Deal with the Devil? DEA allegedly overlooked Sinaloa cartel drug smuggling for intel on rivals

Simultaneously shocking and also utterly unsurprising. According to a report by Business Insider:

An investigation by El Universal found that between the years 2000 and 2012, the U.S. government had an arrangement with Mexico's Sinaloa drug cartel that allowed the organization to smuggle billions of dollars of drugs while Sinaloa provided information on rival cartels.

Sinaloa, led by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, supplies 80% of the drugs entering the Chicago area and has a presence in cities across the U.S.

There have long been allegations that Guzman, considered to be "the world’s most powerful drug trafficker," coordinates with American authorities.

But the El Universal investigation is the first to publish court documents that include corroborating testimony from a DEA agent and a Justice Department official.

See the full BI story for more details. My Spanish isn't good enough to closely parse the El Universal story, and the Google translate version is pretty raw, so I'm looking forward to followup reports. Certainly, it's not uncommon for law enforcement to cut deals with criminals for information. But this story alleges the US conspired with the Sinaloa cartel at the very highest levels. A few years ago, American intelligence officials were telling the press that Guzman and the Sinaloa cartel appeared to be "winning" the bloody feud with its rivals for control of smuggling routes into the U.S.. What they didn't say was that Sinaloa was "winning" because the US government was helping them!

MORE: From Forbes. AND: A rebuttal from the Washington Post. AND: Paul Kennedy adds his two cents.