Mexican President Denies DEA ‘Project Portero’ Agreement

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has rejected claims that her government is cooperating with the United States on a new anti-drug trafficking initiative known as “Project Portero.”

Speaking at her morning press conference on Tuesday, Sheinbaum dismissed a statement by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which had described the project as a joint operation between the two countries.

“I want to clarify something. The DEA put out a statement yesterday saying there is an agreement with the Mexican government for an operation called Portero,” she said. “There is no agreement with the DEA. None of our security institutions has signed such an accord.”

Sheinbaum stressed that only her administration, not individual agencies, could formally announce agreements of this scale. She also urged the DEA to follow proper diplomatic protocols for joint statements.

The DEA, announcing the initiative on Monday, described Project Portero as its “flagship operation,” aimed at shutting down cross-border drug corridors. The plan was said to involve multi-week training programs bringing Mexican investigators together with US enforcement officials at an intelligence site on the southwest border.

DEA Administrator Terrance Cole said the program would mark “a bold first step in a new era of cross-border enforcement.”

But Sheinbaum suggested the DEA’s reference may have been to a small-scale workshop involving four Mexican police officers in Texas.

“The only thing we have is a group of police officers from the Secretariat of Citizen Security who were conducting a workshop in Texas,” she clarified.

At the same time, Sheinbaum highlighted her government’s ongoing cooperation with the Trump administration on border security, while insisting on respect for Mexico’s sovereignty.

Since starting his second term in January, United States President Donald Trump has pressured Mexico to curb both immigration and drug trafficking, threatening tariffs on Mexican goods. Last month, he agreed to maintain tariffs at current levels for 90 days but warned of a potential 30 percent hike if fentanyl continued to reach US territory.

“Mexico still has not stopped the Cartels who are trying to turn all of North America into a Narco-Trafficking Playground,” Trump wrote in a letter to Sheinbaum earlier this summer.

Despite the pressure, cooperation has continued. In recent months, Mexico transferred dozens of high-profile cartel suspects to the US for prosecution, marking some of the largest prisoner handovers in years.

Still, tensions remain, particularly after the US State Department issued security warnings for 30 of Mexico’s 32 states earlier this month, citing risks of “terrorist” activity and cartel-related violence.