A Mexican drug cartel protected by the CIA

 

Testimonies of Vicente Zambada, former leader of a drug cartel apprehended by the Mexican police and turned in to American authorities in 2009, prove the fact that major government organisms in the United States have collaborated with one of the most dangerous and powerful criminal organizations in the world: the Sinaloa cartel.

Zambada was charged for leading operations for the cartel, transporting enormous amounts of cocaine into the United States by using 747 Boeing cargo-jets, private jets, buses, automobiles etc.

17 months after the authorities made a 5.5 tons of cocaine capture in Yucatan, Mexico, from a DC9 jet registered into the United States, an accident took place in the same region, in September of 2009, in which a Gulfstream II aircraft was involved, whose registration number was N987SA, belonging to an American ghost-company with the name of Donna Blue Aircraft Inc., the sort of company which is generally used by government organizations like the CIA as a front for their dirty business. Authorities arriving at the crash site discovered 3.7 tons of cocaine on the aircraft. Research has proven the fact that the drugs belonged to the Sinaloa cartel, led by Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán, who is one of the richest men in the world, according to Forbes magazine.

The plane was property of the CIA

How did the plane get to be used by the Sinaloa cartel? European investigators have discovered starting from the aircraft registration number, that the plane was used in CIA extradition missions. Its bill of sale had been drawn up just a few weeks before the crash and it was signed by Greg Smith, a pilot who worked for FBI, DEA and the CIA. The purchase had been done through a Columbian drug cartel whose member was Nelson Urrego, CIA agent.

According to Mexican authorities, Gulfstream II was one of the aircrafts purchased by the Sinaloa cartel through a complicated money laundering network which involved a group of currency exchange houses controlled by one of the leaders of the Sinaloa organization, a certain Pedro Alfonso Alatorre Damy.

The transaction was done through the American banking giant Wachovia, now a subsidiary of Wells Fargo, who received a total of 13 million dollars. Subsequently, Wachovia was forced to pay penalties worth 160 million dollars for allowing the money to be laundered through this transaction.

One year later, Vicente Zambada, who had been involved in operation Gulfstream and one of Guzmán’s associates, was caught and extradited into the United States. In the beginning of April 2009, during a hearing at the Federal Court of Chicago, Zambada stated that since January 1st 2004, he used to work in the name of and under the authority of the Department of Justice of the United States, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, the Bureau for Immigration and the United States Government, and that these government organizations have protected him and collaborated with him.

Next to narcotic trafficking, Zambada is also charged with gun trafficking, that he allegedly did while being associated with United States organizations in order to cause a wave of violence in Mexico City. In spite of the fact that the Obama administration presented this weaponry leak as a fact meant to restrict the Americans’ right to bear arms, it was recently discovered that the Department for Alcohol, Tobacco, Guns and Explosives in the United States has deliberately allowed these weapons to get in the hands of the drug mafia leaders, in an operation named “Fast and Furious”. Later on, president Obama has denied that he knew anything about this operation.

Zambada’s testimonies regarding the United States’ involvement in drug trafficking are yet another proof which adds up to several others confirming the fact that the CIA and the US banking giants are downright involved in international drug trafficking from which the great moguls who are behind these shady operations win hundreds of billions dollars each year.

Systematic protection

In an interview given to the Mexican publication El Diario de Juárez, journalist Anabel Hernádez, who has been living in exile in Italy, declared that in the war against drug trafficking in Mexico, the federal government and the DEA are not to touch the people of the Sinaloa cartel. He stated that the protection the Sinaloa cartel receives from the government is “systematic”.

In his new book, Los Senores del Narco (“Masters of Drugs”), Hernández gives detailed information explaining why Guzmán is being detained by the American government and he says that the story about his escape from prison in 2001, using the truck of a public wash house, is completely false. He also mentions the fact that Forbes magazine considers Guzmán to be one of the richest people in the world, despite of the fact that he is illiterate and incapable of making basic arithmetic calculus.

