Post by redjamescash on Jan 19, 2014 9:02:40 GMT -5
U.S. Government and Top Mexican Drug Cartel Exposed as Partners
Tuesday, 14 January 2014 19:00
Written by
Alex Newman
For over a decade, under multiple administrations, the U.S.
government had a secret agreement with the ruthless Mexican Sinaloa drug
cartel that allowed it to operate with impunity, an in-depth investigation
by a leading Mexican newspaper confirmed this week. In exchange for
information and assistance in quashing competing criminal syndicates,
the Bush and Obama administrations let the Sinaloa cartel import tons of
drugs into the United States while wiping out Sinaloa competitors and
ensuring that its leaders would not be prosecuted for their long list of
major crimes. Other revelations also point strongly to massive but clandestine U.S. government involvement in drug trafficking.
Relying on over 100 interviews with current and former government
functionaries on both sides of the border, as well as official documents
from the U.S. and Mexican governments, Mexico’s El Universal
concluded that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA),
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the U.S. Justice
Department had secretly worked with Mexican drug lords. The
controversial conspiring led to increased violence across Mexico, where
many tens of thousands have been murdered in recent years, the newspaper
found after its year-long probe. The U.S. agents and their shady deals
with Mexican drug lords even sparked what the paper called a “secret
war” inside Mexico.
www.eluniversal.com.mx/nacion-mexico/2014/impreso/la-guerra-secreta-de-la-dea-en-mexico-212050.html
narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/bill-conroy/2014/01/dea-case-threatens-expose-us-government-sanctioned-drug-running
The newspaper’s investigation also confirmed long-held suspicions
that U.S. authorities were signing secret agreements with Mexican drug
cartels — especially Sinaloa, which CIA operatives have said was
a favorite for use in achieving geo-political objectives. Supposedly
without the knowledge or approval of officials in Mexico, ICE and DEA,
with a green light from Washington, D.C., made deals with criminal
bosses allowing them to avoid prosecution for a vast crime spree that
has included mass murder, corruption, bribery, drug trafficking,
extortion, and more. In exchange, cartel leaders simply had to help U.S.
officials eliminate their competitors — certainly a win-win scenario
for crime bosses who prefer to operate without competition or fear of
prosecution.
As The New American first reported
in early 2011, a high-ranking operative with the Sinaloa cartel had
outlined elements of the criminal agreements with U.S. authorities in
official court documents. “The government of the United States and its
various agencies have a long history of providing benefits, permission,
and immunity to criminals and their organizations to commit crimes,
including murder, in exchange for receiving information against other
criminals and other organizations,” trafficker Jesus Vicente “El
Vicentillo” Zambada-Niebla argued in U.S. court filings cited by El Universal. The New American has also reported extensively on the Zambada-Niebla case and what it reveals.
Experts quoted in the Mexican paper echoed other analysts who have
spoken out in recent years, saying that the U.S. government scheming
handed the Sinaloa cartel de facto status as the primary powerhouse. In
fact, during the period when El Universal says the relationship
between American officials and Sinaloa chieftains was most active —
2006 through 2012 — drug war-fueled violence in Mexico surged to
unprecedented levels. There are numerous indications that despite
official denials, top Mexican officials may have been aware of the
schemes, or even involved in them.
Also part of the U.S. government deal with Sinaloa, analysts and
Zambada-Niebla have said, was the Obama administration’s “Fast and
Furious” gun-running program to arm Mexican cartels at U.S. taxpayer
expense. Most recently, a whistleblower from the Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) said that U.S. Border Patrol
agent Brian Terry, killed with a Fast and Furious gun, was murdered by criminals working for the FBI.
“It is clear that some of the weapons were deliberately allowed by the
FBI and other government representatives to end up in the hands of the
Sinaloa Cartel,” stated a motion filed in U.S. court by Zambada-Niebla’s
defense team, adding that the U.S. government has documents showing
that the weapons were provided by authorities pursuant to the agreement
with Sinaloa.
According to former officials and drug kingpins, the agreements
between Sinaloa and Washington also allowed the criminal empire to ship
multi-ton quantities of hard drugs across the border into the United
States. In all, El Universal said there had been at least 50
meetings in Mexico between U.S. government agents and senior Sinaloa
bosses, along with many more phone calls and e-mails. The criminal
syndicate’s leaders “were given carte blanche to continue to smuggle
tons of illicit drugs into Chicago and the rest of the United States and
were also protected by the United States government from arrest and
prosecution,” Zambada-Niebla’s court filings state, adding that the U.S.
government has the documents proving it. “Indeed, United States
government agents aided the leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel.”
