By Ricardo Lezama 
In the municipality of Atizapán de Zaragoza, Estado de México, Marco Ebben, a Dutch drug trafficker known for global connections with Russian, Dutch and Colombian traffickers, was murdered after professional hitmen sprayed 15 rounds into his person. No arrests were made as the gunmen fled the scene immediately after the killing.
The individual was known for his links to the ‘Pacific Cartel’ better known as the ‘Cartel de Sinaloa’ outside of Mexico. Specifically, the members of the Mayo Zambada faction that is now under the charge of his son, ‘El Mayo Flaco’.
What called the attention of Mexico’s domestic social media outlets and press was that the individual had a DEA credential. Historically, the DEA is able to cultivate contacts within the drug world for a long period of time in exchange for difficult to obtain information on their rivals. Often times, the logic (which we do not purport to agree with or justify) is that the individuals that the DEA chooses to align with are the least troublesome of the lot they are task with policing.
Nonetheless, the fact that the DEA may have met with Ebben and he subsequently had a credential does cause worry and speculation. On the one hand, Ebben was the most sought out individual in the Europol’s most wanted list. His connections with Russian and Ukrainian organized crime, links to African arms trafficking linked him to death and destruction that subverted the basic rule of law essential for societal functions.
Additionally, what possible information could he posses that would justify such protections? Most news agencies have reported that the credential is ‘fake’, but the fact that he met with agents could have motivated the unfortunate killing. Thus, this would bear credence to his connections and provide a motive.
This begs the question of whether we really can trust the DEA’s judgment with increased anti-terror tooling for police work? The risk could be that they become as corrupt as and cruel as the Border Patrol. Nonetheless, a simple google search will find that the number in the DEA badge appears to be a tell tale sign of a scammer motif.
For instance, a KOMO News article shows the same DEA badge number that was linked to an impersonation campaign by scammers in all 50 states. This particular case being in El Paso, Texas. Therefore, while this writer is pretty much ready to believe anything negative about foreign intervention in Mexico, this particular ID is not necessarily too important and could have been just a cheeky joke amongst bandits.