Breathe
By Yuriria Rodríguez Castro
From the general document issued by the White House with the signing of US President Donald Trump's executive order on the same day he took office for his second term to the executive order sent to the Attorney General's Office on February 5, which is directed at the prosecutorial level to execute investigations, there is a path laid out that puts to rest the belief that Trump is still launching a tirade without moving from speech to deeds. It sends concrete orders to push the institutional forces of the state toward what he calls "the total elimination of cartels".
The order of the Executive establishes several lines of action and drastic changes in the procedures towards the pragmatism of its criminal policy: from mitigating the problem with organized crime to its "elimination", for which it transfers all the force of the State to the specific combat of the Sinaloa Cartel, Jalisco Cartel New Generation, M-13 and Tren de Aragua, with penalties for terrorism, drug trafficking, human trafficking and corruption.
With what do you order to proceed?
Trump orders to respond with the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which was issued in 1977 and amended in 2001, after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, establishing a criminal policy to combat terrorism. It is not an economic threat that violates the law, but a legal instrument of sanctions for states of emergency based on the criminal law of the enemy, which is a wartime legislation, especially adapted to the concept that the terrorist phenomenon is considered an "asymmetric war", that is why it is an extension of the Trading with the Enemy Act (TWEA), which was passed since 1917. This is not the first time that the American government would use it; there is already a precedent of its application as a response to the hostage-taking at the US embassy in Iran in 1979.
With the National Security Division (NSD) liaising in coordination with consular and International Affairs offices to seek charges, as well as mandating the use of standardized intelligence language to conduct a descriptive analysis of the aforementioned criminal organizations, calling for "charging tools and search warrants".
In the official document it is not only detailed who will execute it, but also how: investigating foreign bribery that facilitates operations, as well as the smuggling of narcotics and firearms, likewise preventive actions will be taken against "foreign corruption", ordering the fraud section trial lawyers to proceed in trials, for which it manages the creation of a specialized Unit on Foreign Corrupt Practices that has the capacity to advance in a period of no more than 24 hours to charge and make available based on investigations of laundering and loss of assets, as well as prioritizing seizures.
With the Joint Task Force Alpha and Vulcan (JTFA-JTFV) that used to focus on pursuing the so-called "coyotes" who smuggle migrants, now redirects them to focus on members of criminal groups that have diversified their criminal behavior, These Special Task Forces will work in coordination with the Attorney General's Office in joint supervision with the Deputy Attorney General, receiving direct support from the National Security Division (NSD) and the Criminal Division. These field intelligence battalions will increase their presence and prominence after the issuance of this executive order, according to the document.
Intelligence against drug processing
One of the most outstanding points is the order to make changes in the lists of prohibited substances to place fentanyl in the zone of highest addictive risk, as well as the order to catalog Xylazine or Xylazine as a drug for non-human use, since when mixed with fentanyl, it produces greater lethality. On this point there is an adequate appreciation, since it is a veterinary analgesic drug of common use, which will have repercussions in the Mexican pharmaceutical market, since its sale is completely open and very economical.
Something similar happens with some chemicals that have been used in the production of cocaine and methamphetamines, which the pharmaceutical market immediately resents. For example,no one in Mexico has been willing to investigate why magnesia powder has increased in price and is almost disappearing from pharmacies: the issue here is that magnesia powder is used to potentiate the cocaine agonist and amphetamine antagonists, specifically with the epinephrine haloperidol, so an investigation should be conducted as to why this chemical is almost extinct and who is demanding it from suppliers.
One of the most interesting aspects of Trump's Executive Order to the Attorney General's Office is the instruction to change the list of controlled substances to include Xylazine, better known on the street as tranq, a veterinary tranquilizer, which is consumed by addicts both on its own and also mixed with fentanyl, which makes it more addictive and lethal.
Xylazine will be a challenge for Trump, as its trade is open; the arrival of this veterinary drug and its combination with fentanyl, tells us that criminal groups have improved chemical methods and procedures with professionals specialized in pharmaceutical chemistry, but also with industrial chemical engineers, which forces to generate a typology that urges the US president to perform, specifically to the research areas who will have to describe and classify the production processes, by serializing the pressure machines to produce pills, thus facilitating their tracking.
