DEA and ICE agents met with drug cartels to allow billions of dollars worth of drugs to be smuggled into the U.S., an investigation by El Universal dot com revealed.
By H. Nelson Goodson
January 13, 2014
Mexico City - The Universal dot com reported that federal agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had met with members of the Sinaloa Cartel, Gulf Cartel, including Los Zetas and had reached an agreement to allow billions of dollars of drugs to be smuggle into the U.S. for information leading to the arrest and convictions of rival cartel druglords. The U.S. government and drug cartels scandal involved the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), including the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and three major Mexican cartels, which came to light after the arrest in 2010 and extradition of Jesus Vicente Zambada-Niebla, aka, "El Vicentillo" in 2010. Zambada-Niebla was the logistic coordinator for the Sinaloa Cartel and son of the second in command, Sinaloa druglord, Ismael Zambada, aka, "El Mayo."
In 2010, Zambada-Niebla was extradited to the U.S. and charged for a billion dollar cocaine and heroin trafficking operation and money laundering in a Chicago federal court. Since, he was charged, Zambada-Niebla has been relocated to an undisclosed location and has been cooperating with federal prosecutors about an alleged agreement that Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera had with the DHS, DOJ, DEA and ICE about being allowed to arm his cartel with weapons smuggled into Mexico under the Fast and Furious gun running operation headed by feds and the U.S. Attorney's Office in Arizona.
The alleged Sinaloa Cartel and DOJ agreement allowed for tons of drugs to be smuggled into the U.S. for credible intelligence from three cartels about their rival cartels. The Universal dot com report indicates that Eric Holder, the U.S. Attorney General must have known about the three major drug cartel agreement with the U.S. government.
Zambada-Niebla had insisted that he was immune from U.S. prosecution due a prior agreement with El Chapo and the U.S. government. His father, Zambada instructed his son to cooperate with prosecutors, since an agreement had been reach that he would be immune from prosecution, which was collaborated by several DEA agents, Manuel Castañón, David Herrod, DEA assistant regional director, Carlos Mithem and David Gaddis, the DEA regional director who authorized the agents to negotiate with certain drug cartels. The agents, met with Sinaloa Cartel attorney Humberto Loya-Castro various times in Mexico who had been giving information to the DEA since 2005 and was credited for providing information about a 23-ton smuggling operation, which netted the seizure of a cocaine shipment, according to DEA agent Steve Fraga.
On March 18, 2009, DEA agents Castañón and Herrod met with Zambada-Niebla and Castro at a Sheraton Hotel in Mexico around 8:05 p.m. for 30 minutes to negotiate intelligence against rival cartels. No one other than his father, Zambada and El Chapo knew of the meeting with the feds.
Gaddis had arranged the meeting three months before they finally met with Zambada-Niebla. Five hours after the meeting ended with Castañón and Herrod, Zambada-Niebla was arrested by the Mexican military.
The joint agreement between the U.S. government and the three major cartels peaked from 2006 to 2012, according to Universal dot com. In June 2009, the DHS authorized agents from both the DEA and ICE to negotiate with the Sinaloa Cartel the reduction of violence around the Mexican-U.S. border towns without the cooperation of the Mexican government, court documents show.
Twelve major druglords were taken into custody as a result of the agreement with the DEA before 2012. To collaborate the massive informant network created by the initial agreement, in late November 2006, the body of man was found near the International Bridge Cordóba-Las Américas Ciudad Juárez. The body had two business cards from DEA agents Raúl Bencomo and Tod Johnson attached to his forehead and his index finger in his mouth indicating the initial collaboration of information exchange between drug cartels and the DEA.
In March 2010, former Cuidad Juárez Police Captain Jesús Manuel Fierro Méndez and spokesman for the Sinaloa Cartel testified at a court in El Paso, that El Chapo and ICE, including DEA agents met with the druglord in Mexico and had phone conversations with them to exchange intelligence about rival cartels in return for smuggling drugs into the U.S.
In 2009 and 2011, DEA agents from the Houston, Texas office began to negotiate with members of the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas, according to court documents. The names of the DEA agents and informants involved have not been made public.
On June 3, 2005, attorney Castro signed an agreement of cooperation with three DEA agents, Castañón, Herrod and Gregg Garza. Court document 109 showed that federal prosecutors presented on September 9, 2011 evidence that Castro had signed several agreements with federal agents in 2005 and 2011.
In a federal court document number 94, the defense attorney for Zambada-Niebla showed how the DHS, DOJ, DEA and ICE were allowed to enter into agreements with mentioned drug cartels for exchange intelligence against rival cartels in return to be allowed to smuggle drugs into the U.S., get weapons and allowed to murder rivals without prosecution and involvement of the Mexican government. The 16-page document shows how Castro was authorized by El Chapo, Zambada and Zambada-Niebla to provide intelligence from rival cartels to U.S. federal agents in return to continue their criminal activity without prosecution by the feds.
The DEA declined to comment about its findings, the Universal reported.
El Universal news article at link: http://alturl.com/3ip94
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