Thursday, August 11, 2011

Feds cooperate & allowed Sinaloa cartel to traffic cocaine into U.S.

By Michael Webster
The U.S. government through our federal agents have encouraged the largest and most feared Mexican drug cartel ( Sinaloa) to traffic several tons of cocaine into the United States in exchange for information about Los Zetas and other rival cartels, according to U.S. federal court documents obtained by U.S. Border Fire Report.

The information is part of the defense of Vicente Zambada-Niebla, who was extradited to the United States to face drug-trafficking charges in Chicago. He is also a top lieutenant of drug kingpin Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman and the son of Ismael "Mayo" Zambada-Garcia, believed to be the brains behind the Sinaloa cartel.
According to the U.S. Attorney General, the Sinaloa Cartel is responsible for importing into the United States and distributing nearly 200 tons of cocaine and large amounts of heroin between 1990 and 2008.
If true this case involving the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) is proving to be equally as blatant and illegal as "Operation Fast and Furious," and puts it in the same deadly category and on par with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' (ATF) "Operation Fast and Furious," which included the DEA and other Federal law enforcement agencies except that instead of U.S. guns being allowed to walk across the border, the Sinaloa cartel was allowed to bring drugs into the United States. Zambada-Niebla claims he was permitted to smuggle drugs from 2004 until his arrest in 2009.
Zambada’s claim, if true, adds credence to suspicions long in play that the Mexican and U.S. governments are essentially showing favor toward the Sinaloa drug organization and its leadership … as part of a broader strategy to weaken and ultimately eliminate rival narco organizations
The court in Chicago had a status hearing on Wednesday and ordered the government to respond to allegations in Zambada-Niebla's motion by Sept. 11. 2011.
Guzman and the Zambadas allegedly provided agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement  (ICE) with information about other Mexican drug traffickers through Loya-Castro.
"Loya himself continued his drug trafficking activities with the knowledge of the United States government without being arrested or prosecuted," the court documents state.
Zambada-Niebla met voluntarily with U.S. federal agents on March 17, 2009, at the Sheraton Hotel in Mexico City, which is near the U.S. Embassy, "for the purpose of his continuing to provide information to the DEA and the U.S. government personally, rather than through Loya," court records allege.
"DEA agents (then) told Loya-Castro to tell Mr. Zambada-Niebla that they wanted to continue the same arrangements with him as they had with Mr. Loya-Castro."
Five hours after the meeting, Mexican authorities arrested Zambada-Niebla and extradited him later to the United States. His father and Guzman are fugitives.
The court documents also allege that the U.S. government is using a "divide and conquer" strategy, "using one drug organization to help against others."
Zambada-Niebla's motion seeks U.S. government records about the 2003 Juárez case involving an informant who participated in several homicides for the Carrillo-Fuentes drug cartel, while under ICE's supervision.
He also requested records about the ATF's "Operation Fast and Furious," which permitted weapons purchased illegally in the United States to be smuggled into Mexico, sometimes by paid U.S. informants and cartel leaders.
Mexico’s Zambada is also accused of conspiring to obtain weapons in the U.S. to wreak havoc during the period he claims to have been working for the federal government. The Obama administration is refusing to cooperate with a congressional investigation of the ATF operation that was deliberately giving high-powered weapons to Mexican cartels, some of which were used in the murders of U.S. federal agents.
A law professor highlighted the seriousness of the allegations in an interview with Fronteras Projectreporter Michel Marizco. “Essentially, this is the type of claim by a defendant that puts the government on trial; saying that the government sponsored illegal activity,” asserted Wayne State University Law School professor Peter Henning, pointing out that a “public authority” defense is almost unheard of in organized crime cases.
“Given what’s going on with the Mexican drug cartels, the last thing the United States can handle is any kind of finding that it in fact sponsored one of the drug cartels,” he added.
This would not be the first time the federal government’s involvement in drug trafficking has been exposed. Former DEA boss Robert Bonner actually went on CBS and accused the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of importing cocaine. The New York Times covered part of the story, too, in a piece entitled "Anti-Drug Unit of C.I.A. Sent Ton of Cocaine to U.S. in 1990."
According to analysts, there is likely much more to come about these stories — unless, as some speculate, the case completely disappears from public view under the guise of "national security." But with almost 40,000 murders in Mexico attributed to the government’s war on drugs in recent years, interest will certainly not fade any time soon.
 
In another unexplained activity of the U.S. Government Mexican lawyer Humberto Loya-Castro, another high-level Sinaloa cartel leader, had his 1995 U.S. drug-trafficking case dismissed in 2008 after serving as an informant for 10 years for the U.S. government.
Investigative journalist Gary Webb exposed a drug-trafficking network reaching into the highest levels of the U.S. government. The cocaine profits were being used to finance various clandestine operations in Latin America. Webb eventually died from two gunshot wounds to the head in what authorities dubbed a “suicide.” But the government eventually admitted to even more than what he had exposed.
The allegations made by Zambada add to worries about a long list of suspicious government operations attracting scrutiny in recent weeks. With the exposure of the ATF’s Operation Gunrunner, project "Fast and Furious"; along with recent revelations that some al Qaeda terrorists were working with Western intelligence agencies, even as others currently serve as U.S. government allies in Libya; it appears to critics that many of the “boogey men” the federal government claims to be saving Americans from are not always what they seem
"It is estimated that approximately 3,000 people were killed in Mexico and at least two American federal agents were killed as a result of 'Operation Fast and Furious,' including many other Mexican law enforcement officers in the state of Sinaloa, Mexico, the headquarters of the Sinaloa cartel. The Department of Justice's leadership apparently saw this as an ingenious way of combating drug cartel activities. Randall Samborn, assistant U.S. attorney and spokesman for the Justice Department in Chicago, declined comment.  Calls to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder have not been returned.
Just how much of the tons of cocaine allowed into this country by the feds lead to arrests and convictions is not known. But what we do believe said a long time DEA informant who wants to remain anonymous is those drugs produced millions of dollars in cash for the Sinaloa cartel. Some wonder how much of that was shared with Mexican And American authorities " I am sure as a result of these illegal dealings in both drugs and guns by the U.S. government many lives in Mexico have been lost as well as American lives being affected in very negative ways including U.S. law enforcement officers being murdered."


Sources:
U.S. Federal Court Documents
El Paso Times
New American
Other open source news media of Mexico


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