The DEA Struck A Deal With Mexico's Most Notorious Drug Cartel

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**Frazzled**

http://www.chron.com/technology/businessinsider/article/CONFIRMED-The-DEA-Struck-A-Deal-With-Mexico-s-5138855.php?cmpid=hpbn

CONFIRMED: The DEA Struck A Deal With Mexico's Most Notorious Drug Cartel
Michael Kelley, provided by
| January 13, 2014 Comments 26E-mail Print 64 Page 1 of 1
An investigation by El Universal has found that between the years 2000 and 2012, the U.S. government had an arrangement with Mexico's Sinaloa drug cartel that allowed the organization 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 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.

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 [the] DEA."

A few hours later, Mexican Marines arrested Zambada-Niebla (a.k.a. "El Vicentillo") 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.

Then-Justice Department prosecutor Patrick Hearn told the Chicago court that, according to DEA special agent Steve Fraga, Castro "provided information leading to a 23-ton cocaine seizure, other seizures related to "various drug trafficking organizations," and that "El Mayo" Zambada wanted his son to cooperate with the U.S.

"The DEA agents met with members of the cartel in Mexico to obtain information about their rivals and simultaneously built a network of informants who sign drug cooperation agreements, subject to results, to enable them to obtain future benefits, including cancellation of charges in the U.S.," reports El Universal, which also interviewed more than one hundred active and retired police officers as well as prisoners and experts.

Zambada-Niebla's lawyer told the court that in the late 1990s, Castro struck a deal with U.S. agents in which Sinaloa would provide information about rival drug trafficking organizations while the U.S. would dismiss its case against the Sinaloa lawyer and refrain from interfering with Sinaloa drug trafficking activities or actively prosecuting Sinaloa leadership.

"The agents stated that this arrangement had been approved by high-ranking officials and federal prosecutors," Zambada-Niebla lawyer wrote.

After being extradited to Chicago in February 2010, Zambada-Niebla argued that he was also "immune from arrest or prosecution" because he actively provided information to U.S. federal agents.

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 knew about the gun-running arrangements.)

A Mexican foreign service officer told Stratfor in April 2010 that the U.S. seemed to have sided with the Sinaloa cartel in an attempt to limit the violence in Mexico.

El Universal said that the coordination between the U.S. and Sinaloa peaked between 2006 and 2012, which is when drug cartels consolidated their grip on Mexico. The report ends by saying that it is unclear whether the arrangements continue.

The DEA declined to comment to El Universal.

**Ouze**

Wasn't this the plot of a Tom Clancy book?

**pgmason**

Not quite, but it was the plot of Sons of Anarchy.

**rubiksnoob**

Wasn't this the plot of Breaking Bad?

**Frazzled**

Scarface as well.

**LordofHats**

Now we know why the DEA sucks. They watch too much TV.

**Alexzandvar**

Maybe instead of fighting drug deals tooth and nail.....

Spoiler:

**CptJake**

Alexzandvar wrote:
Maybe instead of fighting drug deals tooth and nail.....

Spoiler:

we could just nationally make pot legal since its there biggest cash cow

You may want to do more research on Mexican drug cartel revenue sources.

and the other end of the estimate

http://www.samefacts.com/2011/10/crime-control/mapping-the-revenue-of-mexicos-organized-crime-organizations/

**Alexzandvar**

Pot is still there biggest single cash drug OTHER than "Non drug things"

I still don't see the justifcation of not legalizing and regulating pot, it makes no sense not to.

Make it legal and tax it. There, everyone wins. Except the drug dealers of course

**CptJake**

Were you unable to add the MJ% for CA and non-CA?

Cocaine beats it in both charts.

**Alexzandvar**

Crap sorry, color issues with this old ass laptop :(

But my point still stands, why don't we get the hand up and legalize weed still? At least it takes a chunk out of there bottom line....

**LordofHats**

The catels are not making money of pot. That's a myth that today only continues because it shows up on tv shows (thanks CSI!). They make most of their money from Coke and Meth. Pot isn't a very profitable drug for them because the US users/dealers grow most of their pot domestically.

This has been widely known knowledge for nearly fifteen years. If your reason for legalizing pot is that it cuts from the cartels you're gonna have a bad time, mmkay? Its not like 'pot isn't worth banning' isn't a readily available argument that's already winning.

**CptJake**

If you read the article I linked, you see that it takes less of a chunk out than you think, though it does encourage further diversification.

For example, the reason they split out CA is because for all intents and purposes with the 'medical MJ' being legal, the cartels still get 1/7th of their MJ revenue from CA. So did legalizing it cut into their bottom line? Some. And since it is not their only revenue stream legalizing pot does not kill the cartels.

**Alexzandvar**

Ah well you can't win em all, I apologize for my ignorance

**Frazzled**

CptJake wrote:
Were you unable to add the MJ% for CA and non-CA?

Cocaine beats it in both charts.

legalize it too.

**Medium of Death**

I wonder if it did anything to limit the violence in Mexico, as suggested in the article.

Is the DEA then partly responsible for any of the wrong doings that this cartel most likely perpetrated? I take it the billions of dollars of drugs smuggled, would be getting smuggled into America? Or is it claiming that through inaction the DEA didn't hamper there activities enough and this allowed them an unfair advantage giving them an opportunity to expand their export market across the board?

**hotsauceman1**

Well, someone is going to have their head on a turtle sometime soon

**Dreadclaw69**

We give them guns, we help them ship their drugs, is there anything else that we don't do for them? D

**Easy E**

We also export it to other countries for a quick profit. Wasn;t that the whole "Air America" scandal of Vietnam fame?

My memory is hazy on that.

**Ensis Ferrae**

Easy E wrote:
We also export it to other countries for a quick profit. Wasn;t that the whole "Air America" scandal of Vietnam fame?

My memory is hazy on that.

Thought that was the other way round (as in, we were taking more stuff out of Nam than into it)

**Do_I_Not_Like_That**

Ensis Ferrae wrote:
Easy E wrote:
We also export it to other countries for a quick profit. Wasn;t that the whole "Air America" scandal of Vietnam fame?

My memory is hazy on that.

Thought that was the other way round (as in, we were taking more stuff out of Nam than into it)

Wasn't that because half the US army in Vietnam at the time was on drugs or something?