EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – The Drug Enforcement Administration on Monday announced the launch of Gatekeeper, a binational collaboration to identify Mexican cartel leaders in smuggling corridors along the Southwest border.

These gatekeepers, also known as “plaza” bosses direct the movement of fentanyl, cocaine, meth and other drugs into the United States and ensure drug profits and American guns flow south into Mexico.

“To advance this effort, DEA has launched a multi-week training and collaboration program at one of its intelligence centers on the Southwest Border. The program brings together Mexican investigators with U.S. law enforcement, prosecutors, defense officials and members of the intelligence community,” DEA said in a news release. “Over the course of several weeks, participants will identify joint targets, develop coordinated enforcement strategies and strengthen the exchange of intelligence.”

But on Tuesday, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said her country had agreed to no such thing.

“There is no accord with DEA. DEA puts out a communique based on what, I don’t know. We have not arrived at any accord with DEA, none of our security institutions have,” Sheinbaum said at her daily news conference broadcast on YouTube.

Sheinbaum said a small number of Mexican law enforcement officers recently attended a seminar in Texas, but no one else.

“I don’t know why they put out this communique. The only accord we have in terms of security, and it’s months in the making, is with the Department of State – and the Foreign Relations Ministry is coordinating those efforts,” Sheinbaum said. “Such accord is based fundamentally on sovereignty and mutual trust … respect for territory – everyone operates in its territory – and coordination without subordination.”

She said there is routine communication between security agencies in both countries, but “there is no recent accord for a specific operation with the DEA.”

She added her Foreign Minister would be asking the U.S. Ambassador why the DEA published the news release without her government being aware of it.

Border Report reached out to DEA headquarters for a comment. Late on Tuesday, it received a response reaffirming the need to strengthen binational security cooperation.

“On Monday, DEA announced its training initiative in support of Project Portero (Goalkeeper, in Spanish), which is being conducted in coordination with Mexican law enforcement counterparts. This is a significant step forward in advancing and strengthening law enforcement and intelligence sharing with partners regarding an issue that has positive implications on both sides of the border,” the DEA said in a statement to Border Report.

Mexico walks tight-rope on binational drug cooperation

U.S. law enforcement presence in Mexico traditionally has been heavily scrutinized and often turned controversial.

Sheinbaum’s predecessor, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, in 2020 sent an initiative that the Mexican Senate approved limiting the DEA’s scope of operations in Mexico. Later, he accused the DEA of fabricating charges against former Mexican Defense Minister Salvador Cienfuegos, whose drug charges in the U.S. were dropped afterwards.

Scott Stewart, vice president of intelligence for TorchStone Global international security firm, said Mexico has always walked a fine line between cooperating with the United States on law enforcement and not appearing subservient.

“There is a long history of Mexico coordinating with the U.S. and attempting to keep it on the down-low due to domestic political sensitivities over sovereignty. The Trump Administration has a domestic political motive for commenting on the operation,” Stewart told Border Report.

Taking down mid-level cartel bosses, especially on the border, could make a temporary dent on cross-border drug trafficking, but it’s not a long-term solution.

“It’s all economics. If one plaza boss is taken out, he is quickly replaced, either internally from someone withing his cartel group, or by a rival cartel,” Stewart said. “There is a long history of this in plazas like Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa, Matamoros, Juarez, etc. with no reduction in the flow of drugs.”