This is an important measure, as this same serialization is found on firearms in the bullet loading box, which makes it difficult to traffic the entire gun, leading U.S. arms traffickers to Mexico to smuggle only the parts, but once they reach Mexican territory, an assembler is required to put them together to avoid traceability. ATF's information is that groups such as CJNG already clone the boxes with the serial numbers, so this control measure, like almost all, will be temporary, while criminal organizations adapt and will most likely begin to clone the machines for the manufacture of tablets. However, this would help to prevent them from being made easier and the use of this machinery would require the direct backing of the large drug trafficking infrastructure, further compromising the detection of the criminal group.
One of the problems of cooperation with the US could be solved through joint intelligence work, but it seems that the government of Claudia Sheinbaum has not realized that such collaboration between governments could be a way to mitigate Trump's retaliation against Mexico; just look at how easy it is to buy a machine to make pills on the site Mercado Libre: there are from very simple to high industrial quality, why not start there without compromising the much-talked about sovereignty?
The regulation of machinery to manufacture pills is a measure that could reduce the proliferation of small fentanyl laboratories, which are the ones that proliferate in Mexico, since large laboratories have been found more in regions such as Canada, because the geography and activities of this country generate these conditions. However, as we have said, each measure is temporary, as drug traffickers will find a way to clone the machinery and some other measure will have to be considered later.
Also relevant is the attention paid in this official document to the law on drug manufacturing, especially in the section on printing tablet coatings, processes that are used in the cloning of pills labeled as Xanax, but which conceal lethal doses of fentanyl. This method is widely used by drug traffickers, whose role is increasingly focused on production technology for drug concealment rather than experimenting with drug trafficking.
If we understand that the drug trafficker is less and less a "trafficker" and more a producer of synthetic drugs, we will understand why the denomination of terrorism is closer to his activities. In Mexico there is much to be done in intelligence on synthetic drug production, but there is neither the interest in knowledge, nor the intention to combat in depth a problem that on the surface seems to be only drug trafficking.
Changes in Intelligence Guidance against Terrorist Cartels and Gangs
In terms of intelligence, it is necessary to recognize radical changes in the orientation of functions and objectives, one of the most notable of which is the redirection of forces towards the CJNG as a priority, something that differs from when in other administrations of the U.S. government the work was concentrated on the Sinaloa Cartel.
The search for improving the internal communication procedures of the security and intelligence areas in the corresponding agencies is something very important in any intelligence area, since by homologating or "standardizing" the language, communication is also improved. This has many repercussions, in fact, it is a necessity in the Intelligence services of any nation, because by achieving a codified language that everyone shares and understands equally, investigations can be made more effective.
Intelligence codes have to evolve beyond the codes of criminal messages. This is something we have always pointed out and that Mexican authorities could apply for a long time, as it happens in France and Spain, where the identification codes to elaborate maps and networks of organizations have been improved, looking for the standardization of the language at all levels.
Corruption, the main battlefront
The document in question is brief, but clear in its intentions: a migratory front, another towards the extradition of specific leaders of criminal organizations, another towards the death penalty, one more towards diplomatic coordination with the standardization of intelligence language in prosecutors' offices and consular areas, another towards trafficking, drug and arms trafficking, one more towards the fight against the production of synthetic opioids and, finally, another towards the fight against extortion over money laundering.
The Trump administration's diagnosis finds its main success in understanding that the central problem in the fight against criminal organizations is not in dealing with them as usual, as if they were systemic deviations, but as part of the political and governmental system, both in the United States as well as in Mexico and Canada. It seems that the Mexican government has not read in detail the documents of the designations and even the operational changes it orders, since it always starts at "home", recognizing that there are corrupt agents on its side of the border, for which there is local legislation, but for cases of foreign corruption in the U.S., extraterritorial legal instruments are required.
The standardization of intelligence language is fundamental to avoid and prevent corruption loopholes, as the document states: "Standardized language for federal prosecutors across the U.S. describing Tren de Aragua, MS-13, Sinaloa Cartel and CJNG". This point is very relevant to avoid failures in prosecutions or legal outcomes that favor the defenses of those accused of criminal activities.
