Law enforcementU.K. police learning to battle cartels in El Paso

This week law enforcement officers from the United Kingdom are in El Paso, Texas to train with DHS.

The special agents from the U.K.’s Serious Organized Crime Agency are in town specifically to learn how to combat the growing threat of trafficking.

“We want to learn from the special agents about the local regional and international impact of the widely reported scalable of trafficking that exists. To understand problems, it’s best to be exposed to them in their environment first hand,” an undercover agent told local news station KTSM.

Oscar Hagelsieb, a special agent with Homeland Security Investigations, explained that the phenomenon of drug cartels is relatively new in Europe, so law enforcement agents there have not been exposed to the challenge as much as U.S. agents.

“It’s something new for Europe and for other countries. They’ve never had to deal with this before with the cartel. Who better to expose them to the way we investigate the cartels than us. We’ve done it for years,” Hagelsieb said.  

“We are seeing that the Mexican cartels are preferring to be paid in euros because you know they maintain their value. It’s a high value,” he added.

Once the training is over, one undercover agent said they hope to return with greater experience and knowledge as well as relationships to maintain communication between the two countries.

“Knowledge, perspective and greater understanding of the situation in the area, simple as that. It’s what we are here for. What we’ve achieved. Also, we knew we’d make some good friends. We have made good friends,” the agent said.