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Through contact with Colombian authorities, García Harfuch said
that nine of the 12 individuals were former soldiers and the
remaining three were civilians with weapons training.
Close underworld ties have long existed between organized crime
groups in Mexico and Colombia. For many years, Colombian drug
traffickers produced cocaine and heroin and moved it themselves
by boat or plane to the United States. Later, as U.S.
authorities cracked down on trafficking in the Caribbean,
Mexican cartels' power grew as they moved Colombian drugs over
land and via small plane to the U.S. border and smuggled them
across.
Decades of internal conflict in Colombia have produced tens of
thousands of former soldiers, paramilitaries and guerrillas with
weapons training and combat experience.
Colombians have been hired guns in the 2021 assassination of
Haiti President Jovenel Moïse and in the ongoing war in Ukraine.
In recent weeks, Mexican immigration authorities rejected 69
Colombians trying to enter Mexico, some of whom in interviews
said “they had been coopted by some criminal group.” García
Harfuch said Tuesday that both the Sinaloa and Jalisco New
Generation cartels were recruiting Colombians.
Colombia’s ambassador to Mexico, Fernando García, said last week
that he feared the arrests would negatively impact ongoing
negotiations with Mexico to reduce the number of Colombians
prevented from entering the country at Mexican airports.
In March, the Colombian government had said that talks with
Mexico were progressing with mechanisms for Mexico and Colombia
to verify information about those seeking to enter Mexico.
In October 2023, Mexican authorities arrested eight Colombians
also in Michoacan state, who allegedly were helping to make
explosives dropped by cartel drones.
Former soldiers from other countries have worked with Mexican
cartels too. More than a decade ago, the fearsome Zetas, whose
leaders came from Mexico's military, recruited former members of
Guatemala's special forces Kaibiles in their ranks.
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