Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador accused the head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration of giving out wrong information during her testimony before the House Judiciary Committee.
“We don’t have that information, I don’t know where she got it from, the lady from the DEA,” Lopez Obrador said on Friday during his morning news conference. “What proof does she have?”
Lopez Obrador addressed DEA Administrator Anne Milgram’s statement that the Sinaloa Cartel and Cartel Jalisco New Generation have more than 44,800 members, associates, and facilitators in 100 countries. The DEA leader also claimed that drug cartels had a presence in more than 21 states in Mexico. On Thursday, Milgram went to a congressional hearing to provide updates on the current fentanyl crisis where she claimed that those two cartels were the main producers and distributors of the drug.
Milgram also claimed that cartels could produce each fentanyl pill for about 10 cents and sell them for between $10 and $30 — making the product highly profitable.
When asked about the comments by the DEA chief, a flustered Lopez Obrador asked for proof of her claims.
“If everyone acts on their own, they don’t move forward,” Lopez Obrador said, claiming that there is no coordination between U.S. agencies. The Mexican politician claimed that earlier this week that his government officials met with White House Homeland Security Advisor Elizabeth Sherwood Randall for a summit on fentanyl, and the information shared there was different from the DEA testimony.
As Breitbart Texas reported, Lopez Obrador has publicly claimed that Mexico does not produce fentanyl as U.S. law enforcement agencies have previously stated. The Mexican president minimized his country’s role in the ongoing cartel crisis by claiming it is caused by the U.S. demand for drugs and fueled by U.S. weapons.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com.
Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.