The President's Daily Brief - PDB Afternoon Bulletin | September 11th, 2025: The CIA’s Secret Cartel Hunters In Mexico & Trump’s Plan To Squeeze Russia

Episode Date: September 11, 2025

In this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin: The CIA’s covert war in Mexico comes to light. A new Reuters investigation reveals how America’s spy agency is secretly training elite Mexican units to hunt cartel bosses. President Trump presses the European Union to slap tariffs on Chinese and Indian goods, part of his broader effort to squeeze Russia over the war in Ukraine. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President’s Daily Brief by visiting PDBPremium.com.Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief.YouTube: youtube.com/@presidentsdailybrief American Financing: NMLS 182334, nmlsconsumeraccess.org. APR for rates in the 5s start at 6.327% for well qualified borrowers. Call 866-885-1881 for details about credit costs and terms. Visit http://www.AmericanFinancing.net/PDB.   Birch Gold: Text PDB to 989898 and get your free info kit on gold   Lean: Visit https://TakeLean.com & use code PDB for 20% off Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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part of his effort to squeeze Russia over the war in Ukraine. But first, Today's afternoon spotlight. Reuters is pulling back the curtain on a fight that most Americans didn't even know what's happening, a covert war just across the U.S. southern border. Their investigation reveals that the CIA has been quietly training and directing elite Mexican units tasked with hunting down the country's most dangerous drug lords. And what Reuters uncovered is how the agency brought its war on terror toolkit into Mexico's drug war. In CIA speak, it's called Find Fix Finish.

In plain English, it means find. target, lock them down so they can't escape, and then move in to capture or terminate. It's the same strategy that the agency used against terrorists after 9-11, and now it's being turned on Mexico's cartels. Let's start in January of 2023. Helicopter gunships roared over rural Sinaloa as Mexican soldiers closed in on Ovidio Guzman Lopez. He's the son of drug lord Joaquin Alchapo Guzman. The Mexican army carried out the raid, but the CIA was behind the curtain. The agency had built a detailed targeting package. Surveillance intercepts, insider tips, intel from a cartel associate who had flipped. The unit, also, that ultimately stormed Ovidio's hideout,

wasn't just any Mexican force. It was a group that was trained, equipped, and vetted by the CIA, known as Gain, in English, the Drug Trafficking Information Analysis Group. The operation was a major success. Ovidio was captured, extradited to the U.S., pled guilty to drug trafficking charges. But let's rewind to 2019, and the picture looked very different. That same CIA-backed unit grabbed Ovidio once before, only to be surrounded by hundreds of cartel gunmen in the streets of Kulikon. The Mexican president at the time ordered his release to prevent mass civilian deaths. That fiasco showed the world just how powerful the cartels had become

and just how dangerous the fight against them had become. So, you ask, how does this partnership actually work? Well, according to more than 60, American and Mexican officials interviewed by Reuters, the CIA provides advanced training, surveillance technology, money, and even polygraph tests for the troops that it selects. Today, there are at least two such CIA vetted units in Mexico, one in the Army, another in the Navy. They're some of the most capable and trusted forces in the country. Inside the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, well, the seating chart tells the story. CIA analysts sit on the ambassador's floor. D.E.A. and Homeland Security,

agents, well, they're one floor below. But here's the hard truth. Even with these tactical wins, the bigger picture remains grim. Mexico still records around 30,000 murders a year, much of it cartel-related, and on the U.S. side of the border, fentanyl has fueled a death toll of 50 to 75,000 Americans every single year. The Kingman strategy, knocking off cartel bosses, has often backfired, splintering groups into rival factions and sparking bloody wars. As one former CIA officer, said Reuters, Sicario is a good movie, but bad policy. Drugs are a consumption problem, not a production problem, we can't just kill our way out of this, end quote. Although frankly, it doesn't mean you shouldn't give it a good faith effort. Politically, the stakes are rising.

