John Cornyn Discusses 'Endemic' Corruption Issues In Mexico & Cooperation Fighting Cartels

Forbes Breaking News

At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last month, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) asked FBI, DEA and HSI agents about corruption in the Mexican government and whether that was hindering the fight against the cartel.

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00:00This area that Senator Durbin's been talking about, that Senator Cruz and I have introduced

00:06a bill that we call Protecting Communities and Preserving the Second Amendment Act.

00:12A section of that bill would establish law enforcement-run task forces along the southern

00:18border to combat cross-border gun smuggling.

00:23So far, we don't have bipartisan support, and I would beg for bipartisan support.

00:28But this is partly an answer to the fact that under the Biden administration, they didn't

00:35implement the new rules that would work with the federal firearms licensees.

00:43It's a valuable source.

00:45That's a valuable source of intelligence for law enforcement community.

00:51And that effort was lost.

00:54Go ahead, Senator Cornett.

00:56Thank you all for being here and for your service to the nation.

01:01It's critical work.

01:03But sometimes I feel like we're bailing a sinking boat.

01:10And I think if I reflect on it, there's a couple of reasons why that's the case.

01:16One is we've seen for the last four years an open border policy, which basically was an

01:23open door to criminality, gangs, human trafficking, drugs, and the like, which made the United States

01:30a very lucrative market for the work of the cartels that we're here to discuss.

01:36The second, and I want to direct this to you, Director Perez, we have a partner, so to speak, in Mexico

01:47to deal with some of these issues.

01:51But in fact, corruption in Mexico is a longstanding endemic problem.

01:58One report recently said that in a review of the activities of state-level anti-corruption prosecutors

02:08in five Mexican states, out of nearly 6,500 investigations opened, only 22 convictions were achieved.

02:18Yet we depend on the Mexican officials and their vetted units to work with our intelligence community

02:28and our law enforcement agencies to go after the fentanyl labs and the cartels.

02:35But what do we need to do?

02:38Or is there anything more we can do to address the corruption issues in Mexico?

02:45It seems like President Trump has gotten the attention of President Scheinbaum, and certainly

02:52the extradition of the 29 individuals was a positive sign.

02:57I don't recall that ever happening before under any previous president.

03:01But what do we need to do to try to address the problems of corruption in Mexico?

03:07Thank you for your question, sir.

03:09Well, obviously, corruption is a significant issue in Mexico and other countries that we work

03:14and there's also a lot of cooperation.

03:16We continue to build on that cooperation.

03:18We have probably our largest legal attache office for the FBI, our largest international offices

03:23throughout Mexico.

03:25We do work with vetted teams.

03:26We have our partners within Mexican law enforcement, as we do in other countries that we've trained,

03:31that we've vetted, work with and try to build bilateral cooperation and have had a number of successes.

03:36So, again, corruption does exist.

03:39It is an issue.

03:40It is an issue we're aware of.

03:41We try to build on that capacity.

03:43That's part of our legal attache, our overseas mission, is to build that capacity, build that trust.

03:47We've brought those vetted team officers, prosecutors, to our academies in Quantica, Virginia,

03:52not just from Mexico but from other countries, to try to, again, build that capacity, work on these cases.

03:56I will say, sir, to highlight, including that extradition, we've had a number of other successes over the years in Mexico.

04:03Those successes come directly attributable to the cooperation with Mexico.

04:07So, again, we want to try to build on the positive there, work through any of that corruption,

04:12work as best we can to try to build their capacity and hopefully continue to work towards bilateral success.

04:16Mr. Stevens and Mr. Allen, do you feel like our ability to make progress in this area against the cartels

04:26should be dependent on cooperation of the Mexican government

04:30or are there things that the United States ought to be doing unilaterally to address this threat?

04:39Thank you for your question, sir.

04:40I think HSI is uniquely placed with some of the largest vetted units in Mexico.

04:46along with our attachés and the agents that we have down there, while we have seen corruption,

04:53what we're seeing now is increased cooperation.

04:55We've been working through capacity building, and we've seen commitment from them.

04:59To include a success that we've had earlier this fiscal year of the seizure of the largest amount of fentanyl ever seized in Mexico's history,

05:07which was 1.5 tons of pressed fentanyl.

05:10So we have had some successes in that space, and we're going to continue and try and build on that

05:15with our current attaché teams.

05:19Mr. Allen?

05:22Sir, I would actually echo my colleague's words about cooperation in Mexico,

05:26but also his words about corruption in Mexico.

05:28I spent two years in Mexico myself.

05:30I had a front row seat to it.

05:33Historically, there is quite a bit of corruption in Mexico.

05:36I am optimistic, though, with President Scheinbaum's administration,

05:41and especially Secretary Omar Harfuch, leading the Mexican Security Department,

05:46whom we have a history with.

05:48As far as directly to your question, I think unilaterally, bilaterally,

05:53any tools that we can bring to save American lives to this fight, I'm for.

05:59Senator Klobuchar.

06:01Senator Klobuchar.

06:02Senator Klobuchar.

06:03Senator Klobuchar.

06:04Senator Klobuchar.

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06:06Senator Klobuchar.

06:07Senator Klobuchar.

06:08Senator Klobuchar.

06:09Senator Klobuchar.

06:10Senator Klobuchar.

06:11Senator Klobuchar.

06:12Senator Klobuchar.

06:13Senator Klobuchar.

06:14Senator Klobuchar.

06:15Senator Klobuchar.

06:16Senator Klobuchar.

06:17Senator Klobuchar.

06:18Senator Klobuchar.

06:19Senator Klobuchar.

06:20Senator Klobuchar.

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