People in high places

In addition, in his interview, Hernádez declared that the true drug trafficking is done by other people, not by the classical smugglers, who are nothing but mere puppets controlled from the shadows by occult characters. The true lords of drugs are not wanted by the police or by the federal authorities; they are people in high places in economic and political systems, as well as in other fields of activity of the government. By operating from these positions, they were able to create a large network of money laundering and protection for the drug cartels.

CIA’s dirty past

During the 80s, the Central Intelligence Agency was involved in several scandals, being accused of connections with many drug trafficking networks. The purpose of these networks was ultimately, finding a way for financing the secret wars or the black-ops that the agency deployed all over the world. What is interesting is that when the CIA was most active, deploying all sorts of clandestine operations, drug trafficking was significantly higher.

During the war in Vietnam, the CIA brought large quantities of heroin from the South-East of Asia to the United States, in order to finance their secret operations against the communist guerrillas in Laos and Cambodgia.

For this, they used the Nugand-Hand Bank, a financial entity involved in a series of drug-trafficking money-laundering operations, a fact which came out after it became bankrupt in 1980. A noteworthy aspect is that one of the attorneys of Nugand-Hand Bank was William Colby, who will later become the chief of CIA.

In the war between the USSR and Afghanistan, Taliban troops supported by the CIA and the secret Pakistani service, ISI, were involved, among others, in cultivating opium poppy and producing opium. With the help of the CIA, heroine produced from opium could reach the Western world and the money from selling it could finance the Talibans of Osama bin Laden in the fight against he USSR occupation army, which was eventually defeated.

However, the public undoubtedly found out about the CIA connections to the world of drug trafficking once several information were published proving the CIA support for the so-called “Contras” group – fighting for overthrowing the left-wing government in Nicaragua – during its drug trafficking actions meant to finance the war.

Consequently, the streets of the United States were fueled with the most poisonous drug there is: crack. This literally decimated the Africa-American and the Hispanic population who lived in the North-American big city outskirts. This horrifying business began on the 19th of June 1979, Danilo Blandón Reyes, a member of the Nicaraguan high society, former statesman in the Anastasio Somoza regime (the dictator overthrown by the left-wing Sandinist forces), arrived in California.

Blandón’s mission was to cash in funds through organizing parties and propaganda campaigns, but since this plan didn’t work, he decided to bring drug trafficking to the game. Blandón was relying upon the help of Gustavo Medina, former Somozist general and his main business associated, who introduced him to Juan Norwin Meneses, invested by the DEA to deal with the world of drug trafficking. He introduced him to former colonel Enrique Bermúdez, the man chosen by the CIA to organize the opposing army.

Meneses introduced Blandón in this “business”, but  Blandón was responsible of producing the product called “crack”, a derivative of cocaine that could be sold for a lower price than cocaine, since only those who were fool and rich could afford to buy it. The deadly crack thus became the “cocaine for the poor”.

The “Narcontras” scandal lead to the formation of an investigation committee within the American Senate, led by Senator John Kerry, Bush’s opponent in the presidential elections. During the hearings of the respective committee, they found out that the State Department paid 800.000 dollars to air companies lead by renowned drug smugglers, for supplying the opponents with weapons and helping them return with the “merchandise”.

The White House was well aware of the drug trafficking

The senators’ committee concluded that the Reagan Administration “delayed, stopped or blocked” the investigation on drug trafficking required by the opposition. CIA managed to keep the DEA far away from these operations and they stopped the Customs Services from inspecting these flights.

Reports from the Customs Services published to the American Senate were showing that during 1985-1986, approximately a hundred flights of the CIA have landed in the United States without any control, of any kind. On the other hand, American prosecutors who investigated the “Iran-Counter” scandal – the selling of weapons in Iran, whose profits were used to finance the Contras movement – found several notes who were determined to belong to colonel Oliver North – an agent of the National Security Agency who was given orders by president George Bush, to coordinate secret operation of supporting the Contras rebels.

