“HEARST” for Borderland Beat
The latest round of Guacamaya leaks has revealed that in 2016, the DEA were prepared to tell the Mexican Army the location of Ivan Archivaldo Guzman Salazar and Joaquin Guzman Lopez, so that they could arrest or surveil them, but the Army refused.
Important Context
Newspaper Riodoce published new information they received from the hacker collective Guacamaya, which has been leaking emails from the Mexican Army (SEDENA) to news organizations.
Riodoce viewed a chain of email correspondences that were sent back in March 2016, between a Mexican Army captain and a US DEA agent named Mathew A. Emrich.
Due to laws regulating when Mexican news outlets can publish the names of unconvicted Mexican citizens, the name of the Army captain was not published by Riodoce, however they did reveal that the captain was stationed in Mazatlan, Sinaloa.
Some important context to keep in mind: Chapo was captured for the third and final time on January 8, 2016, just two months before this email exchange occurred.
His arrest was a crowning achievement, which presumably marked a high-point in the history of collaboration between the DEA and the Mexican military. And Special Agent Mathew A. Emrich had previously collaborated with SEDENA, sharing information on cartel leaders such as phone numbers and photographs.
It’s also important to note that although Chapo had only been in custody for two months, he had been living as a fugitive, or in jail, for many years prior.
His son, Ivan, therefore, already had years of experience running Chapo’s side of the Sinaloa Cartel by this point in March 2016, when these emails took place. The US DEA had announced that Iván Guzmán was a wanted target years earlier, back in 2014.
Email Correspondence Between the DEA & SEDENA
Riodoce detailed the email correspondence that follows, in Spanish. On March 22, 2016, the DEA agent sent the following email.
Subject Line: Los Hermanos
Capitán Buenas tardes [sic]
We received information that the brothers Ivan and Joaquin Guzman-Salazar are going to travel to Mazatlan this week.
It is possible that by tomorrow, we will have the trip info, with numbers.
If we get that info, do you have a team that can perform surveillance in field and electronically?
We should have more info tomorrow and I just wanted to chat with you, if you are interested.
The Army captain replied later that day, writing:
Good evening,
My boss says that the two PNAs are people of interest to us.
But because they do not have an arrest warrant currently out for them, and because of our country’s new penal system, these types of guys will get released from custody after we detain them.
And these amigos now only walk around unarmed or with a firearm they can legally possess.
This is why we believe that we cannot act on this now and if we did, we would just end up burning the source. We believe that it is better to wait for another time/place, when it’s possible to find more incriminating evidence.
[…]A thousand apologies, but this is our recommendation based on the experience we have had this year, even when we have caught 10 guys while they were carrying a firearm.
Riodoce writes that the captain added that the Army offered to give the DEA electronic support, “that is, if you consider it useful to try to obtain information from communications signals”.
The next day, on March 23, 2016, the agent replied
Captain – Good Morning.
Thank you very much for the recommendation. We understand and no apologies are needed.
We will monitor the situation and I will pass on to you the intelligence we receive, if we obtain it.
The 2 brothers do have arrest and extradition warrants. We will be in contact.
Riodoce noted Ivan did already have an arrest and extradition warrant, made public, at this point. Joaquín Guzmán, however, did not. This leads to two possibilities:
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He was actually referring to some sort of sealed indictment of Joaquín Guzmán, which existed back in 2016.
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The agent confused two of Ivan’s brothers, Joaquín Guzmán (his half brother) and Jesus Alfredo Guzman (his full brother), at some point in the email exchange. Jesus Alfredo Guzman did have an arrest warrant at this point.
