flow of weapons from the U.S. into Mexico.

"They have got to attack this issue," Wilson said of the cartel violence. "The place is on fire."
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Yep, let's train some more future smugglers.