Reports emerged on Thursday, 22 February 2024 that, American Law Enforcement officials spent several years looking into allegations that close allies of Mexico’s President met with and collected millions of dollars from drug cartels, but did not open a formal investigation into the matter.

But, Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador denied the allegations during a press briefing on Thursday, 22 February 2024, calling them “completely false.” He further added that “the U.S. Government is going to have to address this.”

The formerly unreported inquiry revealed information pointing to possible links between cartel operatives and Mexican advisors and officials close to López Obrador.

Mexican President Suggests US Talks on Migration and Drugs May Suffer after Drug Money Allegations “Records show that the investigators were told by an informant that one of Mr. López Obrador’s closest confidants met with Ismael Zambada García, a top leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel, before his victory in the 2018 Presidential election,” the New York Times reported.

Investigators also obtained information from another source suggesting that drug cartels had videos of the President’s sons picking up drug money, the reports said, citing records.

The story was based on unidentified U.S. officials familiar with the matter and records associated with the now-shelved inquiry. The media outlet noted that much of the information collected by U.S. officials came from informants whose accounts can be “difficult to corroborate” and “sometimes end up being incorrect.”

Ultimately, U.S. authorities did not find any direct connections between López Obrador himself and criminal organizations. The U.S. never opened a formal investigation into the Mexican President.

On Thursday, 22 February 2024, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said, “There is no investigation into President López Obrador.”

The investigation comes shortly after ProPublica, Deutsche Welle and InSight Crime published stories describing an earlier U.S. investigation into whether López Obrador’s campaign aides took money from drug traffickers.

López Obrador is in the final months of his Presidency and has consistently faced criticism for not aggressively pursuing drug cartels like his predecessors.

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