DEA removes its director in Mexico for alleged relationship with lawyers for ‘narcos’ | News from Mexico
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MEXICO CITY.- The DEA removed from his position to the director of the US anti-drug agency in Mexico, Nicholas Palmeribetween an investigation into his conduct and a deterioration in cooperation with the government of the Latin American country, the newspaper reported this Friday The Washington Post.
According to the newspaper, the investigation around Nick Palmeri occurred in 2022 at a critical time when bilateral cooperation against drug trafficking had deteriorated under the government of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, while drug-related deaths in the United States rose to record levels.
Palmeri’s removal left the DEA regional office in Mexico City -which oversees the agency’s operations in that country and in Central America- without a full-time resident director for at least six months.
Director of the DEA in Mexico is dismissed
The internal comptroller of the Department of Justice revealed this Wednesday that it had discovered an improper use of DEA funds assigned to investigative work by a regional director, among other irregularities, which had resulted in the person in question being “ultimately removed” from the agency.
The agency decided not to file criminal charges against the official, it says in the report.
several Mexican soldiers and federal agents as they participate in the transfer of a drug trafficker. | EFE
Although the comptroller did not identify the official, Palmeri confirmed to the Post that it was him and criticized the agency’s document, stating that “wrongly stated that I had been removed from the DEA”.
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Director of the DEA in Mexico was related to lawyers for ‘narcos’
He added that his departure “should be considered a forced removal” that it was due to an internal struggle in the agency, and he emphatically denied having participated in improper activities.
The DEA opened a second investigation to determine if Palmeri had improper relationships with drug lord lawyersaccording to US officials quoted by the newspaper.
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On his Linkedin profile, Palmeri indicates that he worked as Regional Director of the DEA for the North and Central America Region based in Mexico until March 2022.
In total Palmeri worked 24 years and 6 months with the anti-drug agency. He had previously worked in the New York Police Department.
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