Mexican Intelligence Agency, Centro Nacional de Inteligencia (CNI), is the main intelligence organization in Mexico mandated to conduct investigations and collect intelligence on behalf of the state. However, the Mexican Army, the Air Force, Navy, and Mexican Attorney General's office have respective intelligence bodies dedicated to each one of them. Formed in 1989, CNI has transformed into an agency designed to oversee and make alerts for national security threats and civil risks. Mexico's proximity to the United States (US) in geographical terms has, in the past, seen increased security concerns in the region, referred to as the North America Region (Bunker & Sullivan, 2018, Chard, 2016). Since the cold war era, many states globally have maintained their intelligence organizations. Most developed countries have ensured consistent funding of their intelligence apparatus besides increasing their operations globally. Conducting intelligence operations for any given country may find direct or indirect effects on other states, whether positive or negative. Citing Turkey's National Intelligence Organization (MIT) as an example, several operations they have conducted in the past have threatened regional or a state's security like their intentional supply of weapons to Islamic terrorist groups in Syria against allied nations' expectations.
Human trafficking and money laundering have also been on the rise, given that some of these organized crime cartels deal specifically with trafficking. Money laundering is also a major concern for the state. All these challenges have a significant impact on US national security. However, the CNI has risen to its task to combat these crimes both on Mexican soil, the US-Mexico border, and in the region through their intelligence operations (Chard, 2016). Joint efforts from American Intelligence bodies Mexican Intelligence Organization has positioned CNI as a significant contributor to increased security in the United States thanks to the latter's role as a major contributor in reducing American-Mexican border reduction in drug, human, and arms tracking. In this research paper, we will be exploring the Mexican intelligence organization, CNI, as a major player in establishing regional and American security through their efforts in combating drug production and trafficking in the region, human and arms trafficking, and money laundering.
Mexican intelligence activities have been a major boost to regional security, as witnessed in the past few years. Although the US government provides and funds most of the infrastructure involved, the CNI has been a major partner and aid to the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) bodies (Bunker & Sullivan, 2018). Joint efforts and cooperation among these interstate agencies saw increased intelligence gathering. It is through this cooperation that the successful arrest of American-born kingpin, Edgar Valdez Villarreal, a high-ranking officer of the now disbanded Beltrán Leyva Cartel, happened. Mexican Intelligence tracked Villarreal across three Mexico before he was finally captured in 2010. With the help of American technology, CNI conducted intelligence collection activities in 2010 (Chard, 2016) on La Familia Michoacana cartel’s head, which resulted in his eventual death after two days of a gunfight. The Mexican intelligence institution's collection efforts further confirmed its position in efforts to maintain a secure North American Region.
Putting our focus on Mexico, drug trafficking, human trafficking, money laundering, and criminal activities have undermined US national security in the recent past through the porous Mexican-American Border. However, since CNI undertook the role of combating these crimes and ill activities in the Mexican soil and along the American-Mexican border, there has been a recorded increase in insecurity in the region, especially in the US (Arratia, 2016). These achievements have been made through a joint effort between US intelligence and security agencies and CNI alongside other state's security bodies. It is important to consider the security situation in both countries to evaluate the impact this intelligence body has had on both US national security and in the region as a whole. Mexico have recorded more than 250,000 deaths alone due to the country's apparent security situation and increased crime rates. Mexico is among the biggest producers of drugs trafficked to other states, including the US, in large volumes, thanks to the existing high number of drug cartels. Organized crime cartels in Mexico have been a major challenge for Mexican authorities and government to deal with, a factor that previously seen a rise in the number of drugs and weapons trafficked into the US.
Whereas CNI had been conducting regional operations against the mentioned security threats in the past (Koff & Maganda, 2016), it was only after establishing a US-Mexican intelligence-sharing partnership that the extent of these crimes has decreased, leading to increased national security in the country. In the past decade, CNI have provided critical intelligence information on drug cartel and organized crime cartels to the US, leading to several major arrests. In addition, the 9/11 terrorist attack and others terrorist events prompted joint security cooperation agreements between the US and other regional states, Mexico being one of them. Following the 9/11, the Mexican government stepped up its security oversight in the region by increasing CNI’s budget and infrastructure (Arratia, 2016), a move that saw improvement in intelligence gathering with an overall impact of increased security in the US. Going by the numbers, the most important initiative between the two bordering states is the Merida Initiative that created regulations on information and intelligence sharing between each country's intelligence bodies.
