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America's Mexican Border Wars - Printable Version

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America's Mexican Border Wars - Magda Hassan - 16-09-2011

Thanks.... one point I would like to make. The following was released to ATF over a year before the Gunwalker, Fast and Furious, operation was exposed... the place (Columbus New Mexico) was named by me, the US Border Patrol, and the Task Force, before the fact... the guns were marked and photographed by me and the BP in 2009... all agencies were notified at that time by the Border Patrol Intel El Paso Texas and the US Task Force... seems nobody wants to bring this FACT to the surface. The US Military Joint Task Force 7 Special Forces, myself, and the US Border Patrol were all present overlooking Columbus New Mexico, in the Spring of 2009, watching the transfer of these, 'Fast and Furious', weapons as reordered. I released the facts with photos to, Salem- News.com, and Narco News, Bill Conroy, covered the story at my request in order to establish the facts of this illegal operation and to also protect the US Task Force and its Mexican counterparts from retaliation from the US Federal Government.... This was information before the fact and the State Department and Justice has done their best to cover this up as this article by Salem- News confirms...( as well as other documented articles now on the internet)... you can post this if you like, or not... its a Fact and its the truth... ... the info was released to U.S.Federal and local law enforcement over a year before the Fast and Furious Ops was brought down. ... and this was before the fact. ATF, STATE DEPARTMENT AND JUSTICE REFUSED TO INVESTIGATE IN THE SPRING OF 2009, long before Border Patrol agent Brian Terry was gunned down.
It was only after the Columbus New Mexico Police Department, its town manager, and the whole town council of Columbus were busted (March 03, 2011) for weapons trafficking to the Zetas Cartel in Palomas Mexico. Now I just gave you the inside view of a Congressional Investigation... before the fact. I do not expect much to be done from any of this... there is to much money and corruption involved on both sides of this border.

take care... I know I said I would never do this again, but to me this is important information that should be in the public domain for all serious researchers to investigate. Its the information that should be investigated and NOT the source of the information.... it's been confirmed from five separate credible law enforcement sources, as well as WikiLeaks. Check It Out.
T
[QUOTE][/QUOTE[B]http://salem-news.com/articles/march252011/colombus.php
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[B]March 25, 2011 17:28


The Columbus Indictment
"... Tosh Plumlee is a former CIA asset and contract pilot who flew numerous missions delivering arms to Latin America and returning drugs to the United States as part of the covert Iran/Contra operations in the 1980s, according to public records.
Plumlee helped to blow the whistle on the covert Iran/Contra arms-for-drugs shipments and has, in his mind, earned the lasting ire of some powerful forces engaged in America's drug-war pretense. However, he also has earned respect among other players and still has deep contacts in the spook world, including within the Mexican intelligence world. Over the past several years, Plumlee has focused much of his attention on New Mexico's border region.
Plumlee points to a small U.S. border community of some 2,000 people that has developed into a real hot spot in the drug war. Columbus, N.M., is located in southern Luna County, about 70 miles west of El Paso, Texas; some 32 miles south of Deming, N.M.; and just across the border from Palomas, Mexico.[Image: Palomas.jpg]
According to Plumlee this high-desert border town has become a haven for narco-traffickers, specifically the Zetas.
Way back in May 2009, more than two years prior to the recent indictments involving Columbus' town leaders, Narco News reported the following:
Plumlee says he spent some time in Columbus, on a hill overlooking the small town with the Task Force and a group of Border Patrol agents who had set up surveillance cameras from afar to keep an eye on two adjoining houses in the community.Plumlee claims the homes were purchased by narco-traffickers, who paid cash. He adds that as he looked on with the undercover team, a group of men at the homes were unloading cargo from two trucks parked near the abodes.
Plumlee said the Task Force and Border Patrol agents identified the cargo as a shipment of weapons.
"How do you know," Plumlee says he asked the special agent.
"Because we have it on tape," one of the Task Force agents responded, according to Plumlee.
Plumlee says the Border Patrol agents have reported the incident to ATF….
So it is clear that ATF was made aware of potential significant arms trafficking in Columbus as early as May of 2009, yet it did not, according to a recent ATF press release, launch the investigation that led to the recent indictments until January of 2010.
In addition, a recent Associate Press story claims the ATF investigation that led to the indictment of the Columbus town leaders and their co-conspirators was prompted by the U.S. Border Patrol. ...".

[/B]
From the AP story:]

America's Mexican Border Wars - Bernice Moore - 24-09-2011

http://www.10news.com/news/29285159/detail.html


US Expands Role In Mexican Cartel Wars

America's Mexican Border Wars - Peter Lemkin - 04-01-2012

[/url][URL="http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/bill-conroy/2012/01/cbs-news-poaches-narco-news-drug-war-coverage"]
http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/bill-conroy/2012/01/cbs-news-poaches-narco-news-drug-war-coverage



America's Mexican Border Wars - Peter Lemkin - 14-02-2012

Operation Fast & Furious: Slain Border Agent's Family Alleges Lies Over ATF Gun Program
9th February 2012


[Fanily's claim] says then-U.S. Atty. Dennis Burke falsely told them guns found at the scene weren't part of the failed Operation Fast and Furious.

