According To Anabel Hernández, What Stopped The DEA Investigation Against AMLO

Mica for cartelinsider.com

The journalist Anabel Hernandez revealed that American authorities investigated current president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) because individuals close to the then-presidential candidate allegedly received millions of dollars from the Sinaloa Cartel for the political campaign of the candidate from Tabasco in 2006.

The work of Hernández, a journalist specializing in drug trafficking issues, was published in DW, a space in which he refers to a series of documents and testimonies that point to the alleged financing of the mentioned criminal group.

After the information was made public, the leader reacted in his morning conference and denied that the data was accurate, even accusing that it was “vicious slander.”

While in the first part of Anabel Hernandez’s article, the journalist pointed out those involved in the investigation, in the second part, she delved into confessions made by Nicolas Mollinedo, also known as Nico, who, according to the journalist, was seeking to engage in drug trafficking.

The institutions responsible for the investigations were the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Southern District of New York State’s Attorney’s Office. One of the key men to the inquiry was Roberto López Nájera, known under the code name Jennifer.

However, the investigation didn’t result in charges against the current president or his close associates; it was closed by U.S. authorities. Regarding the circumstances that led to this, Hernandez explains that several reasons led to the closure of the investigations on AMLO’s team.

The American authorities had information, but there was still a way to have something solid. The situation was complex because the potential crime committed was about to expire.

It should be remembered that the investigation involving those close to AMLO was carried out from 2010 to 2011, as revealed by Hernandez. During that time, Lopez Obrador announced his interest in running in the presidential elections, in which he lost to the PRI candidate, Enrique Peña Nieto.

However, Anabel Hernandez’s publication was not the only one that pointed to a supposed payment from the narco to López Obrador’s team, as journalist Tim Golden in ProPublica and Steven Dudley in InSight Crime also offered data on the mentioned investigations.

The discussion in all three works pertains to the role of the Sensitive Activities Review Committee (SARC), an organization responsible for approving complex investigations. “The SARC is consulted when the DEA is entering into legally, ethically, or politically sensitive territory,” Dudley explains.

This organization was responsible for determining whether the investigation into AMLO’s collaborators would continue. According to the journalist, “political” reasons were the ones that influenced the decision to stop the investigations in which those close to the current president were involved.

In other actions, Tim Golden was interviewed by journalist Jesús García for the media outlet La Opinión. In this space, he was questioned about his work at ProPublica regarding investigations against the Obrador team. Golden acknowledged that the published data is not “conclusive evidence” of the payments that the Sinaloa Cartel may have made.

In addition, he assured that people should draw their own conclusions about the data published in his work.

Anabel Hernández ended her column by stating that her information does not aim to enter into political or election logic and that she has worked with cases involving various former presidents and officials from Morena, the party of AMLO.

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Mica

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