Military, Law Enforcement Caught in FBI Drug Trafficking Sting Along South

[NNN0LHI]

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBGYIV7N8E.html

WASHINGTON (AP) - FBI agents posing as cocaine traffickers in Arizona caught 16 current and former U.S. soldiers and law enforcement personnel who took payoffs to help move the drugs through checkpoints, Justice Department officials said Thursday.

Those charged include a former Immigration and Naturalization Service inspector, a former Army sergeant, a former federal prison guard, current and former members of the Arizona Air National Guard and the state corrections department, and a Nogales, Ariz., police officer, officials said.

All 16 have agreed to plead guilty to being part of a bribery and extortion conspiracy, the result of the nearly 4 1/2-year FBI sting, acting assistant attorney general John C. Richter and FBI agent Jana D. Monroe said.

more

[SheepyMcSheepster]

1. damn those few bad apples!

messing everything up!

it's only a very very small percentage of law enforcement that ever ever does anything illegal!

:sarcasm:

[orwell]

2. Uh

I support the troops!

...Never mind...

[AndrewJacksonFaction]

32. In what way?

In what way? LOL

[Felix Mala]

3. Cash payments were traced to GOP causes such as Tom DeLay's

intra-decade redistricting of Texas. Please dig deeper...


"...former Immigration and Naturalization Service inspector, a former Army sergeant, a former federal prison guard, current and former members of the Arizona Air National Guard and the state corrections department..."

People like this don't just dream up this stuff on their own. They need connections. Connections to foreign governments and knowledgeable of law enforcement efforts. Who would those connections be? Someone who needs a lot of extra secret cash... hhhmmmmm....

[KansDem]

4. Who's guarding the guards?

This is getting tiresome: those "charged" with protecting society turn out to be the worst offenders.

Total Coverage: The CIA, Contras, and Drugs
News: The CIA-coke connection was detailed long before Dark Alliance -- and the evidence keeps coming

By Eric Umansky

August 25, 1998

You may have seen the headline last month on the front page of the NEW YORK TIMES. (Then again, you may not have, since it ran in a small box on the bottom-left corner.) It announced, "CIA Says It Used Nicaraguan Rebels Accused of Drug Tie." The beginning of that story read:

"The CIA continued to work with about two dozen Nicaraguan rebels and their supporters during the 1980s despite allegations they were trafficking in drugs.... he agency's decision to keep those paid agents, or to continue dealing with them in some less formal relationship, was made by top officials at headquarters in Langley, Va."
In other words, top officials at the CIA knew the agency was working with Contra drug traffickers and didn't do anything about it. But the story, even with that shocking headline, quickly disappeared. None of the other major papers, news magazines, or TV networks reported the NEW YORK TIMES' findings.
(more)

http://www.motherjones.com/news/special_reports/total_coverage/coke.html

And the "call boy/White House" scandals:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=callboy+white+house&spell=1

US service personnel, cops, government agents, Presidential administrations, Congress, etc. etc. etc. involved with illegal sex and drugs while claiming to take the high road, while the rest of us are expected to work hard, "act right," and pay our bills and taxes? This is getting tiresome, and I'm getting fed up!

[Brooklyn Michael]

12. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

[burrowowl]

23. Ya! Who is

watching the watchers, in short!

[Felix Mala]

16. No one would risk this kind of operation for personal gain

with this many people involved. It would be doomed from the start. But if they were working to make some money for a larger organization... (and had a little 'protection' going on...)

[Wilber_Stool]

5. Like they say in Chicago

The only time you find corruption in the police department is when you look for it.

[havocmom]

6. When a society values $$ above all else

what else can one expect? Not an excuse, just a fact of life.

[ozymandius]

7. I'm having a tinfoil moment.

http://www.steamshovelpress.com/fromeditor24.html

"The Octopus Returns"
by Kenn Thomas

Here's a quick refresher paragraph on the Octopus:

Danny Casolaro was "suicided" in 1992 on the trail of the mother of all conspiracies, a transnational cabal manipulating world political events since World War II called The Octopus. Key to his research was a super-surveillance software called PROMIS, which was given to a crony of Ronald Reagan's as a pay off for the deliverance of $40 million to the Ayatollah Khomeini for the "October Surprise" -- holding on to the 52 American hostages in Iran until after Jimmy Carter lost the 1980 election. The crony profiteered from PROMIS (really owned by a company called Inslaw) by selling it to police agencies throughout the world for the purpose of tracking criminals and extrapolating their next moves.

[Barrett808]

8. The northern transshipment point for the soldiers busted in Colombia?

An interesting coincidence.

[killbotfactory]

9. they know the war on drugs is a joke

why not make some profit while the sham is running?

[ixion]

10. exactly

the only thing the so-called 'War on Drugs' does is ruin the lives of non-violent drug users, and provide a huge cash cow for covert ops. :grr:

[Journeyman]

11. In 1972, the US Government said there were 10 million daily pot smokers. .

If we assume the number has stayed constant in the past 30+ years, let's do some math:

In 1972, a "lid" of marijuana was approximately 1 ounce (the usual measure was "three fingers" but the fingers never touched). If we assume 30 joints per bag (fat but not unknown in those days), a pound of pot would yield 480 joints. Let's call it 500 to make the math easier.

Five hundred joints per pound divided into 10 million people means there were approximately 20,000 pounds of marijuana -- 10 TONS OF MARIJUANA -- being smoked every day in America. That's in 1972 -- when a pound cost about $100 and lids went for $10 each.