By Richard A. Serrano, Washington Bureau


Los Angeles Times, February 1, 2012

U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed in December 2010. (U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Associated Press)

The family of slain U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry charged Wednesday that the top federal prosecutor in Phoenix lied to them about the guns found at the crime scene in an attempt to hide the weapons' connection to the ATF's failed Fast and Furious gun-tracking operation.

Terry was killed in December 2010, allegedly by Mexican bandits carrying at least two AK-47 semiautomatic rifles that had been purchased in Arizona as part of Fast and Furious. The operation was intended to catch drug lords using illegal weapons, but the ATF immediately lost track of 1,700 firearms.

The Terry family alleged that then-U.S. Atty. Dennis K. Burke told them last March that the two weapons came from a store in Texas and were not part of Fast and Furious. The family made their allegations in a "notice of claim" stating that they intend to sue the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Justice Department for $25 million. They called the gun-tracking operation "abominable, reckless, nonsensical."

Burke has resigned and has declined to discuss Fast and Furious. But the family's claim notice strongly suggests that the federal government initially sought to keep Fast and Furious under wraps and hoped it would not be linked to the slaying.

Fast and Furious, run by the ATF's Phoenix field office, allowed illegal gun purchases in Arizona in hopes of tracking the weapons to Mexican drug cartels. Capitol Hill became aware of the operation in January 2011 the month after Terry's slaying but the program did not become publicly known until early March.

"The Terry family had received lots of conflicting and confusing information about exactly how Brian came to be shot in the back and killed," the claim notice says. "None of it made any sense."

After a memorial service in Tucson in January 2011, the family met with Border Patrol, FBI and Justice Department officials in a hotel conference room. "But the officials gave them almost no information and wouldn't answer the family's questions," the notice says. Two family members walked out.

"The federal officials were obviously covering something up, and their actions only added to the family's grief," the notice says.

In March, Burke met with the family in Michigan, where they live. "But this meeting went even worse," the notice says. "Burke hemmed and hawed, bobbed and weaved, refused to give straight answers, and flat-out lied about what he knew about Brian's death and Operation Fast and Furious."

The notice quotes Burke as saying the fatal bullet would never be found, even though it had already been located during an autopsy. And he told them the AK-47s were "bought from a gun store in Texas and were not linked to Operation Fast and Furious."

In fact, the notice says, "Burke actually knew within hours of Brian's murder that they were purchased from a Phoenix gun shop under ATF surveillance the previous January" a fact borne out by Burke's emails.

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/feb/01/nation/la-na-atf-guns-20120202

America's Mexican Border Wars - Magda Hassan - 20-02-2012

http://www.salem-news.com/articles/f...-mexico-tk.php



Feb-18-2012 20:50
U.S. and Mexico Military Play Increasing Role in Border Operations

Tim King Salem-News.cmoOur team at [B]Salem-News, and also Narco News, were the first to report on the activities of this joint task force.[/B]
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Early image used for the JTF by Narcosphere
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(SALEM) - Robert Plumlee and I enjoy watching the national media play catch-up with our reports from years ago. The game is on again as information about the U.S./Mexican military Joint Task Force continues to emerge. We've patiently waited since publishing our report about this project, US Special Forces are Operating in Mexico.
A new article by By Diana Washington Valdez in the El Paso Timestitled, 'Fort Bliss troops help in border support role' illustrates the reason that officials from both countries have been hesitant to confirm the existence of this military border group; it is the 1997 shooting death of a young Mexican national by a U.S. Marine. It turned out that the Mexican was in possession of a .22 rifle to guard his goat herd, the U.S. government paid the man's family for his unwarranted death.
This left an obvious black eye and U.S. military forces were pulled from the border in reaction to the shooting death.
Mexico itself was so anxious to dismiss our story two years ago about the joint task force, that their Embassy Spokesman in Washington D.C., Ricardo Alday, wrote a letter to Salem-News.com (below) that blatantly declared we were liars. We were not. In fact, Mr. Plumlee was initially approached by members of this task because they believed someone in the U.S. federal government was undermining their efforts, placing calls to cartels and thwarting operations. They asked for exposure, we provided it.
The Joint Task Force is a US covert 'undercover' military unit, working a joint venture with the Mexican Navy's Marines also known as, 'Marinos'.
before we were privileged to obtain the facts behind the story
When our team at Salem-News, and also Narco News, was privileged to obtain the facts behind the story, it was in the summer of 2010. In September, we reported and published our findings. At this point, the military team had been working our southern borders for more than a year. The article came with mixed reviews and lack luster interest, if any, by Mainstream Media (MSM). If only they paid attention to Mr. Plumlee's groundbreaking work, they would be farther ahead.
This excerpt from Fort Bliss troops help in border support role by Diana Washington Valdez with the El Paso Times, clearly references the JTF:
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[TD]Active-duty soldiers were deployed this week from Fort Bliss to assist the Border Patrol in Arizona and New Mexico, officials said Thursday.
Customs and Border Protection officials said the soldiers will function in a support role only.
Although the Joint Task Force-North/Northern Command generally handles such deployments, JTF-North spokesman Armando Carrasco said the Border Patrol alone was authorized to release details on what unit is involved and what the soldiers will do on the border.
Border Patrol officials in the Tucson sector were unavailable for comment late Thursday. (read complete article at above link)[/TD]
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America's Mexican Border Wars - Magda Hassan - 21-02-2012