This proved that the White House was familiar with the relations of the military group Contras with the drug-trafficking world, which filled the streets of North America with drugs. Even though North destroyed dozens of files from the archives, judicial investigators have managed to grab hold of a few inventory notebooks. In one of them, North noted: “(The White House) are planning to seize everything… When the super-market will collapse, there will be 14 M dollars for funding that came from drugs.”
“The super-market” seems to refer to the weapon super-market supplying the Contras group, and “14 M dollars” could stand for 14 million dollars.

In other parts of the text, one could read: “DC-6, used for trips to New Orleans, is probably also used for the transportation of drugs in the United States.” In a different document sent to North and drawn up by Robert Owen, a CIA agent tasked with delivering airplanes to the Contras movement, it says: “You are certainly aware that the DC-6 aircraft that Foley used, was used before for transporting drugs.”

In the 20th of January 1987 issue of the New York Times, the following article regarding the hearings in the Kerry commission of the Senate is published: “(Contras pilots) “were secretly giving weapons to the rebels and transporting cocaine and other drugs one their way back into the United States”, according to Administration workers who confessed today. When the pilots found out that the DEA was investigating their activity, they confessed that they benefited from the protection of the White House… “One of the pilots used colonel North’s name”, according to government employees…

The officials were even more concerned when they found out that North demanded the FBI to give up investigating the Southern Air Transport company – one of the CIA companies used for drug-trafficking. Workers from various government departments have state that in the beginning of the last fall, the DEA bureau in Guatemala was in possession of convincing evidence that the operation of supplying weapons to the Contras movement was related to cocaine and marijuana smuggling.” In this direction, the following information was found in one of North’s notebooks: ”the DEA will be advised not to interfere.”

An investigation started by the Congress in Costa Rica concluded with the following: “Certain American institutions have allowed the transport of cocaine through Costa Rica, with the purpose of channeling illegal funds towards the Nicaraguan counter-revolution”. In 1990, Costa Rica president Oscar Arias has denied access into the country to Oliver North, as well as other agents of the American secret services, based on the Congress’ investigation.

The Bush family is involved in drug trafficking

In March of 1985, when aircrafts protected by the CIA landed at American bases, North wrote: “VP disturbed by drug business.” It is without a doubt that VP stood for vice-president, and at that time, George Bush was vice-president. However, George Bush serenely stated that he had no information regarding this subject until 1988.
On January the 9th 1996, North wrote: “Felix talks a lot about the connection to the VP”. Felix was Felix Rodriguez, the CIA agent who caught Che Guevara in Bolivia. Rodriguez was considered to be one of George Bush’s entourage, for whom he had conducted dozens of secret operations.

In 1985, when Reagan tasked Bush, based on a presidential order known by the name of NSDD 159, to coordinate all the secret operations of the government, Rodriguez started working with Bush’s team. In 1989, pilot Mike Tolliver, former drug smuggler, stated in a CBS interview that he had been recruited by a certain Mister Hernandez to transport weapons to the Contras rebels. Tolliver believes that Hernandez was in fact agent Felix Rodriguez.

Tolliver stated that in March of 1986, he piloted a DC-6 plane filled with weaponry and ammunition, from Miami airport to an air base of the Contras movement in Honduras, which was controlled by the Pentagon. Upon arrival, Contras military unloaded the armament and Felix paid them with 70.000 dollars. Three days later, Tolliver took off on the same plane, transporting almost 30.000 kg of cocaine and landed as an “unofficial military flight” at the Homestead air base belonging to the Air Force, close to Miami. Tolliver left the plane on the flight strip and left the base in a taxi.

On the other hand, Milian Rodriguez, who was laundering the money coming from drug trafficking, confirmed before the Kerry committee the fact that Felix Rodriguez tasked him with laundering millions of dollars from dozens of companies in Miami connected with the world of drug trafficking.

