How American Agents Built Their Built Their Mexican Drug Informants
US anti-drug operations in Mexico relied heavily on local police cooperation and a vast network of paid informants. Though essential to operations, informants were often disposable assets in a complex game of cross-border law enforcement.
The life of an anti-drug agent is, frankly, a bit like trying to persuade a hungry lion to adopt a vegan diet. These folks set out with high ideals and pristine white collars, but they end up wading through a muck-ridden swamp of morally ambiguous alliances. In the case of anti-drug efforts in Mexico during the 1950s and 1960s, these agents weren’t just up against some backstreet peddler with a hidden stash in his sock. No, they were trying to convince border-town police forces—officers who may very well have been on the payroll of the cartels themselves—to join them in a crusade against narcotics. Picture that for a moment. It’s like trying to convince foxes to guard the chicken coop.
But why did they need this cooperation in the first place? Quite simply, these anti-drug agents couldn't do their jobs without it. In Mexico, as in many places, nothing gets done unless you've got the right friends in the right places. You could have the backing of the Attorney General’s Office or the Foreign Relations Department, but if you wanted real results, you'd better make nice with the local cops in places like Nogales, Tijuana, or Ciudad Juárez. These were the gritty front lines of the drug trade, where the rubber met the road and where anti-drug agents found themselves mingling with characters straight out of a Sergio Leone western. Think big sombreros, dusty streets, and pistols with pearl handles. Only here, the pistols were very real, and the stakes far higher than a showdown in some saloon.