US Troops May Now Be Coping with Fast and Furious Fallout

Posted by Bill Conroy - February 20, 2012 at 6:30 pm Reported US Military Ramp-up on the Border Follows Years of ATF-Sanctioned Gun Running
U.S. troops deployed to the US/Mexican border last week may well be there, in part, to deal with the blowback from ATF's botched Fast and Furious gambit.
Veteran border reporter Diana Washington Valdez of The El Paso Times reported late last week that "active-duty soldiers" from Fort Bliss, just north of El Paso, Texas, have been deployed to support the US Border Patrol in the Arizona and New Mexico border region.
Tosh Plumlee, a longtime CIA operative, who has been actively monitoring the New Mexico border region for years, also confirms that at least a half dozen "government vans" packed with US soldiers were spotted in recent days on a highway leading into Columbus, N.M., which is just across the border (some 3 miles) from Palomas, Mexico a hotbed of narco- and weapons- trafficking activity in recent years.
Plumlee says the deployment is likely part of an ongoing joint Mexican and US military task-force operation that has been active since at least 2009. Narco News reported on some of the activities of that joint op in mid-2010, including the fact that small teams of US special operations soldiers were active on the Mexican side of the border, imbedded with the Mexican military.[Image: Palomas.jpg]
However, neither Plumlee, nor The El Paso Times report, shed any definitive light on the precise nature of the recent US troop deployment along the border, specifically in the Columbus area. Plumlee has told Narco News previously, though, that there have been numerous reports of suspected weapons stashes concealed in the desolate moon-like landscape surrounding Columbus and Palomas near landmarks such as Guzman Lookout Mountain and Coyote Hill to the east of Columbus.
In fact, several days ago, on the evening of Feb. 16, Plumlee says he was traveling along the border near Columbus when he came across the echoes of a firefight playing out just across the border. It's not clear, Plumlee adds, who was engaged in that shootout, but it is certain, he says, that there were live rounds ripping through the air. He tape-recorded his experience that evening, providing the play-by-play of the action a recording that can be found at this link.
[It's a low-quality tape with a lot of static and background noise so you have to listen carefully to pick up Plumlee's voice and the gunshot echoes.]
"All Along the Watchtower"
The covert law enforcement operation known as Fast and Furious allowed thousands of weapons to flow across the borders of Arizona and New Mexico and into the hands of the powerful Mexican Sinaloa narco-trafficking organization, which has been engaged in a bloody turf war with the Vicente Carrillo Fuentes (VCF) Juarez drug organization for control of a long-running, lucrative drug-and-arms smuggling route that cuts a dangerous path through the same badlands that border the Mexican town of Palomas and its USA sister city, Columbus.
The ATF (the Department of Justice's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives)-sanctioned Fast and Furious operation, and its predecessors under the Bush administration (one dubbed Wide Receiver, launched in 2006), whether by design or not, in essence it seems, armed one enemy (the Sinaloa Cartel) to fight another enemy (the VCF), and in the process, a lot of innocent people as well as drug-war combatants have been caught up in the blowback many killed due to smuggling-route battles being waged to assure assess to a lucrative black market that spreads across both sides of an invisible line we like to call a border.
It seems the US military has now been drawn into that fray, if the reports by The El Paso Times and Plumlee are right. Those troops might be engaged in searching out and destroying hidden weapons stashes, or providing an extra layer of security in an increasingly borderless drug war, or possibly conducting joint operations with the Mexican military in a type of squeeze play to shut off the Columbus/Palomas contraband route and other similar connections. The truth is, though, likely no one outside the chain of command of that military operation really knows, or will ever know, the real nature of the mission.
But one thing seems clear: The thousands of assault rifles and pistols pumped into the Southwest border region as a result of ATF's botched gun-walking strategy are likely playing some role in prompting the arrival of the US cavalry in this case, it seems, special operations soldiers.
The US Side
ATF's Fast and Furious gun-running operation catapulted into the national spotlight in early 2011, with the focus on the Arizona border, where the operation allegedly played out with the weapons, under ATF watch, finding their way in bulk, an ongoing Congressional investigation has found, to the Sinaloa "Cartel," which is led by the likes of Joaquin Guzman Lorea (known as El Chapo) and Ismael Zambada Garcia.
However, an ATF agent, who asked not to be identified, recently told Narco News that the "gun-walking" tactics (allowing weapons to be purchased and smuggled into Mexico unimpeded by law enforcement) that were employed in Fast and Furious also extended to the New Mexico border as part of a "cut-out" operation. The New Mexico operation also allowed hundreds of US weapons (possibly far more) to be smuggled across the US border with the supposed goal of identifying the "higher-ups" in the Mexican narco-trafficking organizations that were purchasing the illicit weapons.
