GROWS WHILE COUNTING victims throughout Mexico, tons of drugs continue to flow across the border. Despite the apparent disconnect - a "war" against drugs it increases the supply while reducing the price.
In the best tradition of our reigning ideology of "free market" - the US media provide the public with fairy tales about heroic "warriors" who face gangsters murderers called "Joaquín", "George" and "Beloved."
The fact is that most likely is that the real narcos who get the most profit from deep in the stinking slaughterhouse that dreadful trade have far less prosaic names like "Brett", "Ethan" or "Jason".
"The only liquid investment capital"
Earlier this month, The Observer reported that "new research has revealed that the vast profits of drug production and trafficking are collected in rich countries 'consumers' especially in Europe and in USA- instead of countries 'producers' war - torn as Colombia and Mexico ".
Journalist Ed Vulliamy informed us that the authors of this report present evidence that "financial regulators in the west are reluctant to go after western banks in search of the massive amount of drug money washing through their systems. "
By the way, during the height of the global financial crisis, Antonio Maria Costa, then head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime he told The Observer that "it has been found that the income of organized crime were" the only liquid investment capital 'available at some banks close to collapse last year. He said that as a result most of the 352 billion dollars of drug profits were absorbed into the economic system. "
"In many cases , " Costa said, "the money from drugs was the only liquid investment capital. In the second half of 2008, liquidity was the banking system 's main problem and hence liquid capital became an important factor. "
"Interbank loans were financed with money originating from drug trafficking and other illegal activities ... There were signs that some banks were rescued that way." Although Costa "declined to identify countries or banks that may have received drug money, said that money is now part of the official system and has effectively washed ".
In other words, bankers suspects were "balanced accounts" and an excuse for one or two Armani suits, a box of malt whiskey 20 years or that holiday home for women subjected, without asking.
selective accusations
In stark contrast to the impunity enjoyed by our capitalist overlords, The Wall Street Journal reported that the US Treasury Department "Imposed sanctions on two key operatives of the Sinaloa drug cartel" in recent days.
The Journal informed us that "sanctions were imposed by the Kingpin Act Alajandrina Maria Salazar Hernandez and Jesus Alfredo Guzman Salazar, wife and son of Joaquin Chapo Guzman, the fugitive drug lord who heads the Sinaloa Cartel."
Also last week, the Associated Press reported that Sandra Ávila Beltrán, whom the media dubbed the Queen of the Pacific, can be extradited to US "Where he faces charges related to cocaine." Avila was arrested in Mexico City in 2007 and awaits prosecution on charges of money laundering.
Third - generation drug dealer, Avila is the niece of Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, once godfather of the Guadalajara cartel, now serving a prison sentence of 40 years for the murder in 1984 of DEA agent Enrique Camarena in. Camarena was kidnapped and tortured to death after discovering the link between the CIA and the sordid "Enterprise" Oliver North with drug traffickers Nicaraguan Contras during the Reagan administration.
And just this week, The Guardian reported that two relatives of former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe ", awaiting extradition to US on charges of ties to drug lord world 's most wanted. "
"Ana Maria Uribe Cifuentes and his mother, Dolly Cifuentes Villa, were arrested last year after a request from a US federal court for alleged links with the head of Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, Joaquin El Chapo Guzman."
According to the Law Enforcement Administration Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), "it is stated that both women belong to the clan Cifuentes Villa , " which according to the DEA, "he trafficked at least 30 tons of cocaine to the US between 2009 and 2011, and they washed income in several Latin American countries, including Colombia ".
While there are allegations of drug trafficking in connection with the Uribe family. A 1991 report from the Defense Intelligence Agency released by the National Security Archive explicitly states that during his period in the Colombian Senate, Uribe was " a personal friend of Pablo Escobar" and was "dedicated to collaboration with the Medellín Cartel [ drug] at high government levels ".
The document then states that before becoming a "key US partner in the drug war , "and to receive the reward of about three billion dollars under the Colombia Plan" to fight drugs , "Uribe" was linked to a business involved in narcotics activities in the US "and "it has worked for the Medellin cartel."
Although the US government He disavowed that report, I would say that for purely political reasons, several family members of Uribe, including the president 's cousin, Mario Uribe Escobar, former President of the Colombian Congress, was convicted and removed from his post for his close ties with the extreme right a paramilitary death squad trafficker, the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia, or AUC.
