Mexican Federal Police

The Mexican Federal Police (or Policía Federal) are the uniformed federal police force of the country of Mexico. Formerly known as the Policía Federal Preventiva (Federal Preventive Police), the agency is directed by the Secretariat of Public Security. It was created in 1998 by the merger of several other federal police agencies (the Federal Highway Police, the Fiscal Police, a Military Police Brigade and an Interior Ministry intelligence unit) in order to better co-ordinate the fight against the growing threat of drug cartels. Agents of the Federal Police are sometimes referred to a Federales.