"All of New Mexico is covered by the ATF Phoenix Field Division [which hatched Fast and Furious}," the ATF agent says. "The Columbus [New Mexico] case wasn't anything new or different. It began as a part of Fast and Furious, was then cut-out, given a different case number, and run by one of New Mexico [ATF] groups employing the same [gun-walking] tactics."
The facts of a gun-smuggling bust that played out in Columbus, NM, in early 2011 which resulted in the indictment of some 14 people, including the mayor and police chief of Columbus seem to lend credence to the ATF agent's claims.
As far back as 2009, the Associated Press published a story about Columbus with the following headline: "Drug smugglers allegedly move into N.M. town: Police say Mexican traffickers' money revving up local economy."
Ironically, one of the individuals quoted in that AP story saying he planned to get tough on crime was Columbus Police Chief Angelo Vega, who pled guilty last year, along with 11 other Columbus-area residents (a group that also includes the mayor and a village trustee) to firearms-trafficking charges. The members of the ring were indicted in March 2011 in the wake of an investigation, led by the ATF, that began in January 2010 about three months after Fast and Furious was launched out of the Phoenix ATF field division.
Plumlee, too, as far back as 2009, was making public his concerns about the illegal activity in Columbus. In a May of that year, Plumlee, who flew numerous missions as a CIA contract pilot during the Iran-Contra era, as evidenced in Congressional testimony and letters, told Narco News that Columbus had become a haven for narco- and arms-traffickers.[Image: ToshonMexicoUSborderFenceMXbehi.jpg]
Plumlee contends (and Narco News reported at the time) that Border Patrol agents stationed in the area also knew this and made their concerns known to ATF specifically related to two houses in Columbus suspected of being used by narco-traffickers as weapons stash sites. Still, it was not until January of 2010, nearly a year later, however, that ATF officially initiated its investigation into the arms-trafficking activity in Columbus.
From the ATF's PR announcement on the indictment in Columbus:
The indictment alleges that, between January 2010 and March 2011, the defendants engaged in a conspiracy to purchase firearms for illegal export to Mexico. During this 14-month period, the defendants allegedly purchased about 200 firearms….
The ATF press release also makes clear that only about 40 of those 200 or more weapons were recovered by the agency.
More from the ATF press release, issued at the time of the indictment of the Columbus weapons-trafficking ring:
The indictment alleges that twelve firearms previously purchased by the defendants later were found in Mexico and were traced back to these defendants. As part of the investigation, every effort was made to seize firearms from defendants to prevent them from entering into Mexico, and no weapons were knowingly permitted to cross the border.
Despite ATF's claim that no guns were "knowingly permitted to cross the border," there are, to date, according to court pleadings, a total of at least 15 firearms (three more than reported in the ATF press release) that have been recovered in Mexico and are linked to the Columbus gun-smuggling "conspiracy." And even more disturbing, court records show, is the fact that six of those 15 weapons were discovered at murder scenes in Mexico involving a total of five victims in Palomas and three victims in Juarez the murder capital of the drug war. That's eight homicides in Mexico involving only six of the smuggled weapons, with some 150 or more of those weapons seemingly still unaccounted for as part of the Columbus investigation.
And at least one of those murders, court pleadings show, was supposedly carried out with a weapon (an AK-47 pistol) purchased by one of the Columbus ring in July 2010 some six months after ATF initiated its investigation. The weapon was later smuggled into Mexico where it was recovered at a murder scene in Palomas in February of 2011 a month prior to the indictment of the Columbus ring and some 13 months after ATF opened the investigation (an indication, it seems, that guns were allowed to cross the border as part of the operation, just as in Fast and Furious.)
Plumlee also contends that members of the US military task force operating along the Mexican border (and stationed at Fort Bliss) also sent a letter in the fall of 2010 to the Department of Justice and the US Department of State inquiring whether there was some type of covert law-enforcement operation underway due to the large volume of US weapons that were moving across the border into Mexico, seemingly unimpeded. Plumlee says the task force received no response to that letter.
It seems members of Congress now investigating the Fast and Furious debacle had some reason to believe the US military had knowledge of the operation as well. In September of last year, a letter co-signed by US Sen. Charles Grassley and U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa and addressed to the commander of Joint Task Force North at Fort Bliss, stated the following:
For more than six months, we have been investigating a case conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) called Operation Fast and Furious. According to several agents, ATF leadership encouraged gun dealers to engage in sales of multiple semi-automatic firearms to individuals suspected of illegally purchasing the guns for Mexican drug cartels.