In announcing the sanctions against Guzman clan, Adam Szubin, director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the Treasury, said in a statement: "This action is based on aggressive efforts Treasury, together with partners in maintaining order, by targeting individuals who facilitate drug operations of Chapo Guzman and to seek the eventual dismantling of its organization, guilty of unspeakable violence. "
While Chapo Inc., received an honorable mention as No. 1153 in the "List of World Billionaires" Forbes, you may be responsible for 25 percent of illegal drugs trafficked in the US as the DEA says; place No. 55 on the Forbes list of "The Most Powerful People in the World", located between the founder of PIMCO and "bond king" Bill Gross and Ahmed Shuja Pasha, director general of the agency Inter-Services Intelligence of Pakistan says a lot about the interesting juxtapositions (ie talking parapolíticamente!) between the worlds of finance, crime and undercover operations.
Citing findings of two Colombian academics, Alejandro Gaviria and Daniel Mejía in its anti - drug policy in Colombia study: successes, failures and wanderings, Ed Vulliamy revealed that "2.6 percent of the street value of the cocaine produced remains within the country while a surprising 97.4 percent of the benefits are obtained by criminal syndicates , and laundered by banks, in first - world consuming countries. "
Gaviria told The Observer, "Colombian society has not received almost no economic advantage from drug trafficking, while criminal distribution networks in consuming countries derive immense benefits that are recycled by banks operating without there being anything restrictions resembling which is subject to the banking system in Colombia itself. "
Coauthor Daniel Mejia added: "All operated by authorities in the consuming nations system is based on pursuing the little guy, the weakest link in the chain, and never to big business or financial systems where the big money is."
An inquisitive mind can not help but ask where are the "aggressive efforts" Treasury when it comes to those simple and easily provable facts.
But as the drug cartels, banks and networks of "old comrades" who lead them have names, I give you a hint: there are self - proclaimed "Lords of Heaven", although it is possible to think of themselves as proverbial "Amos of the universe".
A clear example. In 2000, when the Narco News publisher Al Giordano and Mario Menendez, a journalist by the Mexican newspaper Por Esto! were prosecuted for defamation in New York by Banamex-Citigroup, Giordano wrote that "The true leaders of illegal drug do not appear in the list of" Most Wanted "FBI.
No, says Giordano, "Operational Heads drug are not Mexican or Colombian: are American and European bankers, who launder illicit drug proceeds. Institutions like Citibank of New York , as documented this report are the real beneficiaries of the ban on illegal drugs and their benefits. "
While relatives of Chapo Guzman are now target of sanctions Treasury Department, what can we learn from recent reports on the failure of the Department of Justice when it came to processing officials fourth US bank, Wachovia, bought by Wells Fargo & Co. in 2008 during the height of the capitalist financial catastrophe?
Charlotte: narco capital of the world?
In a momentous revelations of greed, corporate crime and corruption, Bloomberg Markets Magazine and The Observer revealed in 2010 and 2011 respectively that Wachovia was up to his neck in hot money laundering for Mexican and Colombian cartels of the drug.
As already reported in 2010 on the escapades of Wachovia in money laundering for the Sinaloa cartel of Chapo Guzman then CEO, G. Kennedy Ken Thompson, former president of the Council of the Federal Reserve Advisory Committee, and Ranger Bush gathered about $ 200,000 to Bush's presidential campaign in 2004, he was buying faster than it takes to say "certain debt risk" competing banks.
When Wells Fargo bought Wachovia at the auction price of 12 thousand 800 million dollars, the bank and Thompson, who had "withdrawn at the request of council" were in deep trouble.
Prior to the acquisition, Wachovia had launched a real offensive cart. After the merger in 2001 of the firm with First Union Bank, Wachovia merged with the Prudential Securities Division of Prudential Financial, Inc., Wachovia control of most of the 532 000 100 billion in assets. After the coup, the bank went on to acquire Metropolitan West Securities, adding a portfolio of 50 billion dollars in securities and loans Loan division. In 2004, Wachovia went to another stage with the acquisition by 14,300 million SouthTrust Corporation.
Apparently loaded with money and new power market started to acquire Wachovia Golden West Financial based in California. Golden West was operating subsidiaries under the name World Savings Bank and was the second largest savings and loan in the nation. When the acquisition took place, Goldman West had more than 125 000 000 billion in assets. For Wachovia and Thompson, he was going too far.
Soon came a shortage of money. Exposure to risky loans, including toxic mortgages with adjustable interest rates acquired as a result of the agreement of Golden West, Thompson had described as the "jewel in the crown" of Wachovia, portfolios signature loans were affected by heavy losses during the catastrophe of subprime mortgages.
