Mexican president accuses U.S. of 'spying' after 28 Sinaloa cartel members charged

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Monday said the U.S. of “spying” and interfering in Mexico after U.S. prosecutors charged several members of the Sinaloa cartel for drug trafficking. 

The Sinaloa investigation is “abusive, arrogant interference that should not be accepted under any circumstances,” the Mexican president said of the charges brought about by the U.S. Justice Department. 

The president further suggested that the case was built on information that was gathered by U.S. agents in the country. 

“There cannot be foreign agents in our country. No. We can share information, but it’s members of the Mexican Army, Navy, and National Guard who can intervene,” he said.

On Monday, the Justice Department announced charges against 28 members of the Sinaloa Cartel, including three sons of the drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. The charges were the result of a sprawling fentanyl-trafficking investigation by the Office of the Attorney General and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), who believe that most of the drugs entering the country come from the Sinaloa cartel.

Federal prosecutors have filed charges in New York, Illinois and Washington, D.C. 

The DEA said it gathered most of the information by infiltrating the infamous cartel over the past year and a half, during which it obtained “unprecedented access to the organization’s highest levels.” 

The charges against the defendants span from manufacturing the illicit drug to taking part in the drug operation’s supply network, including providing the chemicals required to produce fentanyl, managing the labs, and security and weapons providers, among others.  

Lopez Obrador has claimed that the synthetic drug is not being manufactured in Mexico. Instead, he has said that fentanyl was an American problem caused by the country’s lack of family values and accused U.S. legislators of threatening Mexico over the drug trade.

“What we have to do first is guarantee public safety in our country... that is the first thing,” López Obrador said, “and in second place, help and cooperate with the U.S. government.”