DEA Is Now Global Spy Agency

[From article]
"Leaders of Mexico’s beleaguered military issued private pleas for closer collaboration with the drug agency, confessing that they had little faith in their own country’s police forces.
How is this different from American police? Mexico can't hide their corruption as American journalists willingly do.
[. . .]
In Venezuela, the local intelligence service turned the tables on the D.E.A., infiltrating its operations, sabotaging equipment and hiring a computer hacker to intercept American Embassy e-mails, the cables report.
Again what's the difference in America? Organized crime controls many cities and state goeverments with major influence in US Agencies and elected offices. Is the issue that the US crime families do not control all drug and money laundering operations?
[. . .]
The D.E.A. faced even more intense pressure last year from Panama, whose right-leaning president, Ricardo Martinelli, demanded that the agency allow him to use its wiretapping program — known as Matador — to spy on leftist political enemies he believed were plotting to kill him.
Does this suggest that US agencies do not abuse their powers for political purposes using telephone companies and landlords to watch their targets' private lives? Instead of using the illegal product in courts FBI criminals forward it to friendly FBI informant journalists.
[. . .]
Mr. Martinelli threatened to expel the drug agency from the country altogether, saying other countries, like Israel, would be happy to comply with his intelligence requests. Or some other country's spies?
[. . .]
Created in 1973, the D.E.A. has steadily built its international turf, an expansion primarily driven by the multinational nature of the drug trade, but also by forces within the agency seeking a larger mandate. Since the 2001 terrorist attacks, the agency’s leaders have cited what they describe as an expanding nexus between drugs and terrorism in further building its overseas presence. If this is the justification why does the DEA refuse to help other countries in their fight against "terrorism?" Is terror the good that justifies all abuses of police powers within the US aganst civilian citizens too?
[. . .]
Both men were charged with agreeing to illegal arms sales to informants posing as weapons buyers for Colombian rebels. Notably, neither man was charged with violating narcotics laws.
CBS News broadcast the arrest on its 60 Minutes show. No journalist asked the question why the DEA was focused on arms trafficking. Is Interpol as corrupt as the FBI?
[. . .]
Top-to-bottom corruption in many West African countries made it hard for diplomats to know whom to trust.
Do Americans know who to trust or are they as clueless about the corruption of US law enforcement?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/26/world/26wikidrugs.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

Cables Portray Expanded Reach of Drug Agency
By GINGER THOMPSON and SCOTT SHANE
New York Times
Published: December 25, 2010