Cartel Member Makes Startling Claim About Fast and Furious

Bully_Pulpit
Bully_Pulpit Members Posts: 5,501 ✭✭✭✭✭
edited August 2012 in The Social Lounge
The more information uncovered throughout the investigation of Operation Fast and Furious, the more incriminating and controversial it becomes. According to some recent allegations made by a high-ranking Mexican drug cartel operative in American custody, Fast and Furious was an agreement between the U.S. government and the Mexican Sinaloa Cartel to help take down rival cartels. Likewise, the operative indicates that drugs were permitted to be trafficked across the U.S. border from 2004 to 2009, incriminating both the Bush and Obama administrations, if proven true.

Operation Fast and Furious was a gun-running operation led by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (still known as ATF), wherein the ATF lost track of 1,700 guns. The operation resulted in the death of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry, and a number of the guns lost during Fast and Furious appeared at a variety of crime scenes. Investigation into the operation has been particularly incriminating for the ATF,

Jesus Vicente Zambada-Neibla, known as the “logistics coordinator” for the Sinaloa Cartel and a close associate of Sinaloa Cartel kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman (pictured), is now claiming that the strategy orchestrated between the United States and the Sinaloa Cartel through Operation Fast and Furious was one of “divide and conquer.” The United States allegedly financed and armed the cartel in exchange for information that allowed the Drug Enforcement Administration and Immigration and Customs Enforcement to take down rival drug cartels. Zambada-Neibla indicates that so long as the Sinaloa Cartel continued to deliver intelligence to those American agencies, drugs were permitted to be trafficked across the U.S. border.

Based on the alleged agreement ”the Sinaloa Cartel under the leadership of defendant’s father, Ismael Zambada-Niebla and 'Chapo' Guzman, was given carte blanche to continue to smuggle tons of illicit drugs into Chicago and the rest of the United States and was also protected by the U.S. government from arrest and prosecution in return for providing information against rival cartels which helped Mexican and U.S. authorities capture or ? thousands of rival cartel members,” states a motion for discovery filed in U.S. District Court by Zambada-Niebla’s attorney in July 2011.

According to The Blaze, there is some data that could potentially corroborate Zambada-Niebla’s claims:

Zambada-Niebla was reportedly responsible for coordinating all of the Sinaloa Cartel’s multi-ton drug shipments from Central and South American countries, through Mexico, and into the United States. To accomplish this, he used every tool at his disposal: Boeing 747 cargo planes, narco-submarines, container ships, speed boats, fishing vessels, buses, rail cars, tractor trailers and automobiles. But Guzman and Zambada-Niebla’s overwhelming success within the Sinaloa Cartel was largely due to the arrests and dismantling of many of their competitors and their booming businesses in the U.S. from 2004 to 2009 — around the same time ATF’s gun-walking operations were in full swing. Fast and Furious reportedly began in 2009 and continued into early 2011.

Zambada-Niebla’s statements seem to imply that it was a result of a working relationship between the U.S. government and the Sinaloa Cartel.

Additionally, Zambada-Niebla’s allegations are similar to those made by Guillermo Terrazas Villanueva, a spokesman for the Chihuahua state government in northern Mexico. According to Villanueva, the U.S. government does not care to “fight drug traffickers,” but instead to “manage the drug trade.”

"It's like pest control companies, they only control," Guillermo Terrazas Villanueva, the Chihuahua spokesman, told Al Jazeera last month at his office in Juarez. "If you finish off the pests, you are out of a job. If they finish the drug business, they finish their jobs."

However, more senior officials in Chihuahua State dismissed Villaneuva’s claims as “baloney.”

"I think the CIA and DEA [U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency] are on the same side as us in fighting drug gangs," Hector Murguia, the mayor of Juarez, told Al Jazeera during an interview. "We have excellent collaboration with the U.S."

But Hugo Almanda Mireles, a professor at the Autonomous University of Juarez and author of several books, has a differing view. "The war on drugs is an illusion," he observed. "It's a reason to intervene in Latin America. The CIA wants to control the population; they don't want to stop arms trafficking to Mexico, look at [Operation] Fast and Furious.”