Although the bank had reported 2 000 300 million in profits during the first quarter of 2007, in 2008 spoke of heavy losses that reached 8 000 900 million in the fourth quarter. It was panic time in Charlotte.
And where did some of that "liquid capital" that allowed the reckless expansion of Wachovia?
"A customer who bought Wachovia in 2004 was Casa de Cambio Puebla SA," Bloomberg Markets reported. The house changes Puebla, Mexico, was the brilliant idea of Pedro Alatorre Damy a "businessman" who "had created front companies for cartels".
Alatorre and other 70 connected to its network were arrested in 2007 by Mexican officials maintain order. Authorities discovered the alleged money launderer and air agent Sinaloa cartel controlled 23 accounts at Wachovia Bank branch in Miami and had about 11 million, subsequently frozen by US regulators.
In 2008, a federal grand jury in Miami indicted Alatorre, now awaiting trial in Mexico with three other executives, accusing them of drug trafficking and money laundering, accusing the company of using "dummy companies to launder $ 720 million through US banks "the Justice Department is currently seeking the extradition from Mexico of Alatorre.
Although the office of Wachovia in Miami has been described by federal investigators of "high intensity area in money laundering and other financial crimes" in an "area High Intensity Drug Trafficking", The Observer reported that even in internal warnings from its own researchers against money laundering, Wachovia did nothing to stop the illicit flow of hot money.
With the housing bubble US fully inflated and signs that the speculative boom was about to end, one can only surmise that the need to obtain liquidity at any price, had led Wachovia to turn a blind eye when it was dark "arrangements", but very lucrative Casa de Cambio Puebla SA.
Losing money faster than it takes to say "mortgage backed securities" Wachovia was in a quagmire for purchase in 2006 by 26,000 million dollars of Golden West Financial during the height of the bubble, an action which , according reports Bloomberg Businessweek generated "resistance in its own management team" and was ignored by Thompson.
Why? "Because no one apart from Thompson and the executive director of Golden West, Herb Sandler, seemed to approve of the deal from the moment it was announced , " said a trusted company to Businessweek.
(An alert reader pointed out when my article appeared in 2010, Herb Sandler, who sold Golden West at the best market conditions to engage in "philanthropy", "currently owns ProPublica, a research publication addresses easy targets as racist cops ... but that does not examine the wing Sandler of the power elite. Michael Barker wrote a series about the agency and its contacts with the establishment entitled "Investigating a look researchers criticism ProPublica").
While the acquisition may have given Thompson "the beachhead in California he had wanted for some time ... the ink had barely dried on the treatment of Golden West when the housing bubble in markets such as California and Florida began to deflate ".
Affected by the collapse of the housing market, the share price of Wachovia, which had increased to $ 70.51 per share when the deal Golden West had fallen to 5.71 per share in October 2008. In other words announced Wachovia, with the rest of the world economy is going down the drain.
In its Postponed Processing Agreement with the Department of Justice, Wells Fargo accepted the allegations made against Wachovia in the federal indictment does not dispute.
The banking giant Wells was forced to admit: "On numerous occasions, the funds were deposited in a Casa de Cambio (CDC) by a DTO. Using false identities, the CDC then transferred the money through its correspondent bank Wachovia for the purchase of aircraft for drug trafficking organizations. On various dates between 2004 and 2007, at least four of those planes were commandeered by foreign law enforcement agencies in cooperation with US and it was found to contain large amounts of cocaine ".
As reported in The Observer Ed Vulliamy, although researchers DEA and the IRS found that Wachovia had washed up to 378 thousand 400 million dollars , "a sum equivalent to one third of the gross national product of Mexico to dollar accounts of so - called houses change in Mexico, "and then paid $ 110 million forfeiture, including a fine of 50 million dollars" for not controlling money used for the shipment of 22 tons of cocaine , "never criminal proceedings were brought against bank officials.
"The conclusion of the case , " Vulliamy wrote, "was just the tip of an iceberg that demonstrated the role of 'legal' banking sector in laundering hundreds of billions of dollars- the blood money of drug trafficking in Mexico murderer and elsewhere in the world in its global operations, now bailed out by the taxpayer ".
While Chapo Guzman and other leaders of Mexican drug trafficking organizations face federal charges that could lead to prison for the rest of their lives, you have to contrast it with dealing with kid gloves used by the government when it comes to American drug traffickers.
Despite serious federal charges of money laundering against the "smartest man in the room" Thompson of Wachovia council received $ 15.6 million in total compensation in 2007, a year after the agreement was suspended fatal Golden West . Subsequent losses and an imminent criminal charges (against the bank, not against its officials) nor prevented Wachovia Thompson rewarded with a severance payment of nearly 8 million.
