– DoD has been and is continuing to work with its Mexican counterparts to increase information sharing, interoperability, and training and equipping of counternarcotics forces.
– The Administration is committed to working with Congress to ensure that we fully fund our commitments under the Merida Initiative.
– We are also coordinating our efforts with the Mexican government through regular high-level contact and at a working level with nine Merida Initiative working groups overseeing implementation.
We are moving to more effectively disrupt illegal flows of weapons and bulk cash to Mexico and to ensure that our border security remains resistant to the flow of drugs and violence into the United States.
– DHS is developing a plan to supplement resources on the southwest border that includes the following elements:
o Doubling Border Enforcement Security Task Forces (BEST) teams that incorporate foreign, federal and state/local law enforcement and intelligence officers
o Tripling DHS Intelligence Analysts working along the Southwest Border
o Increasing ICE attaché staff in Mexico in support of Mexican law enforcement efforts
o Doubling Violent Criminal Alien teams located in Southwest Border Field Offices
o Quadrupling the number of Border Liaison Officers working with Mexican law enforcement entities
o Bolstering Secure Communities Biometric Identification capabilities
o Increasing southbound rail examinations
o Enhancing the use of technology at ports of entry, including backscatter mobile x-ray
o Increasing the number of canine units operating on the SW Border
o Increasing engagement with state and local Southwest border law enforcement
o Making up to $59 million in current Operation Stonegarden funding available to enhance state, local and tribal law enforcement operations and assets along the border
o Increasing the use of mobile license plate readers for Southbound traffic on the SW Border
– DHS is also continuing Armas Cruzadas — A DHS/ICE-led bilateral law enforcement and intelligence-sharing operation to thwart export of arms from US into Mexico
– DOJ is confronting the criminal enterprises responsible for violence in Mexico and trafficking drugs, illegal arms and bulk cash across the Southwest border.
o The Mexican Cartel Strategy, led by the Deputy Attorney General, is
– Working with federal prosecutor-led task forces that bring together all DOJ and DHS law enforcement components to identify, disrupt and dismantle the Mexican drug cartels through investigation, prosecution, and extradition of their key leaders and facilitators, and seizure and forfeiture of their assets;
– Increasing focus on investigations and prosecutions of the southbound smuggling of guns and cash that fuel the violence and corruption;
– Addressing any instances of spill-over violence into the U.S.; and
– Attacking the cartels in Mexico itself, in partnership with Mexico’s PGR and SSP.
o DEA is increasing its efforts:
– Placing 16 new positions in its Southwest border field divisions (29% of DEA’s domestic agent positions (1,171 agents) are now allocated to the DEA’s Southwest border field divisions.
– DEA is forming four additional Mobile Enforcement Teams (METs) to specifically target Mexican methamphetamine trafficking operations and associated violence, both along the border and in U.S. cities impacted by the cartels.
–