We understand that Joint Task Force North (JTF North) is a Department of Defense (DOD) organization tasked to support federal law enforcement agencies in the identification and interdiction of suspected threats along the approaches to the continental United States. Furthermore, we understand that JTF North may have been aware of Operation Fast and Furious … or similar operations involving other agencies in which weapons may have been transferred south of the border.
The JTF North commander at Fort Bliss responded on Oct. 11, 2011:
We conducted and completed a diligent search of all documents in this command's possession, custody, and control which could contain responsive documents. We found no documents related to the planning or execution of Operation Fast and Furious.
Plumlee explains the lack of documentation by pointing out that the US special-ops task force operating in Mexico and the border region at the time may well have been assigned to Fort Bliss for tactical reasons, but that its headquarters command was likely elsewhere, plus it was very likely a covert operation, "so the commander at (Fort Bliss) would not have details of the letter" sent by the task force members.
If that's the case, it's not the only incidence of covert play obscuring the truth of the drug war.
The Mexican Side
Narco News is in contact with a source who is now in hiding somewhere in the United States with a target on his head because he has run afoul of the VCF narco-trafficking organization. This source was a worker who helped to load and deliver marijuana payloads in Chihuahua, Mexico the state that is home to Juarez.
The source was active in the business until 2004, a period during which he says the VCF and Sinaloa organizations cooperated with each other, in exchange for a cut of the action, in moving drugs along established "trade" routes. He claims the organizations fell into a major blood feud shortly after that period, which was further inflamed by Mexican President Felipe Calderon's declaration of war on the "cartels" in late 2006.
"Felipe Calderon, he messed up everything," the source says. "He started the war to the cartels and that's what he got. And he is always saying everything is working; he's not doing shit. It's worse and worse."
In the early 2000s, this source claims he worked for a cell of the VCF (the Juarez drug organization) that ran drugs from a ranch in the outback of Chihuahua and into Juarez and Palomas the sister city of Columbus, NM.
At the time, the source's immediate boss, he claims, was an individual then in his early 20s named Jose Antonio Torres Marrufo who in turn allegedly worked for a VCF capo named Pedro Sanchez Arras, whose home base was Villa Ahumada, Chihuahua (a small Mexican town some 120 kilometers south of Juarez). Marrufo is under indictment in the US on firearms and narco-trafficking charges.
Mexican soldiers apprehended Sanchez on May 13, 2008. Four days later, a group of armed men invaded Villa Ahumada and slaughtered half a dozen people and disappeared another 10, according to news reports.
The source claims that his contacts told him that Marrufo, who sometime around 2003 or 2004 switched allegiances and went to work full-time for the Sinaloa organization, was a key figure behind the slaughter in Villa Ahumada that day.
From the source:
Some people from Villa Ahumada saw him (Marrufo) there that day, and he knew all the people that was working for (the VCF) and that is why Marrufo went there, because he knows where everyone [working for the VCF] lives and knows all the families from everywhere there. That is why they [the Sinaloa organization] sent him, to take care of the people in Villa Ahumada, the people that was working for Vicente [the VCF], and he [Marrufo] was working for El Chapo [the Sinaloa organization], so he went there and did some killings that day.
Earlier this month, Mexican federal police arrested Marrufo, who was described by the Mexican government as a significant player in the Sinaloa drug organization.[Image: MarrufoArrest.jpg]
Last year, in April, Mexican police raided a Juarez home allegedly owned by Marrufo (who was not there at the time) and discovered a cache of high-powered weapons, 40 of which were traced back to gun sales made through ATF's Fast and Furious operation, according to news reports at the time.
So it appears, assuming news reports and Narco News' source are accurate, ATF's Fast and Furious operation was helping the Sinaloa organization get the upper hand in its battle with the VCF for drug routes in the Juarez/Palomas/Columbus region.
The source provided some more insight into the nature of that particular drug route one of many, to be sure, that is in play along Mexico's 2,000-mile border with the USA.
The information provided by the source dates back to 2003/2004, though the route is still active no doubt, judging from the ongoing turmoil in Juarez, Columbus and Palomas. It was a VCF operation at the time though it appears the Sinaloa organization has gone a long way in recent years, seemingly aided by Fast and Furious and similar Bush-era gun-walking operations, such as Wide Receiver, in wresting control of the Juarez/Palomas/Columbus route from the VCF.
From the source:
Marrufo was in charge of … Villa Ahumada [for the VCF]; well, it was actually Pedro Sanchez and Marrufo was the second one.… Villa Ahumada, that's where all the drugs stops [in that area] and from there it crosses to Juarez , you know. So they transport it by night by the desert. They call it la brechas [the gaps], where they pass all the drugs.