I don't know present day figures, but for those of you who do, do the math, then tell me: How can you stop something this big? When you hear of a bust at the border that yields 5 tons of grass, bear in mind that's about half a day's supply. And when they boast of busts for "pounds" . . . well, we're talking minutes worth of consumption.

And from what I hear, the price has skyrocketed since 1972. How can anyone expect to stop the smugglers when they're obviously bringing it in by the truckload and making billions of dollars each year?

[Felix Mala]

14. I thought it was expensive when I was a kid.

I don't know how teenagers afford it today. You'd almost have to have a steady job to buy it regularly. But how do you keep a steady job if you're stoned all the time?

[Viva_La_Revolution]

30. be responsible...

don't smoke till after work. Just like alcohol.

[UpInArms]

13. ...

:kick:

[Felix Mala]

15. Anyway, our local news is reporting this now... I still say there's

something big here.

[Zorbuddha]

17. FBI Nabs Troops, Officers in Drug Sting

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) - FBI agents posing as cocaine traffickers in Arizona caught 16 current and former U.S. soldiers and law enforcement personnel who took about $220,000 in bribes to help move the drugs through checkpoints, Justice Department officials said Thursday.

Those charged include a former Immigration and Naturalization Service inspector, a former Army sergeant, a former federal prison guard, current and former members of the Arizona Army National Guard and the state corrections department, and a Nogales police officer, officials said.

"Many individuals charged were sworn personnel having the task of protecting society and securing America's borders. The importance of these tasks cannot be overstated and we cannot tolerate, nor can the American people afford, this type of corruption," FBI agent Jana D. Monroe, who directs the bureau's operations in Arizona, said during a news conference in Tucson.

All 16 have agreed to plead guilty to being part of a bribery and extortion conspiracy, the result of the nearly 3 1/2-year FBI sting, acting assistant attorney general John C. Richter and Monroe said. Officials said more arrests are anticipated.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050512/D8A1S6UO2.html

[Zorra]

18. Funneling Colombian CIA cocaine into the US is their patriotic duty.

Just like it was when the Reagan adminsitration did it.

[Zorbuddha]

21. sadly so

too true

[EvolvedChimp]

19. It's too bad

It's too bad that people sworn to protect us will take a bribe to corrupt us. It's equally depressing that the FBI had to spend tax payer money on this 3 1/2 year ordeal. It just plain sucks.

[Zorbuddha]

22. A vicious circle

A maze without exit.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

31. I used to live in Phoenix....

and hung around with the La Familia crowd.. (The OG's who were living lawfully (mostly) and raising families.) It was common knowledge that a lot of stuff was coming over near Nogales, and the authorities were in on it.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

20. Just mules.

I guarantee the "brains" got away.

Again.

[Moderator]

24. kick to combine

[northstar]

25. Military, law enforcement caught in FBI drug sting

<snip>
TUCSON, Arizona (AP) -- FBI agents posing as cocaine traffickers nabbed 16 current and former law enforcement officers and U.S. soldiers who had accepted more than $222,000 in bribes to help move drugs past checkpoints, the government said.
~~snip~~
Those charged include a former Immigration and Naturalization Service inspector, a former Army sergeant, a former federal prison guard, seven members of the Arizona Army National Guard, five members of the Arizona Department of Corrections and a police officer, officials said.
~~snip~~
Hillman said the defendants drove cocaine shipments past checkpoints manned by the government while they wore official uniforms, carried identification and used official vehicles.
~~snip~~
"Many individuals charged were sworn personnel having the task of protecting society and securing America's borders," Monroe said. "The importance of these tasks cannot be overstated and we cannot tolerate, nor can the American people afford, this type of corruption."
<snip>

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/05/13/fbi.sting.ap/index.html
-------------

The article also states that the defendants were not arrested, and were released on their own recognizance. The prosecutor said they could face a 34-36 month sentence for one conspiracy count, but that the sentence could be less, if they cooperate.

I dunno, maybe I'm old fashioned but this seems like a pretty light sentence for big scale drug trafficking, especially in light of the fact that they were sworn personnel using government ID and equipment to commit and cover for their crimes. I guess violating the public trust (what little is left of it) isn't a serious thing anymore? :shrug:

edited to add link

[The Backlash Cometh]

26. It was the uniform that lightened the sentence. If they had been black

and in street clothes, they would each be facing twenty year sentences.

[SouthernDem2004]

27. Not for a first time offense they wouldn't.

[TeeYiYi]

28. Border Patrol told to stand down in Arizona

I noticed this story earlier today and wonder if there's any connection.

Border Patrol told to stand down in Arizona

By Jerry Seper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

U.S. Border Patrol agents have been ordered not to arrest illegal aliens along the section of the Arizona border where protesters patrolled last month because an increase in apprehensions there would prove the effectiveness of Minuteman volunteers, The Washington Times has learned.

More than a dozen agents, all of whom asked not to be identified for fear of retribution, said orders relayed by Border Patrol supervisors at the Naco, Ariz., station made it clear that arrests were "not to go up" along the 23-mile section of border that the volunteers monitored to protest illegal immigration.

"It was clear to everyone here what was being said and why," said one veteran agent. "The apprehensions were not to increase after the Minuteman volunteers left. It was as simple as that."

Another agent said the Naco supervisors "were clear in their intention" to keep new arrests to an "absolute minimum" to offset the effect of the Minuteman vigil, adding that patrols along the border have been severely limited.


More: http://www.washtimes.com/national/20050513-122032-5055r.htm

TYY

[TeeYiYi]

29. kick

TYY:kick: