No, Mexican Drug Cartels Are Not Actually Operating in 1,286 U.S. Cities

In August 2011, the now-shuttered National Drug Intelligence Center released a report claiming that Mexican drug cartels were operating in 1,286 U.S. cities. In the two years since that report came out, politicians and media outlets have cited the NDIC's figure countless times. Headlines like "In small-town USA, business as usual for Mexican cartels", "Cartels Dispatch Agents Deep Inside U.S.", "Mexican Cartels Have Infiltrated Your City", "Border Patrol Union: Drug Cartels Have 'Representatives' in 2,000 U.S. Cities", and "Mexican drug cartels gain foothold in 1,286 US cities" all owe their provenance to the NDIC.

But according to a new investigative report from the Washington Post, the figure is simply not true. The Post interviewed drug policy experts, local law enforcement agencies cited in the NDIC's report, and officials in the Justice Department. Nearly to a one, interview subjects said the NDIC's report was wrong. An anonymous representative of the Drug Enforcement Administration, which absorbed several dozen NDIC employees after the center closed last year, went so far as the tell the Post, “It’s not a DEA number. We don’t want to be attached to this number at all.” And of the 24 cities mentioned in the report that the Post contacted, law enforcement officials in 18 said they had no known cartel activity in their jurisdictions.