"Air Cocaine"
After years of extensive information in MadCow Morning News investigative journalist Daniel Hopsicker and Bill Conroy of Narco News, about the origins of two aircraft seized in Mexico with about ten tons of cocaine on board, we were informed that up to 100 planes had bought with hot money laundered through Wachovia Bank.
And when journalists "of the dominant line" Michael Smith and Ed Vulliamy assiduously followed the trail left by Hopsicker and Conroy (always without attributing credit) presented, however, some previously unknown facts about this sordid case.
"Just before the evening of April 10, 2006 , " said Michael Smith of Bloomberg, "a DC-9 jet landed at the international airport of Ciudad del Carmen, 500 miles east of Mexico City."
When army troops suspected after crew tried to " them away, saying there was a dangerous oil leak" did what good law enforcement officials should do: they searched the plane.
Aboard they found 128 identical black suitcases "filled with 5.7 tons of cocaine, valued at 100 million dollars. Mexican prosecutors subsequently established that smuggling would be delivered from Caracas to drug traffickers in Toluca, near Mexico City. The law - enforcement officials also discovered something else. "
"Smugglers" Smith wrote, "he had bought the DC-9 with laundered funds they transferred through two major US banks Wachovia Corp. .: And Bank of America Corp".
But when you publish that story six years ago (long before Bloomberg and The Observer join the hunt), Hopsicker revealed that "One of the two owners of the DC-9 (number of N900SA tail) captured at an airport in Ciudad del Carmen in the state of Campeche, Mexico, last week loaded with 5.5 tons of cocaine had been appointed in 2003 to the Council Business Consultant National Republican Congressional Committee by then Majority Leader Tom Delay Congress can inform The only MadCow Morning News ".
That plane, Hopsicker revealed, was adapted by owner Brent Kovar to be posing as a jet from the Transportation Security Administration US A official - looking seal saying "" Sky Way Aircraft, Protection US Heaven, "complete with the" image of an eagle federal family holding olive branch in its claws. "
And when he researched corporate records FAA (Federal Aviation Administration US) and Hopsicker discovered "a closer look at the [fictitious company] Royal Sons reveals that the company is part of a group of air charter related firms used as fronts to provide 'cover' to CIA flights ".
"The companies involved , " says Hopsicker, "include Royal Sons, Express One International, Genesis Aviation and United Flite Inc."
"The four companies appear to be involved in an interlacing and consecrated Agency dating back to 50 year plan: using frequent transfers of title to possession of aircraft to hinder full identification of ownership of a given at all times plane."
Subsequent reports Hopsicker revealed that the second plane, business jet Gulfstream II (N987SA) made a forced landing in the Yucatan Peninsula with four tons of cocaine on board, was registered in the name of "Donna Blue Aircraft, Inc." (DBA, or "doing business as" [active as]) and was previously employed as a "private charter" which made delivery flights "terrorists" for, who would be ?, CIA!
As Bill Conroy revealed, Narco News journalist in 2008: "In the center of this controversy there are claims that the jet dropped cocaine was part of a drug operation supported by the CIA."
According to Conroy, the key to the unfortunate shipment of cocaine in the Gulfstream II, is a prolific Colombian drug trafficker and US government informant Jose Nelson Urrego Cardenas called recently arrested by police in Panama. Reportedly, Urrego played an important role in organizing the shipment of cocaine as part of the Mayan Express operation [of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement US [ICE]. "
"To those who wonder why the ICE performs an operation as Mayan Express" Conroy wrote, "is worth to note that Charles E. Allen, undersecretary of the DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis Department of Homeland Security (DHS) it is also, by chance, a veteran of the CIA and was a major player in the Iran-Contra scandal that developed during the Reagan administration. "
"One facet of Iran-Contra, you will recall, allegedly involved the use of resources of the CIA to transport drugs to raise money to finance the purchase of arms for the Contra rebels trying to overthrow the Sandinista government in Nicaragua."
"For the ICE count on approval to operate a mission high profile abroad as Mayan Express, which allegedly involved coordination with the CIA, it is very likely that Allen, guru intelligence chief DHS had to be included in the operation as part of ICE DHS. "
More recently, continuing the dirty story of the role of the CIA in the administration, not eliminating global drug trafficking it was revealed that the Agency had a quid-pro-quo agreement with the leaders of Sinaloa Corporation of Chapo Guzman "and government agencies USA for information on rival drug trafficking organizations. "
The federal indictment states that "served as a logistics coordinator" Jesus Vicente Zambada Niebla for the "cartel", helping to oversee an operation that mattered to US "Many tons of cocaine ... using various means, including, but not alone, Boeing 747 cargo planes, private aircraft ... buses, rail cars, tractor trailers and cars."
