DFS (Dirección Federal de Seguridad)

Mexico’s secret police, created in 1947 with direct CIA assistance as part of the Truman Doctrine. The DFS served a dual function: suppressing leftist movements during Mexico’s “Dirty War” while simultaneously providing institutional protection for drug trafficking organizations. As Peter Dale Scott noted, “the DFS was in part a CIA creation” and “the CIA’s closest government allies were for years in the DFS.” Dissolved in 1985 following the Camarena affair.