U.S. officials have acknowledged working with the Sinaloa Cartel in the past through informant Humberto Loya-Castro, who was indicted with Chapo and Mayo in 1995 for narcotics trafficking conspiracy. That case was dismissed in 2008 after Loya became an informant for the U.S. government.

Under the alleged agreement with U.S. agencies, “the Sinaloa Cartel, through Loya-Castro, was to provide information accumulated by Mayo, Chapo, and others, against rival Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations to the United States government,” a motion for discovery states.

But the federal government is denying that there is any truth to the claims made by Zambada-Niebla.

Meanwhile, Zambada-Niebla’s legal counsel has required records about Operation Fast and Furious, but that request was denied.

From the defense motion:

It is estimated that approximately 3,000 people were killed in Mexico as a result of "Operation Fast and Furious," including 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.

It has recently been disclosed that in addition to the above-referenced problems with "Operation Fast & Furious," the DOJ, DEA, and the FBI knew that some of the people who were receiving the weapons that were being allowed to be transported to Mexico, were in fact informants working for those organizations and included some of the leaders of the cartels.

The official response to Zambada-Niebla’s motion for discovery confirms that there are in fact “classified materials” regarding his case, but denies that those documents “support the defendant’s claim that he was promised immunity or public authority for his actions.”

Congress is closely investigating the claims of Zambada-Neibla. The Blaze reports, “A source in Congress, who spoke to The Blaze on the condition of anonymity, said that some top congressional investigators have been keeping ‘one eye on the case.’ Another two members of Congress, both lead Fast and Furious Congressional investigators, told The Blaze they had never even heard of the case.”

One of those congressmen, who must remain anonymous since criminal proceedings are still ongoing, indicated that the allegations are “disturbing” and that Congress would get involved after Zambada-Neibla’s trial is concluded in the event that significant information is revealed.

“Congress won’t get involved in really any criminal case until the trial is over and the smoke has cleared,” he added. “If the allegations prove to hold any truth, there will be some serious legal ramifications.”
http://thenewamerican.com/usnews/crime/item/12440-cartel-member-makes-startling-claim-about-fast-and-furious

Comments

  • young_reezy
    young_reezy Members Posts: 3,129 ✭✭✭✭✭
    every administration since the reagan era has been involved in the trafficking of drugs
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 0 Regulator
    The user and all related content has been deleted.
  • MrSoutCity
    MrSoutCity Members Posts: 2,709 ✭✭✭✭✭
    This reminds me of the last seasons of sons of anarchy.
  • jono
    jono Members Posts: 30,280 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Unreliable source....but interesting nonetheless.

    The New American is a conservative pro-gun rag and actually uses quotes from The Blaze (Glen Beck's website) and I doubt there is much truth on either of those sites.

    Do you have links on a more credible site? A news site?
  • VIBE
    VIBE Members Posts: 54,384 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Stop blaming our govt, they're innocent. People can never accept that criminals/terrorist can pull this off themselves without help.
  • Bully_Pulpit
    Bully_Pulpit Members Posts: 5,501 ✭✭✭✭✭
    thenewamerican.com unreliable? Thats news to me, although I can see the Beck connection. They are a part of the John Birch society, they shady as ? in the first place. I googled the story and the blaze, prisonplanet and a bunch of "alternative" news type sites also report it.
    This is the closest thing ive found but its FOX and it only alludes to it
    fox19.com/story/19242729/fast-and-furious-about-us-backing-a-mexican-drug-cartel
    What exactly constitutes as a credible site in these times anyway, everyone seems to have an agenda. Journalism is a lost art.
  • jono
    jono Members Posts: 30,280 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Gov't is far from innocent @Vibe

    @ScumbagSwag these days the only way to know a story is real is if both sides take to it and even then its difficult but The New American, American Thinker, The Blaze etc aren't news sources to me.

    Even FOX with its ? misinformation is better than that. I ignore extreme positions, MSNBC is mostly nonsense too to be honest.
  • VIBE
    VIBE Members Posts: 54,384 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Nah, they're given too much credit for tooooooo much ? . Can't believe they're all dumb as ? to allow small scandals out and ? but keep the big ones secret, smh..

