US touts collaborative plan to tackle Mexico’s drug cartels – but initiative is met with denial and mistrust south of the border

Members of the Mexican army drive on a road after an anti-cartel operation in Sinaloa state, Mexico, in 2023. Juan Carlos Cruz/AFP via Getty Images

A new plan to dismantle cartel-run drug-smuggling corridors along the U.S. southern border was announced by the U.S. administration in mid-August 2025 to great fanfare.

“Project Portero” will see the Drug Enforcement Administration collaborate with Mexican law enforcement, prosecutors, defense officials and members of the intelligence community to establish a coordinated strategy striking at the heart of drug gangs’ command-and-control. DEA Administrator Terrance Cole described the initiative as “a bold first step in a new era of cross-border enforcement,” adding: “We will pursue it relentlessly until these violent organizations are dismantled.”