Federales

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Federales (singular Federale or, rarely but aligning with Spanish, Federal) is a Spanish term used in an informal context to denote security forces operating under a federal political system. The term gained widespread usage by English speakers due to popularization in such films as The Wild Bunch, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Blue Streak, the television drama series Breaking Bad and its spinoff prequel Better Call Saul, as well as the song Pancho and Lefty by Townes Van Zandt. The term is a cognate and counterpart to the slang "Feds" in the United States.

Law enforcement

The term is traditionally used for certain Mexican federal police agencies such as:

The Mexican Federal Police, and any of its predecessors

• Federal Preventive Police/Policía Federal Preventiva,
• Federal Highway Police/Policía Federal de Caminos, and
• Federal Fiscal Police/Policía Fiscal Federal.

The

• Federal Investigations Agency/Agencia Federal de Investigación
  and the
• Federal Judicial Police/Policía Judicial Federal.

Military

Historically, "Federales" was also the common term used for the regular