… From Villa Ahumada to that ranch, it's like 20 kilometers or 25, something like that. It's way inside the border, the ranch. The people that are bringing loads of drugs there, they come in these big trailers from Zacatecas and Sinaloa and from all over Mexico. … They call us and at night, … so we went to the ranch … when Marrufo say they going to keep some stuff there and [he said] that whatever I see, you know, say nothing, because if you open your mouth, you get killed. Whatever you see, just keep it on you; don't go out telling nobody, because you will get killed.
So these big trailers went there; [the first one] had like 4 tons of marijuana. And another one came that same day, later, and it had like 7 more tons, and there were big pallets of drugs there that day. That's when xxx and xxx sent like 22 or 23 [smaller] trucks to load all that drugs [from the tractor trailers] to take it to Juarez. We helped them load drugs [onto the smaller trucks]. … It was in middle of the night when they took all the drugs to Juarez. And they had [Mexican] State Police waiting for them in Juarez to keep them safe in the streets over there.
They have animals on top of the trucks [the semi-trailers] and drugs hiding in the bed of the trucks. This ranch was for animals, like a big farm, to transport animals to the US. This guy was in that business, and he had a lot of animals at the ranch for that. So the animals are in the trailers and we unload the animals and then with a torch open the bed of the trailer and [the marijuana payload is bundled together] with big, thick wires, and they connect a tractor to pull the wires and then the packages all come down. Every packet was like 25 kilos; they were big. That day there were three trucks. Sometimes it was twice a month [the deliveries].
Well they took [some of] the drugs … xxx had his people in Palomas [Mexico, across the border from Columbus, NM], so they were transporting there.
One day me and xxx went there [Palomas] following these guys from Juarez.
They had this house and they said the cops called them and said to move the drugs because someone saw they were moving drugs into that house [in Juarez]. So we went there to that house [in Juarez] and loaded some trucks and followed them to Palomas, and we went to this house [in Palomas] and went inside, and these guys started checking all the packages and started loading them, and that same night they went across the border with them.
… They take almost everything to Palomas that time I was there [at the ranch]. And it's in cars and trucks…. They pass through there [Palomas] and they have this guy who works for them to bring the drugs to all the states where they are supposed to take them. [So basically, it's another distribution operation on the US side.]
Given the apparent role played by US agencies, whether by design or not, in empowering the Sinaloa organization via gun-walking, it should be seen as no small coincidence that Jesus Vicente Zambada Niebla, the son of top Sinaloa organization honcho Ismael Zambada, is now making remarkable claims about the existence of a quid pro quo pact between US law enforcement and the leadership of the Sinaloa syndicate.
Zambada Niebla is now sitting in prison in the Detroit area, awaiting trial in Chicago on narco-trafficking charges a case in which US prosecutors are seeking to cloak evidence by invoking national security claims.
Zambada Niebla, who was extradited to the US from Mexico in February 2010, raises the Fast and Furious debacle in his court pleadings, arguing, essentially, that the operation is proof of the US government's cooperation deal with the Sinaloa "Cartel" leadership.
As a result of Operation Fast and Furious, Zambada Niebla's pleadings assert, about "three thousand people" in Mexico were killed, "including law enforcement officers in the state of Sinaloa, Mexico, headquarters of the Sinaloa Cartel."[Image: MarrufoStash2.jpg]
Among those receiving weapons through the botched ATF operation, the pleadings continue, were DEA and FBI informants working for drug organizations, including the leadership of those groups.
"The evidence seems to indicate that the Justice Department not only allowed criminals to smuggle weapons, but that tax payers' dollars in the form of informant payments, may have financed those engaging in such activities," the pleadings allege. "… It is clear that some of the weapons were deliberately allowed by the FBI and other government representatives to end up in the hands of the Sinaloa Cartel and that among the people killed by those weapons were law enforcement officers.
"… Mr. Zambada Niebla believes that the documentation that he requests [from the US government] will confirm that the weapons received by Sinaloa Cartel members and its leaders in Operation Fast & Furious' were provided under the agreement entered into between the United States government and [Sinaloa organization lawyer] Mr. Loya Castro on behalf of the Sinaloa Cartel…."
US prosecutors, of course, deny that any such pact exists between the Sinaloa "Cartel" and the US government.
But regardless, the available evidence seems to indicate that since 2006 (dating back to the Bush administration, and in tandem with Mexican President Calderon's rise to power and declaration of war on the "cartels"), the gun-walking strategy employed by ATF, and ignored or tolerated by other US agencies and politicians across both parties until recently, appears to have gone a long way in tilting the always shifting balance of the drug war for now.
However, it also seems clear that so long as our leaders insist on enforcing prohibition of a multi-billion dollar business that is fueled by US consumer demand, and doing so by means of a so-called drug war, the balance will always, ultimately, lean in favor of misery and death, because there will always be plenty of gold, "brechas" and bullets to keep the war in motion.
Stay tuned….