Unsurprisingly, none of the American federal agencies implicated in
the machinations would comment on the revelations. However, citing court
documents and official records it published online — as well as
numerous interviews with federal agents, convicts, and analysts — the
paper was able to conclusively confirm what experts and even officials
have been arguing for years: The U.S. government is deeply intertwined
with the drug trade. It was not clear what statutory or constitutional
authority Washington, D.C., believes would authorize its functionaries
to participate in, protect, and facilitate wanton criminal activity.
Mexican authorities, meanwhile, were reportedly kept largely out of
the loop surrounding DEA meetings and agreements with top leaders in
Mexico’s most notorious criminal syndicates. Officials in Mexico also
claimed to be in the dark about the Obama administration's program to
arm the cartels with U.S. weapons. According to analysts quoted in the El Universal
report, if it is true that Mexico City was unaware, that only adds to
the troubling implications of the unlawful scheming between U.S.
officials and criminal bosses from Mexico and Colombia to Afghanistan
and Southeast Asia.
Among other concerns, experts highlighted violations of human rights,
infringements on the sovereignty of other nations, and more. It also
helped fuel the devastating violence that has plagued the nation and
claimed the lives of between 50,000 and 100,000 people in less than a
decade. If Mexican authorities in fact approved the U.S. government’s
drug-running schemes in Mexico, they broke the law, too, legal experts
told the paper, saying the Mexican Constitution could not be trumped by
bilateral agreements or anything else.
The latest revelations in the El Universal report came just
days after the emergence of more explosive information implicating the
CIA in drug-trafficking yet again. In an investigative article for Narco News entitled “DEA Case Threatens to Expose US Government-Sanctioned Drug-Running,”
narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/bill-conroy/2014/01/dea-case-threatens-expose-us-government-sanctioned-drug-running
veteran drug-war journalist Bill Conroy highlights another U.S.
government investigation that, perhaps inadvertently, ended up
implicating the infamous American intelligence agency in major cocaine
trafficking operations once more. Citing official documents and numerous
U.S. officials, the piece also notes that CIA-sponsored drug running
has been a persistent and ongoing problem.
In fact, it would not be the first time that the DEA has stumbled on
major CIA drug-running operations. Even former DEA chief Robert Bonner,
during an explosive interview with CBS,
revealed that his agency had learned that the U.S. intelligence outfit
unlawfully imported a ton of cocaine into the United States in
cooperation with the Venezuelan government. According to the agency’s
inspector general, the CIA was indeed working with traffickers but
received a “waiver” from the Justice Department purporting to allow the
government crime spree to remain secret. More recently, a Mexican
official accused the CIA of “managing” the global drug trade.
www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/crime/item/12247-cia-manages-drug-trade-mexican-official-says
The Mexican investigation follows decades of explosive revelations and accusations, many documented by The New American,
suggesting that Washington, D.C., plays a crucial role in facilitating
the international drug trade. In fact, more than a few officials, drug
lords, and analysts have even said that the CIA and other secretive U.S. and foreign agencies actually run the global trade in narcotics, laundering the profits, and more. The DEA was even investigated by Congress last year for helping to launder drug money, while the ATF was exposed supplying U.S. weapons to Mexican cartels. ICE has reportedly been allowing cartel hit men into the United States to murder. So far, none of the high-ranking officials responsible for the lawlessness have truly been held accountable.
Photo shows alleged hit men working for Sinaloa drug cartel along with grenades, automatic weapons, and body armor: AP Images
Alex Newman, a foreign correspondent for The New American, is normally based in Europe after growing up in Latin America, including seven years in Mexico. He can be reached at
anewman@thenewamerican.com.
