Sinaloa Cartel financed López Obrador's campaign in 2006, according to the DEA

The Sinaloa Cartel financed the presidential campaign of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) with millions of dollars in 2006, as revealed by Operation Polanco published by the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

The investigative journalism portalProPublica published the results of that investigation, which indicates that the cartel would have contributed around two million dollars to campaign advisors of the candidate of the then Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) in exchange for facilitating its criminal operations in the event that AMLO took office. The presidency.

The events began with a meeting in 2005 in Nuevo Vallarta, Nayarit – when López Obrador had not yet become president – and which became known to the DEA.

The investigation is based on the cooperation of a former campaign agent and a key informant, who provide evidence that a close AMLO collaborator accepted the proposed agreement.

However, it does not confirm whether the president himself was aware of the donations and the way in which these amounts were channeled with the help of one of his collaborators.

Nicolás Mollinedo, López Obrador's former driver and close collaborator, appears as one of those involved in the plot.

The DEA obtained information from a former campaign agent arrested in 2010 on drug charges, who to avoid federal prison provided details of donations and recorded conversations with Mollinedo, who stopped working withAMLO in 2012.

In addition to Mollinedo, current member of the president's party, Mauricio Soto Caballero, and businessman Francisco León García, alias Pancho León, are also mentioned as part of the conspiracy to funnel funds from the Sinaloa Cartel to the presidential campaign.

Emilio Dipp Jones, a businessman present at the agreement meeting, is also under investigation.

The responsibility of the Sinaloa Cartel in the negotiations falls on Edgar Valdez Villarreal, alias Barbie and who was arrested in 2010, and the financial operators Roberto Acosta Islas (alias the R) and Roberto López Nájera.

Operation Polanco was part of joint efforts between the DEA and Mexican authorities before López Obrador became president after three presidential campaigns. The first, precisely in 2006, he lost against the PAN member Felipe Calderón, and the second against the PRI member Enrique Peña Nieto.

However, the linksbetween drug trafficking and the Mexican politician have generated skepticism towards AMLO and his commitment to confront drug trafficking.

This skepticism is supported by the president's apparent lack of will, which was exposed shortly after he came to power.

"First, he sidelined the Mexican commando teams that had been the most trusted partner of U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies. Then he shut down a federal police unit that the DEA had trained and vetted to work with the Americans. in major drug cases," the Polanco investigation maintains.

"Corruption is such an important part of the fabric of drug trafficking in Mexico that there is no way to go after drug traffickers without going after the politicians, military and police who support them," Raymond Donovan, former DEA chief of operations, told ProPublica.