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/bill-conroy/2012/02/us-troops-may-now-be-coping-fast-and-furious-fallout

America's Mexican Border Wars - Magda Hassan - 10-03-2012

From Tosh
Quote:This for your forum to compare past notes on the Mexican drug war

William Plumlee


Reprint from November 2007:


An investigative reporter from from CBS recently asked me the following question:


Q "... Has there been a, 'spill over' of violence and crime from Mexico's Los Zetas cartel, as well as other internationally known drug cartels or their gangs, into the United States?"


A "In my opinion, yes... Washington's politicians and the current administration's DoJ and the State Department and their political appointees, in a strong united but scripted voice say, "No," while federal law enforcement agencies-- their field personal and operatives, on both sides of the border, scream, "Hell Yes!", and they have the stats to back it up.


However, politics, lobbyist, arms merchants, and international special interest, always seem to win favors and special secret concessions from various government personal and other unknown, 'international sources', in reference to the so called, "drug war" . Year after year, decade after decade, these secret unknown concessions are always at the expense of the American tax payer. These cartel wars and their high impact weapons obtained from programs like the US State Departments Direct Commercial Sales have become a cash cow for international arms merchants, as well as weapons manufactures here in the United States and elsewhere.


Someday soon our troops will face these weapons "face to face". Its only a matter of time before some of our troops, front line border patrol, and other law enforcement personal, come back from Mexico and the American border in body bags, while others are openly gun down in hostile fire fights on American streets. afire fights are occurring almost nightly along our southern border with Mexico. Only time will tell before one or two of our federal agents come home in body bags courtesy of Mexico's Sinaloa or Zeta cartel.


There is a major war developing in northern Mexico and along our southern border. It is only a matter of time before we Americans in our major cities, will be forced to face this threat and their weapons. Regardless, of what we believe in reference to this so called threat, the reality is; this drug cartel movie will soon be played out in hundreds of American cities as the Zeta and Sinaloa move their product onto our streets and into our cities.


The United States and Mexico's drug war has already destroyed thousands of lives and cost billions of dollars. Our elected officials are so out of touch with reality they can not comprehend the severity of the developing situation nor understand the complexity of how we got to this point.


Well today it appears there is no end in sight to the money spending, the weapons being smuggled, the drugs, the killings and the mass graves. If Mexico becomes a failed State, then the United States will be next in line..., and then the drug war will be over. ...


Tosh Plumlee ". Columbus New Mexico Nov. 25, 2007

(note; the murders of US agents Jammie Zapata and Brian Terry, came to pass in, 2010)

references:
http://www.salem-news.com/articles/d...ng-2001-wp.php

http://www.salem-news.com/articles/m...teeters-tk.php


America's Mexican Border Wars - Ed Jewett - 27-06-2012

Extensive Report Says ATF Had Nothing To Do With 'Gunwalking' In Mexico

Rob Wile and Grace Wyler | Jun. 27, 2012, 9:29 AM | 5,979 |
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See Also

[Image: heres-what-you-need-to-know-about-the-gu...eneral.jpg]
Here's What You Need To Know About The Gun Running Scandal That Could Destroy Obama's Attorney General


[Image: house-oversight-committee-just-charged-e...ngress.jpg]
House Oversight Committee Just Charged Eric Holder With Contempt Of Congress


[Image: major-storm-system-brewing-in-the-gulf-of-mexico.jpg]
Major Storm System Brewing In The Gulf Of Mexico




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Fortune Magazine's Katherine Eban has a big report out this morning arguing the the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) had nothing to do with letting guns into Mexico.While the guns were definitely part of Operation Fast & Furious, a program run by ATF agents in Phoenix, Egan argues that "gunwalking" the tactic of allowing guns to be trafficked, in order to track cartel networks was never part of the ATF's mission.
She writes that agents were actually trying to intercept the guns, by tracking and arresting people hired by the cartels to purchase the guns in the U.S., but found themselves stymied by federal attorneys who said many of the "straw purchases" were not prosecutable.
The ATF, which is overseen by Attorney General Eric Holder, has admitted it did not exercise "proper oversight" over the program, and has reassigned almost everyone associated with the operation.
Toward the end of the piece, Egan notes that new facts are still coming to light about Operation Fast and Furious, indicating that other agencies within the Department of Justice including the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Agency were involved in the program, and were tracking the guns through the cartel networks via paid informants, without the knowledge of the ATF agents on the ground.
Read the full report at Fortune >