The Trump administration has labeled several Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations and floated the idea of unilateral U.S. military strikes. Mexico's new president, Claudia Scheinbaum, has promised stepped up cooperation against the cartels, but she's also drawn a red line, no U.S. boots on the ground in Mexico. Still, the CIA's role in the fight against the cartels is expanding. Langley has stood up a new Americas and counter-narcotics mission center, reassigned counterterrorism veterans to Mexico, and increased drone flights over cartel territory. The agency is moving resources south of the border, as if this were the next front in the

war on terror. And the hunt continues for more kingpins. Another of El Chapo's sons, Yvon Archival del Guzman, remains. at large. Earlier this year, Mexican commandos working with the CIA nearly caught him. But true to his family's tradition, he slipped away through a tunnel. Oh, like father like son. So where does this leave us? The CIA's secret war has scored impressive victories. Cartel bosses captured, organizations disrupted, but the strategic outcome is murkier. Overdosed deaths in the U.S. remain high, and cartel violence in Mexico continues to claim many lives. Covert operations can capture or terminate

high-value targets. But the larger fight goes beyond raids in Sinaloa. It's about shutting off cartel financing, cracking down on precursor shipments, and pressuring a Mexican state that's often been compromised. All right, coming up next, Trump leans on the European Union to target Beijing and New Delhi with tariffs of up to 100%, a move aimed at cutting off lifelines to Putin's economy. I'll be right back. Hey, Mike Baker here. Let me take a moment to talk, personal finances, that's a pretty important topic. Now, the cost of everything, as you may have noticed, is a bit out of control. And many folks are now relying on credit cards to cover some of those essentials. Gas bills, utility bills, groceries, you know what I'm talking about. And if that debt

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Start selling on D-pop, where taste recognizes taste. Welcome back to the PDB afternoon edition. President Trump is pressing the European Union to go beyond. its comfort zone, demanding tariffs of up to 100% on Chinese and Indian goods, and a request aimed at choking the Kremlin's war machine. According to a Wall Street Journal report, two EU officials confirmed the ask, delivered on Tuesday when Trump dialed into a Washington meeting of U.S. and EU sanctions officials. At one point, the commander-in-chief floated a 50% tariff. At another point, he pushed to double it. Either way, the message from the Oval Office

has been clear. Punished China for bankrolling Russia. punish India for buying the Kremlin's cheap oil or watch the West's Unified Front crumble, and with it, the leverage that comes from Washington and Brussels acting together. The push game as Washington and Brussels resumed talks on Russian sanctions for the first time since Trump returned to the White House. Yet Brussels is unlikely to fall in line with Trump's demands. One senior EU official made it plain that tariffs aren't in the block's sanctions playbook. Negotiators remained focused instead on their 19th sanctions package, that would blacklist more Russian entities and perhaps a handful of Chinese firms.

And yes, the EU has sanctioned several Chinese and Indian companies and banks in recent months, but further steps, such as Trump's suggestions, are considered too risky for the bloc. At the same time, the EU pursues a free trade deal with New Delhi and braces for possible Beijing retaliation. As we've tracked here on the PDB, Trump has set and reset sanctions deadlines for Moscow, only to step back before the hammer dropped. But Washington has already slapped tariffs on Indian refined products made from Russian oil, proof that the president is willing to act unilaterally if Europe drags its feet. But there's still no specific plan or timeline for the White House to enact more aggressive sanctions on Russia

or to slap secondary tariffs on China for their purchase of Russian oil. Now, Brussels isn't entirely shutting the door to Trump's demands. In her annual State of the Union address on Wednesday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen signaled her own appetite for escalation, vowing, quote, we need more sanctions on Russia. We are particularly looking at phasing out Russian fossil fuels faster, the shadow fleet, and third countries, end quote. Brussels has already targeted the Kremlin's so-called shadow fleet of tankers, farrying illicit crude, and is still committed to phasing out Russian fossil fuels entirely by 2027. But the block is moving gingerly,

wary of trade ruptures with Beijing and New Delhi that could cripple the EU's economy. And that, my friends, is the PDB afternoon bulletin for Thursday, the 11th of September. If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at BDB at thefirsttv.com. And to listen to the show ad-free, just become a premium member of the president's daily brief by visiting PDB premium.com. It's really very simple. I'm Mike Baker, and I'll be back tomorrow. Until then, stay informed. Stay safe. Stay cool. Hey, Mike Baker here.

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