More links at the link.An investigation by El Universal has found that between 2000 and 2012, the U.S. government had an agreement with Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel that allowed the organisation to smuggle billions of dollars of drugs in exchange for information on rival cartels.
Sinaloa, led by Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, supplies 80% of the drugs entering the Chicago area and has a presence in cities across the U.S.
There have long been allegations that Guzman, considered the “world’s most powerful drug trafficker,” coordinates with American authorities.
But the El Universal investigation is the first to publish court documents that include corroborating testimony from a DEA agent and a Justice Department official.
The written statements were made to the U.S. District Court in Chicago in relation to the arrest of Jesus Vicente Zambada-Niebla, the son of Sinaloa leader Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and allegedly the Sinaloa cartel’s “logistics coordinator.”
Here’s what DEA agent Manuel Castanon told the Chicago court:
“On March 17, 2009, I met for approximately 30 minutes in a hotel room in Mexico City with Vincente Zambada-Niebla and two other individuals — DEA agent David Herrod and a cooperating source [Sinaloa lawyer Loya Castro] with whom I had worked since 2005. … I did all of the talking on behalf of DEA.”
A few hours later, Mexican Marines arrested Zambada-Niebla on charges of trafficking more than a billion dollars in cocaine and heroin. Castanon and three other agents then visited Zambada-Niebla in prison, where the Sinaloa officer “reiterated his desire to cooperate.”
El Universal, citing court documents, reports that DEA agents met with high level Sinaloa officials more than 50 times since 2000.
http://www.businessinsider.com.au/the-u ... tel-2014-1
The drug war is bring used to bring gun control to America. Same as the first drug war Alcohol Prohibition did. On top of that, one of the cartels got a free pass to bring in heroin and cocaine.Zambada-Niebla also alleged that Operation Fast and Furious was part of an agreement to finance and arm the cartel in exchange for information used to take down its rivals. (If true, that re-raises the issue regarding what Attorney General Eric Holder’s knew about the gun-running arrangements.)
http://www.businessinsider.com.au/the-u ... tel-2014-1
About 124 died of drug overdoses in my county last year. A decade ago the number was 2. Our local paper reports that heroin is cheaper than ever. The drug war is allowing selected cartels to bring unregulated and unmonitored drugs into the country.
And conservatives - just as they were during alcohol prohibition - are the chief supporters of prohibition. Evidently they learned nothing in the interim. You would think that fighting the communists/socialist would be a higher priority than fighting a losing battle (heroin and cocaine prohibition will be 100 years old this year). But you would be wrong. Fighting the culture war is a higher priority. Even if it means losing to the communists AND losing the culture war.
Ah well. And funny thing? Prohibition was a Progressive idea.