    (I know they're not "innocent")
  • The Lonious Monk
    The Lonious Monk Members Posts: 26,258 ✭✭✭✭✭
    The problem with this is that the reality isn't anything like what the informant implies it should be. Think about it, if the US is taking down all of this cartel's rivals, why is there so much violence and death resulting from the gang wars. All those rivals should be too weak from US intervention to stand against the much larger cartel. That's not the case though. The drug war in Mexico has only intensified. This means that the rivals have gotten stronger not weaker.
  • plocc
    plocc Members Posts: 921 ✭✭✭✭
    The government and drugs go back to vietnam, the french connection, and the heroin boom in the 60's and 70's.
  • LUClEN
    LUClEN Members Posts: 20,559 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I thought this was going to be about the movie
  • plocc
    plocc Members Posts: 921 ✭✭✭✭
    Thats why we got action in afganistan. Cause of that poppy. Besides being used for street drugs its also the base for huge amount of pharmaceuticals which as large as oil as far as world commodities go.
  • Inglewood_B
    Inglewood_B Members Posts: 12,246 ✭✭✭✭✭
    i believe it, but not to the point that the US is orchestrating this ? as a big plot for "population control". fact of the matter is these agencies are inept, and its just a matter of convenience between the sinaloas and the DEA/ATF

    sinaloas got some help with rivals... US gov't got some "dope on the table".
  • Iceberg Slick
    Iceberg Slick Members Posts: 784 ✭✭✭✭
    The government started being dope dealers when Reagan found out flooding the hood with ? was profitable. Chapo is just in that elite power circle politicking with politicians and Viagra pushers. He got square billionaires admiring him putting him on Forbes lists and you got armed federales boosting his private army of protection and giving him sanctuary routes to move weight.
  • janklow
    janklow Members, Moderators Posts: 8,613 Regulator
    i believe it, but not to the point that the US is orchestrating this ? as a big plot for "population control". fact of the matter is these agencies are inept, and its just a matter of convenience between the sinaloas and the DEA/ATF
    remember, conspiracy theories make people feel better about the confusing, frightening world they live in. it's like a security blanket

  • huey
    huey Members Posts: 11,743 ✭✭✭✭✭
  • High Revolutionary
    High Revolutionary Members Posts: 3,729 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited August 2012
    janklow wrote: »
    i believe it, but not to the point that the US is orchestrating this ? as a big plot for "population control". fact of the matter is these agencies are inept, and its just a matter of convenience between the sinaloas and the DEA/ATF
    remember, conspiracy theories make people feel better about the confusing, frightening world they live in. it's like a security blanket

    But the opposite is also true. People discredit things and stay willfully ignorant to feel better about the confusing frightening world they live in. The phrase "conspiracy theory" in todays context is basically a euphemism that is used to destroy a persons credibility. It's so overblown and overused it's ridiculous. Nowadays anything out of the scope of one's own perspective or knowledge is deemed a "conspiracy theory".
  • huey
    huey Members Posts: 11,743 ✭✭✭✭✭
    so what the ? are we suppose to believe?
  • High Revolutionary
    High Revolutionary Members Posts: 3,729 ✭✭✭✭✭
    freehuey89 wrote: »
    so what the ? are we suppose to believe?

    If this isn't a rhetorical question,IMO things that align with your own reason and common sense, things that you've cross-referenced and/or are knowledgeable about. Also if you study history, specifically of nations and governments you'll start to see patterns.
  • infamous114
    infamous114 Members, Moderators Posts: 52,202 Regulator
    Wouldn't be surprised if this were true.
  • janklow
    janklow Members, Moderators Posts: 8,613 Regulator
    But the opposite is also true. People discredit things and stay willfully ignorant to feel better about the confusing frightening world they live in.
    see, here's the thing: there's always going to be stuff that we don't know the truth of, or fully understand, and stuff that cannot be ascribed to complicated and well-planned notions. most of us can accept that even if the mystery is unsettling on some level or it's sad to acknowledge that mere human stupidity, for example, can make stuff happen. but some of us...
    The phrase "conspiracy theory" in todays context is basically a euphemism that is used to destroy a persons credibility. It's so overblown and overused it's ridiculous.
    spoken like someone who subscribes to conspiracy theories
  • unspoken_respect
    unspoken_respect Members Posts: 9,821 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Everything makes since which its rarely the case. Its not like this the first time America chose to aid an enemy of an enemy. Ol Eric Smh