And here's everything you need to know about the Fast and Furious scandal >



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/katherine-ebans-fast-and-furious-bombshell-2012-6#ixzz1z1QHk4If

America's Mexican Border Wars - Ed Jewett - 27-06-2012

The truth about the Fast and Furious scandal


A Fortune investigation reveals that the ATF never intentionally allowed guns to fall into the hands of Mexican drug cartels. How the world came to believe just the opposite is a tale of rivalry, murder, and political bloodlust.

By Katherine Eban
http://features.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2012/06/27/fast-and-furious-truth/

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortune_(magazine) as well as Evica's "A Certain Arrogance".

America's Mexican Border Wars - Magda Hassan - 28-06-2012

Video here
The congressional contempt vote against Attorney General Eric Holder is looking more and more like a fait accompli, as House Speaker John Boehner presses ahead with a Thursday floor vote and conservative Democrats one-by-one announce they will side with Republicans. At least five Democrats so far have said they plan to vote to hold Holder in contempt over his refusal to turn over Operation Fast and Furious documents. As many as 11 appear poised to break ranks, though sources earlier told Fox News that roughly 20 could do so.Those Democrats are largely conservative-leaning lawmakers facing perilous political circumstances in their home districts. But regardless of motive, their support only increases the odds that the nation's top law enforcement official will be held in contempt of Congress come Thursday. Should this happen, the vote would touch off a whole new legal process -- in which a U.S. attorney would be called upon to convene a grand jury to consider the allegations and whether to indict, though with Holder at the helm it's unclear how that would play out. The two sides also will likely continue to battle over the documents at the heart of the dispute as President Obama tries to lock them down by claiming executive privilege. Several Democrats indicated Wednesday they don't buy that argument. "While Republicans and Democrats argue over the scope of the people's right to know what happened, the attorney general has decided to withhold relevant documents," Rep. John Barrow, D-Ga., said in a statement announcing he would support the contempt resolution. "The only way to get to the bottom of what happened is for the Department of Justice to turn over the remaining documents, so that we can work together to ensure this tragedy never happens again." Other Democrats to announce an anti-Holder stance include Reps. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va.; Collin Peterson, D-Minn.; Jim Matheson, D-Utah; and Mike McIntyre, D-N.C. Matheson said the public, Congress and the family of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry -- whose murder scene included weapons from the botched anti-gunrunning operation -- "deserve answers." The White House, though, slammed Republican leaders for pressing ahead, accusing them of engaging in "political gamesmanship" with a vote they claim could have been avoided. "(Republicans) have shown very little interest in reaching a resolution. Instead, they've chosen a path of political confrontation and theater," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Wednesday. "It is politics." Carney said Democrats are "hopeful" a last-minute arrangement can be reached, but expressed doubt that would happen. Boehner said Thursday that "we are going to proceed." The House Rules Committee teed up a Thursday floor vote on contempt by taking up two related contempt resolutions Wednesday afternoon. That meeting was contentious. GOP Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and the lawmaker leading the contempt charge, told the rules committee that he's pressing ahead because Holder has not fully complied with requests for a full account."Over the last year-and-a-half, the committee has found the Department of Justice uncooperative every step of the way," said Issa, R-Calif.But Rep. Elijah Cummings, ranking Democrat on the House oversight committee, asked the panel and Boehner to put off the vote. "I urge you to take a step back," said Cummings, D-Md. "I am convinced ... that this can be worked out."Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., the top Democrat on the rules committee, added, "This has all the trappings of a witch hunt." The vote is proceeding despite a last-ditch attempt by Obama administration officials on Tuesday to work out a deal. A source familiar with those talks told Fox News that the Republicans met with administration officials twice Tuesday -- at the Justice Department and at the White House. The Justice Department showed GOP staff 14 documents on the failed anti-gunrunning operation, totaling about 30 pages. Republicans apparently thought the offer was not good enough. But the move prompted criticism from the White House. "This was a good faith effort to resolve this while still protecting the institutional prerogatives of the Executive Branch, often championed by these same Republicans criticizing us right now," said White House spokesman Eric Schultz. Republicans have accused the Justice Department of stonewalling all along, and claim the contempt vote is a last-resort move to extract documents about the operation -- specifically documents from February 2011 and beyond that speak to why the administration might have initially claimed it did not allow guns to "walk" across the U.S.-Mexico border. The administration later retracted that claim. Fox News' Chad Pergram contributed to this report.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/06/27/house-democrat-breaks-ranks-to-back-holder-contempt-as-vote-looms/#ixzz1z2jdyNoe