Jesus Vicente Zambada-Niebla, the Sinaloa Cartel’s logistics coordinator, is making some serious allegations against the US government. He says Operation Fast & Furious is not what it appears to be.
Fast & Furious was a gunwalking scheme set up by our government, supposedly to track guns to take down the big fish in cartels. These guns have been linked to the deaths of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and 300+ Mexicans, including prominent lawyer Mario Gonzalez, brother of former state attorney Patricia Gonzalez. Guns have been found at twelve crime scenes across America and 1,000+ are still missing.
However, as Jason Howerton at The Blaze reports, Mr. Zambada-Niela says Fast & Furious wasn’t about supplying guns to the Sinaloa Cartel. It was about taking down other drug cartels part of a “divide and conquer” strategy.
“This strategy, which he calls ‘Divide & Conquer,’ uses one drug organization to help against others, is exactly what the Justice Department and its various agencies have implemented in Mexico. In this case, they entered into an agreement with the leadership of the Sinaloa Cartel through, among others, Humberto Loya-Castro, to receive their help in the United States government’s efforts to destroy other cartels.”
Mr. Zambada-Niela, a close associate of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman and the son of Ismael “Mayo” Zambada-Garcia, claims the US would arm and finance the Sinaloa Cartel in exchange for any information that would allow the DEA, ICE, and others take down rival cartels. The government also allowed them to transport drugs between 2004-2009.
As Mr. Howerton points out, if this is true, this would be a stain on President Bush and President Obama’s administration. Of course, he could be saying this to reduce his sentence. The US government would also give the cartel members like Mr. Zambada-Niela immunity. Last July he demanded the government release documents to prove his allegations.
“Mr. Zambada-Niebla believes that the documentation will also provide evidence showing that the United States government has a policy and pattern of providing benefits, including immunity, to cartel leaders, including the Sinaloa Cartel and their members, who are willing to provide information against rival drug cartels.”
The DEA said there was not an official immunity deal, but did acknowledge he may have acted as an informant. Mr. Zambada-Niela’s defense filed for several motions of discovery, but the judge denied each one because he failed to make the case he was an informant. The government admits there are classified materials, but they don’t support his claims. Last September the government filed a motion to invoke the Classified Information Procedures Act claiming the documents were of national security.
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