Feds Have Been Hiding Evidence From Wiretap Courts In Their War on Gangs

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Federal prosecutors have used top leaders of Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), known as the most violent gang in the US and Central America, as secret informants over a decade of murders, drug-trafficking and car-jackings across a dozen US states and several Central American countries. During that time period, prosecutors obtained more than 21 wiretap approvals, plus extensions, to investigate MS-13, failing to tell judges that the gang leaders were already in custody as informants—a possible violation of federal law.

The details are revealed in court documents filed by the defense in the ongoing murder conspiracy trial of Alex Sanchez and 23 alleged MS-13 members in Los Angeles. Sanchez, who was released on bail after an outpouring of community appeals and a review by an appeals court, is well-known as the former gang member who founded Homies Unidos, a gang intervention group attempting to quell gang violence in the US and Central America. The revelations threaten to undermine the state’s case—and could even lead parts to be thrown out—while raising serious questions about the legality of the US government’s global war on gangs, which, like the larger war on terror, uses undercover police units, informants, secret databases, and surveillance without clear legal authority.

The informants are identified as Nelson Comandari, described by law enforcement as "the CEO of Mara Salvatrucha," and his self described “right hand man,” Jorge Pineda, nicknamed "Dopey" because of his drug-dealing background. Both are Salvadorans in their 30s, being held in law enforcement custody at undisclosed locations. Los Angeles authorities hold Comandari responsible for six to ten murders—killings he either committed or ordered—according to crime reporter Tom Diaz in his 2009 book No Boundaries, about transnational gangs. Comandari's grandfather was Col. Agustin Martinez Varela, a powerful right-wing Salvadoran who served as an interior minister during El Salvador’s civil wars. Comandari's uncle, Franklin Varela, was a central informant in the Reagan administration’s scandalous investigation into the activist Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador . There is more that may come to light. "Public information about Nelson Comandari's criminal case is in lockdown," Diaz wrote last year, "and I was subtly warned more than once about writing about it." Mention of Comandari’s name, Diaz added, "causes senior FBI and Justice Department officials in Washington to blanch."

Read more: http://www.thenation.com/article/154196/feds-have-been-hiding-evidence-wiretap-courts-their-war-gangs

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1. No!

Say it isn't so!