Through the initiative, CNI has, on a relative scale, succeeded in reducing the number of illicit weapons in the Mexican streets. Records from the US government indicate that 70% of weapons seized in Mexico between 2009 and 2015 were trafficked from the US (Bunker & Sullivan, 2018). The weapons saw high crimes and drug-related activities, which eventually had a significant impact on US national security. However, since the CNI started the joint regional intelligence operations with the CIA and DEA, the number of illicit weapons in American and Mexican streets has since declined, thus reducing the number of security cases in both countries. The CNI has helped trace and identify the majority of the guns way before their use in crime-related activities.
Further commenting on the impact of CNI intelligence operations on US national security, their intelligence operations and have help reduce illegal immigration and human trafficking from Mexico into the US (Arratia, 2016) through the porous inter-state border. The intelligence organization has had a significant impact on identifying and destroying multiple secret border tunnels used by drug cartels and traffickers. In the recent past, immigration and trafficking had been a major concern for US national security. These passages created room for malicious individuals to gain illegal and undocumented entrance into the country, sometimes terrorists posing as immigrants (Koff & Maganda, 2016).
Drug money is abnormally huge and acts as a significant funding source for illicit and crime-based activities (Arratia, 2016). However, it is difficult to use drug money in the current times without the risk of attracting the attention of the Internal Revenue Service in the US. To avoid this, most cartels in the region use genuinely legal businesses to launder it. Criminals use the eventual clean money with little to no detection, further increasing threats against a US and Mexico’s national security endeavors. The CNI has been on the front line to fight money and finance-related crimes in Mexico, efforts that have seen a decreased level of laundered or illegal money circulation in the US (Chard, 2016). Increased intelligence on organized crime activities and financial records has facilitated apprehension of involved organized crime heads and freezing offshore accounts (Bunker & Sullivan, 2018; Arratia, 2016). With the reduced flow of drug money in the US, respective threats to national security remain manageable. As CNI’s branch, 'Cyber Investigations and Tech Operations Unit' (UICOT) has, in the recent past, remained vigilant on the online platforms to ensure Mexican and regional cybersecurity.
Through monitoring the internet space, CNI’s UICOT generates crucial intelligence on apparent threats and activities conducted via the internet. Intelligence shared with respective US intelligence organizations helps combat possible national security threats conducted online. Mexican Federal Act against Organized Operations established the Financial Intelligence Unit to fight money laundering, a serious threat to US national security and Mexico (Arratia, 2016). The 'General Associate Division of Operations' (GADO) created under Mexico’s Office for the Treasury and Public Credit, Secretaria de Hacienda y Credito Publico (SHCP) took the task of receiving, capturing, and analyzing bank reports, and custom declarations to monitor money laundering and terrorism financing. When the GADO identifies this process, the information into legal evidence and avails it to relevant international organizations and foreign financial intelligence units. It has collaborated with multinational intelligence and security agencies cases that related to terrorist financing. Justifying Mexican CNI’s significance in promoting US national security in the apparent context, International Monetary Fund reported drug money as a major terrorism financier while recognizing the Mexican Intelligence Organization's effort in fighting financial crimes.
Conclusion
Created in 1989, CNI has been a major contributor to North American regional security, particularly in the US, being a close neighbor to Mexico geographically (Koff & Maganda, 2016). High crime rates, drug production, trafficking, human trafficking, and money laundering are all common practices in Mexico. All these factors are a crucial source of Mexico's internal insecurities. Due to the proximity to the US, Mexico presents a significant potential of undermining the US's national security. The latter is a major destination and passageway for most of Mexican-Originated crimes and drugs. The increased flow of drugs, drug money, and illicit weapons between the two states is a major threat to national and regional security. Various methods and interstate efforts have addressed the gaps enabling these activities. The CNI has been working hard along other countries' intelligence bodies like DEA and CIA (Goldman, 2015) to combat the apparent threats. Through the creation of US-Mexican security relations (Goldman, 2015), the intelligence organization has succeeded in bringing down major organized crime cartels besides countering the flow of illicit weapons and drug money. Money laundering activities have decreased, in addition to also disrupting several terrorist financing activities. The US-Mexican border has always been a major challenge for the US government. With the creation of joint intelligence efforts between CNI and the US intelligence apparatus, the porous border has seen a decreasing flow of immigrants, drug, and human trafficking (Goldman, 2015). As a whole, the CNI has been a major boost for America's national security and is a positive implication on regional security.
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