Related articles:
CIA “Manages” Drug Trade, Mexican Official Says
Reports: CIA Working with Mexican Drug Cartels
Trafficker: U.S. Feds Aided Mexican Drug Cartel
Mexican Drug Trafficker Says He Worked With Feds
Stratfor Sources: U.S. Troops in Mexico as Feds Aid Cartels
Congress Probes DEA Drug Money Laundering Scheme
Feds Let Mexican Cartel Hit Men Kill in U.S., Senior Lawman Told Stratfor
Fast and Furious: FBI Now Linked to Murder of U.S. Border Agent
U.S. Judge: Obama Homeland Security Aiding Criminal Conspiracies
Impeachment Support Soars as Voters Say Feds “Out of Control”
Tuesday, 14 January 2014 19:00
Written by
Alex Newman
For over a decade, under multiple administrations, the U.S.
government had a secret agreement with the ruthless Mexican Sinaloa drug
cartel that allowed it to operate with impunity, an in-depth investigation
by a leading Mexican newspaper confirmed this week. In exchange for
information and assistance in quashing competing criminal syndicates,
the Bush and Obama administrations let the Sinaloa cartel import tons of
drugs into the United States while wiping out Sinaloa competitors and
ensuring that its leaders would not be prosecuted for their long list of
major crimes. Other revelations also point strongly to massive but clandestine U.S. government involvement in drug trafficking.
Relying on over 100 interviews with current and former government
functionaries on both sides of the border, as well as official documents
from the U.S. and Mexican governments, Mexico’s El Universal
concluded that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA),
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the U.S. Justice
Department had secretly worked with Mexican drug lords. The
controversial conspiring led to increased violence across Mexico, where
many tens of thousands have been murdered in recent years, the newspaper
found after its year-long probe. The U.S. agents and their shady deals
with Mexican drug lords even sparked what the paper called a “secret
war” inside Mexico.
www.eluniversal.com.mx/nacion-mexico/2014/impreso/la-guerra-secreta-de-la-dea-en-mexico-212050.html
narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/bill-conroy/2014/01/dea-case-threatens-expose-us-government-sanctioned-drug-running
The newspaper’s investigation also confirmed long-held suspicions
that U.S. authorities were signing secret agreements with Mexican drug
cartels — especially Sinaloa, which CIA operatives have said was
a favorite for use in achieving geo-political objectives. Supposedly
without the knowledge or approval of officials in Mexico, ICE and DEA,
with a green light from Washington, D.C., made deals with criminal
bosses allowing them to avoid prosecution for a vast crime spree that
has included mass murder, corruption, bribery, drug trafficking,
extortion, and more. In exchange, cartel leaders simply had to help U.S.
officials eliminate their competitors — certainly a win-win scenario
for crime bosses who prefer to operate without competition or fear of
prosecution.
As The New American first reported
in early 2011, a high-ranking operative with the Sinaloa cartel had
outlined elements of the criminal agreements with U.S. authorities in
official court documents. “The government of the United States and its
various agencies have a long history of providing benefits, permission,
and immunity to criminals and their organizations to commit crimes,
including murder, in exchange for receiving information against other
criminals and other organizations,” trafficker Jesus Vicente “El
Vicentillo” Zambada-Niebla argued in U.S. court filings cited by El Universal. The New American has also reported extensively on the Zambada-Niebla case and what it reveals.
Experts quoted in the Mexican paper echoed other analysts who have
spoken out in recent years, saying that the U.S. government scheming
handed the Sinaloa cartel de facto status as the primary powerhouse. In
fact, during the period when El Universal says the relationship
between American officials and Sinaloa chieftains was most active —
2006 through 2012 — drug war-fueled violence in Mexico surged to
unprecedented levels. There are numerous indications that despite
official denials, top Mexican officials may have been aware of the
schemes, or even involved in them.
Also part of the U.S. government deal with Sinaloa, analysts and
Zambada-Niebla have said, was the Obama administration’s “Fast and
Furious” gun-running program to arm Mexican cartels at U.S. taxpayer
expense. Most recently, a whistleblower from the Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) said that U.S. Border Patrol
agent Brian Terry, killed with a Fast and Furious gun, was murdered by criminals working for the FBI.
“It is clear that some of the weapons were deliberately allowed by the
FBI and other government representatives to end up in the hands of the
Sinaloa Cartel,” stated a motion filed in U.S. court by Zambada-Niebla’s
defense team, adding that the U.S. government has documents showing
that the weapons were provided by authorities pursuant to the agreement
with Sinaloa.
According to former officials and drug kingpins, the agreements
between Sinaloa and Washington also allowed the criminal empire to ship
multi-ton quantities of hard drugs across the border into the United
States. In all, El Universal said there had been at least 50
meetings in Mexico between U.S. government agents and senior Sinaloa
bosses, along with many more phone calls and e-mails. The criminal
syndicate’s leaders “were given carte blanche to continue to smuggle
tons of illicit drugs into Chicago and the rest of the United States and
were also protected by the United States government from arrest and
prosecution,” Zambada-Niebla’s court filings state, adding that the U.S.
government has the documents proving it. “Indeed, United States
government agents aided the leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel.”