By the way, one of the "private aircraft" used by plans to import drugs Chapo Guzman was none other than the unfortunate Gulfstream II (N987SA) suffered the forced landing in Yucatan in 2007. Purchased with funds laundered through Wachovia Bank, the business jet was later linked by researchers at the Council of Europe with phantom CIA flights.
Despite the facts presented in the federal complaint Zambada, the so- called "business", he wrote Conroy, "assured the protection of business operations of the cartel Sinaloa while weakening their competition, as the organization of Vicente Carrillo Fuentes from Juarez, Mexico, murder capital of the world. "
"At the same time , " said Narco News, "the information provided by the cartel Sinaloa to US agencies against their rivals ensures a continuous flow of drug raids and victories of US agencies and the Mexican government in the headlines of the media ".
Conroy said: "That propaganda is necessary to entice citizens to make them believe that progress is being made in the war against drugs, thus ensuring continued funding of bloated budgets for war against drugs and support for failed policies that they have cost the lives of about 50 thousand Mexican citizens since late 2006 and have ended any hope of a productive life for hundreds of thousands of US citizens, many of them wasting their lives in US prisons, and a significant amount of victims of street killings linked to failed drug business. "
Call it business as if nothing in "God 's country" that "shining city on a hill".
The past as prologue
If history is a guide to current practices, the CIA has been based for some time in the financing of clandestine operations of the Agency suspects through banks and bankers who lead them .
Among the scammers who have benefited comfortable relations with the Agency, readers will remember to Castle Bank & Trust Bank Paul Helliwell; Nugan-Hand Bank of Michael Hand, Frank Nugan and Bernie Houghton; Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) Agha Hasan Abedi of; or more recently, as Antifascist Calling revealed two years ago, the Ponzi scam fraudster convicted billionaire R. Allen Stanford, disguised as "full service bank" Stanford International.
The fact that the four banks that collapsed in ignominy and scandals while investors escamoteaban them billions of dollars in deposits amid allegations that those black financial holes were little more than conduits for organized crime and intelligence operations, only underscores the undisputed fact that crime pays to secret state bodies such as the CIA.
Two years after the outbreak of the scandal Wachovia amid the deafening silence of the US media, Daniel Mejia told The Observer: "Overall, there is considerable reluctance to go after the big money. Not point to the parts of the chain where there is a great added value. In Europe and the US the money is dispersed once it reaches the consumer country enters the system, in every city and state. They prefer to go after the small economy, humble people and coca crops in Colombia, even though the economy is tiny. "
" It is an extension of the way they operate internally , " Mejia said. "Go after the lower classes, the weak link in the chain, the ordinary subject, to show results. Another vz transfer the cost of the war on drugs to the poorest, but not the financial system and the big money that moves the whole thing. "
In view of the corrupt path of the "War on Drugs", this should not surprise anyone. As Peter Dale Scott wrote in Deep Events and the CIA's Global Drug Connection: "The global drug connection is not only a lateral connection between CIA agents in the field and their contacts in drug trafficking. It is most significantly a global financial complex of hot money uniting prominent companies, finance and government and underworld figures. "
According to Scott, this criminal-elite "global nexus maintains its own political influence through the systematic supply of illicit finance, and even sex favors politicians around the world, including leaders of both parties in the US The result is a system that could dernominarse 'indirect rule', an empire that, in their search for foreign markets and resources, is satisfied with the subversion of the existing governance without imposing a progressive alternative ".
Scott's analysis has certainly been confirmed by honest officials maintain order.
Martin Woods, former detective major drug brigade London Metropolitan Police joined Wachovia in 2005 as principal investigator against money laundering and paid a heavy price for their diligence.
Expelled from his post after refusing to stop reporting on suspicious transactions to the headquarters in Charlotte, on practices of suspicious deposits of subsidiaries of Wachovia in London and Miami activities, Woods told The Observer: "New York and London have become in the two biggest laundries of criminal and drug money and tax havens. No Cayman Islands, not the Isle of Man or Jersey. The big washing takes place directly through the City of London and Wall Street. "
"Meanwhile," Woods said, "The drug industry has two products: money and suffering. Part by a massive benefit and enrichment. On the other mass suffering, misery and death. You can not be separated from each other.
With hundreds of billions of dollars washed by the system every year, there are not many incentives to nab the big fish. And that no doubt.
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