“Felix would call me and give me instructions on where to send the money”, said the person handling this ingrate mission. One of the people who received most of the money was Adolfo Calero, one of the Contras leaders and also a CIA operative. Milian also stated that Rodriguez had made them an offer that “in return of the money for the Contras cause to use their influence in high circles to obtain favor from the United States… Honestly, he convinced us because he was able to talk directly to Bush… Obtaining favor was not meant to be done by encouraging some endless bureaucratic maneuvers, he was going to discuss this with Bush himself.” Bush’s family ties with the network of drug trafficking have always been subject for debate.

In 1988, FBI agent Darlene Novinger has discovered an important drug trafficking operation in which a rich Lebanese family based in Miami was involved. According to Novinger, George Bush and his son, Jeb, former governor of Florida were involve in this operation. Novinger tracked down leads suggesting the existence of a connection between Bush the father and several organizations tasked with laundering the money from drug trafficking, organizations who operated in the space between Canada and Florida.

In addition, according to their investigations, the Bush family had been blackmailed by drug smugglers who could prove their involvement in criminal activities. Novinger managed to infiltrate within the intimate circle of a great Columbian drug lord, Pablo Escobar Gaviria, where he was able to find out that George Bush senior and his son, Jeb, had travelled on a private plane to Columbia.

Investigative journalist Terry Reed has also stated in his book, Compromised: Clinton, Bush and the CIA that the DEA is in possession of a video recording showing George and Jeb Bush on the Florida airport, getting into possession of two kilos of cocaine for a party. Thus, there is a possibility of a connection between what was mentioned earlier and the disclosures of journalist J.H. Harfield, who wrote that several judicial sources confirmed to him that the former President of the United States, George Bush – junior, had been arrested in 1972 for cocaine possession, but his criminal record had been wiped out by his father’s intervention.

Moving on to the “Narcontras” case, former drug smuggler George Morales stated before the Kerry committee in the American Senate that the CIA built a flight strip in Costa Rica on a farm land belonging to a citizen named John Hull. The Kerry committee found out that in 1985, a federal prosecutor from Miami shut down an investigation on drug trafficking at Hull’s farm because it was “protected by the government”. Morales lead a network of pilots who transported weaponry to Hull’s farm. The armament was destined to reach the Contras group and thousands of kilos of cocaine would return in the United States, protected by the CIA.

Gary Betzner, one of the pilots of Morales, stated: “I smuggled large amounts of illegal substances and in return, we were able to transport smuggled armament. The DEA and the CIA were aware of this and they supported this.” Regarding this problem, Michael Levine, a DEA agent for 25 years, stated for the Los Angeles Times: “The results of the investigations regarding drug trafficking have reached a high level, but they were shut down because the CIA was intervening to protect drug smugglers, in the name of national security.”

So it’s no wonder that in 1983, when supporting operations for the Contras movement became more and more widespread in Honduras, the DEA shutdown their offices in this country. Celestino Castillo, who was back then the chief of DEA for Honduras, El Salvador and Costa Rica, said that he informed his superiors regarding a “North network”.

Castillo said: “In my reports I noted the name of the smugglers, as well as the destination, the trajectory, the number and date of each flight. Every week, hundreds of flights transported cocaine to buyers and returned with money that were destined to the great money-laundering machine in the Panama strait.”

In 1991, during the trial against general Noriega, Columbian drug smuggler Carlos Lehder, prosecution witness, stated that an employee of the American government offered him protection for his cocaine “exports” to the United States in exchange of enabling the network supporting the Contras rebels to use an island of his in the Bahamas.

The scandal of the CIA involvement in drug trafficking was so great in the United States, that CIA director back then, John Deutch, was forced to take part in a community reunion at the headquarters of a social aid institution in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Los Angeles, where there were an impressive numbers of crack addicts. For several hours, Deutch was forced to listen to the accusations from many leaders of the African-American community and those affected by crack.

As a sign of regret, Deutch could only promise the people who were present there that a CIA general inspector will investigate further investigate the facts. But those facts have been quickly and discretely covered up.

This article was taken from the Spiritual yogi camp Costinești 2011 Notebook.

yogaesoteric
may 2015

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