Unsurprisingly, none of the American federal agencies implicated in
the machinations would comment on the revelations. However, citing court
documents and official records it published online — as well as
numerous interviews with federal agents, convicts, and analysts — the
paper was able to conclusively confirm what experts and even officials
have been arguing for years: The U.S. government is deeply intertwined
with the drug trade. It was not clear what statutory or constitutional
authority Washington, D.C., believes would authorize its functionaries
to participate in, protect, and facilitate wanton criminal activity.
Mexican authorities, meanwhile, were reportedly kept largely out of
the loop surrounding DEA meetings and agreements with top leaders in
Mexico’s most notorious criminal syndicates. Officials in Mexico also
claimed to be in the dark about the Obama administration's program to
arm the cartels with U.S. weapons. According to analysts quoted in the El Universal
report, if it is true that Mexico City was unaware, that only adds to
the troubling implications of the unlawful scheming between U.S.
officials and criminal bosses from Mexico and Colombia to Afghanistan
and Southeast Asia.
Among other concerns, experts highlighted violations of human rights,
infringements on the sovereignty of other nations, and more. It also
helped fuel the devastating violence that has plagued the nation and
claimed the lives of between 50,000 and 100,000 people in less than a
decade. If Mexican authorities in fact approved the U.S. government’s
drug-running schemes in Mexico, they broke the law, too, legal experts
told the paper, saying the Mexican Constitution could not be trumped by
bilateral agreements or anything else.
The latest revelations in the El Universal report came just
days after the emergence of more explosive information implicating the
CIA in drug-trafficking yet again. In an investigative article for Narco News entitled “DEA Case Threatens to Expose US Government-Sanctioned Drug-Running,”
narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/bill-conroy/2014/01/dea-case-threatens-expose-us-government-sanctioned-drug-running
veteran drug-war journalist Bill Conroy highlights another U.S.
government investigation that, perhaps inadvertently, ended up
implicating the infamous American intelligence agency in major cocaine
trafficking operations once more. Citing official documents and numerous
U.S. officials, the piece also notes that CIA-sponsored drug running
has been a persistent and ongoing problem.
In fact, it would not be the first time that the DEA has stumbled on
major CIA drug-running operations. Even former DEA chief Robert Bonner,
during an explosive interview with CBS,
revealed that his agency had learned that the U.S. intelligence outfit
unlawfully imported a ton of cocaine into the United States in
cooperation with the Venezuelan government. According to the agency’s
inspector general, the CIA was indeed working with traffickers but
received a “waiver” from the Justice Department purporting to allow the
government crime spree to remain secret. More recently, a Mexican
official accused the CIA of “managing” the global drug trade.
www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/crime/item/12247-cia-manages-drug-trade-mexican-official-says
The Mexican investigation follows decades of explosive revelations and accusations, many documented by The New American,
suggesting that Washington, D.C., plays a crucial role in facilitating
the international drug trade. In fact, more than a few officials, drug
lords, and analysts have even said that the CIA and other secretive U.S. and foreign agencies actually run the global trade in narcotics, laundering the profits, and more. The DEA was even investigated by Congress last year for helping to launder drug money, while the ATF was exposed supplying U.S. weapons to Mexican cartels. ICE has reportedly been allowing cartel hit men into the United States to murder. So far, none of the high-ranking officials responsible for the lawlessness have truly been held accountable.
Photo shows alleged hit men working for Sinaloa drug cartel along with grenades, automatic weapons, and body armor: AP Images
Alex Newman, a foreign correspondent for The New American, is normally based in Europe after growing up in Latin America, including seven years in Mexico. He can be reached at
anewman@thenewamerican.com.
Related articles:
CIA “Manages” Drug Trade, Mexican Official Says
Reports: CIA Working with Mexican Drug Cartels
Trafficker: U.S. Feds Aided Mexican Drug Cartel
Mexican Drug Trafficker Says He Worked With Feds
Stratfor Sources: U.S. Troops in Mexico as Feds Aid Cartels
Congress Probes DEA Drug Money Laundering Scheme
Feds Let Mexican Cartel Hit Men Kill in U.S., Senior Lawman Told Stratfor
Fast and Furious: FBI Now Linked to Murder of U.S. Border Agent
U.S. Judge: Obama Homeland Security Aiding Criminal Conspiracies
Impeachment Support Soars as Voters Say Feds “Out of Control”