Rejecting Napolitano's Hypothesis

UN drug trafficking expert Antonio Mazzitelli pushes back against the suggestions from Janet Napolitano that the Zetas and terrorist groups could be working together:

[T]here is no information that permits us to say that there is something of this type. There has been talk in other areas about possible links between organizations that operate in the Middle East like Hamas and Hezbollah, and we are talking about financing, but directly relating to the Mexican context there's nothing.

On the one hand, such collaboration is not impossible, and you can understand the authorities' desire not to get caught with their pants down. However, there's a limited amount of resources available, and self-interest would argue against the Zetas or other drug gangs having any meaningful operational nexus with Middle Eastern terrorist groups, so this shouldn't occupy too much attention from the government without further evidence. In any event, rather than seeing Chapo break bread with a terrorist, I actually think we would be more likely right now to see one of the small-time gangs Mexican gangs we've never heard of cooperate with a Middle Eastern group.