DEA Agent and Justice Department Official Testify In Court that the U.S. Backed the Sinaloa Drug Cartel Between 2000 and 2012
Time reports:
The U.S. government allowed the Mexican Sinaloa drug cartel to carry out its business unimpeded between 2000 and 2012 in exchange for information on rival cartels, an investigation by El Universal claims.
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Dr. Edgardo Buscaglia, a senior research scholar in law and economics at Columbia University, says that the tactic has been previously used in Colombia, Cambodia, Thailand and Afghanistan.
“Of course, this modus operandi involves a violation of public international law, besides adding more fuel to the violence, violations of due process and of human rights,” he toldEl Universal.
Myles Frechette, a former U.S. ambassador to Colombia, said while that the problem of drug trafficking in Colombia persists, the tactic of secret agreements had managed to reduce it.The period when the relationship between the DEA and Sinaloa was supposed to have been the closest, between 2006 and 2012, saw a major surge of violence in Mexico, and was the time when the Sinaloa cartel rose significantly in prominence.
Business Insider writes:
There have long been allegations that Guzman, considered to be “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.
Fox News reports:
According to the motion, the deal was part of a ‘divide and conquer’ strategy, where the U.S. helped finance and arm the Sinaloa cartel, through Operation Fast and Furious, in exchange for information that allowed the D.E.A. and FBI to destroy and dismantle rival Mexican cartels.
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“Under that agreement, the Sinaloa Cartel, through Loya, was to provide information accumulated by Mayo, Chapo, and others, against rival Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations to the United States government. In return, the United States government agreed to dismiss the prosecution of the pending case against Loya, not to interfere with his drug trafficking activities and those of the Sinaloa Cartel, to not actively prosecute him, Chapo, Mayo, and the leadership of the Sinaloa Cartel, and to not apprehend them.”
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The motion claims Mayo, Chapo and Zambada- Niebla routinely passed information through Loya to the D.E.A. that allowed it to make drug busts. In return, the U.S. helped the leaders evade Mexican police.
It says: “In addition, the defense has evidence that from time to time, the leadership of the Sinaloa Cartel was informed by agents of the DEA through Loya that United States government agents and/or Mexican authorities were conducting investigations near the home territories of cartel leaders so that the cartel leaders could take appropriate actions to evade investigators– even though the United States government had indictments, extradition requests, and rewards for the apprehension of Mayo, Chapo, and other alleged leaders, as well as Mr. Zambada-Niebla.”
Salon notes:
Under the remit of the War on Drugs, millions of U.S. citizens have faced arrest and jail time for minor, nonviolent charges. All the while, it has been revealed, the U.S. government has been enabling billions of dollars worth of drugs to flood into the country from Mexico because of shady deals with the notorious Sinaloa cartel.
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Sinaloa (believed to supply 80 percent of Chicago’s street drugs) has been working with U.S. authorities since 2000 to provide information in return for immunity and undisturbed drug trafficking. Court documents obtained by El Universal show testimony from DEA and DOJ officials affirming the relationship.
The U.S. government has – at least at some times in some parts of the world – long protected drug operations. (Big American banks also launder money for drug cartels. See this, this, this and this. Indeed,drug dealers kept the banking system afloat during the depths of the 2008 financial crisis.)
And opium production is at an all-time high under the American occupation of Afghanistan.
Is American backing of the Sinaloa drug cartel another instance of U.S. government involvement in the drug trade? Or a misconceived attempt to back one devil (the Sinaloa cartel has been responsible formassive violence in Mexico) against another?
This is analogous to America’s backing of the most dangerous and violent Muslim terrorists for decades … in order to contain rival Muslim factions.
Absolutely idiotic …
