“Sol Prendido” for Borderland Beat
Two individuals who provided reports to the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) within the Sinaloa Cartel, and who cooperated in the prosecution of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s sons, were allegedly murdered in Mexico.
According to information gathered by Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, the two individuals were assisting in the investigation into the “Los Chapitos” network, against which the US Department of Justice unsealed a criminal indictment in New York in April 2023 for fentanyl trafficking.
In a letter, Grassley last week questioned Deputy U.S. Attorney General Lisa Monaco for giving preference in 2022 to preparing the DEA-backed indictment in New York against “Los Chapitos” and setting aside indictments in other judicial districts that were already ready.
“My office received credible information that other federal agencies attempted to indict Los Chapitos for fentanyl distribution, but your office directed prosecutorial teams not to do so in order to give preference to the DEA (indictment),” Grassley said in his letter dated Aug. 21.
“According to this information, two cooperators inserted by the DEA into the ‘Los Chapitos’ network had been killed in Mexico by the time your office issued such an order. Despite these deaths, your office allegedly gave the DEA more time to conduct its unilateral investigation,” Grassley said.
On April 14, 2023, the US Department of Justice made public the criminal indictment filed in the Southern District Court of New York against three of “El Chapo’s” sons for fentanyl trafficking: Ovidio Guzmán López, Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar and Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar.
That same day, the head of the DEA, Anne Milgram, publicly assured that her agency had successfully infiltrated the network of “Los Chapitos” and the Sinaloa Cartel since November 2021, which allowed access to the highest levels of the criminal organization.
When contacted by Grupo REFORMA, Senator Grassley’s office said it could not share details about the sources that provided the information about the death of the two informants in Mexico, but insisted that the legislator was interested in holding the Justice Department accountable for the incident.
So far, the Justice Department has not responded to Grupo REFORMA’s request for comment on the Republican Senator’s allegations about the killings in Mexico, including the identities of the cooperating individuals and their exact mission within the Cartel.
Unlike an informant working under the coordination of police investigating criminal organizations, a cooperating individual is traditionally in the U.S. system someone in contact with a prosecutor who agrees to cooperate in order to gain benefits in their prosecutions.