<html>
<body>
<h1><b>Cocaine Jet That Crashed in Mexico Part of Cowboy Government
Operation, DEA Sources
Claim</b></h1><font size=3>
<a href="http://www.narconews.com/Issue48/article2941.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.narconews.com/Issue48/article2941.html<br>
</a></font><h2><b>Mexican Officials Fear the Case, if Exposed, Could
Jeopardize US Funding for “Plan Mexico”<br><br>
<br><br>
</b></h2><h3><b>By Bill Conroy<br>
Special to The Narco News Bulletin</b></h3><font size=3>December 19,
2007<br><br>
The Gulfstream II jet that crash landed in the Mexican Yucatan in late
September carrying close to four tons of cocaine was part of an operation
being carried out by a Department of Homeland Security agency, DEA
sources have revealed to Narco News.<br><br>
The operation, codenamed “Mayan Express,” is an ongoing effort
spearheaded by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the
sources claim. The information surfaced during a high-level meeting at
DEA headquarters in mid-December, DEA sources familiar with the meeting
assert.<br><br>
Those sources have requested anonymity out of fear they will be
retaliated against by the government for revealing the
information.<br><br>
The operation also appears to be badly flawed, the sources say, because
it is being carried out unilaterally, (Rambo-style), by ICE and without
the knowledge of the Mexican government at least it was up until the
point of the coke-packed Gulfstream jet’s abrupt impact with the
Earth.<br><br>
“This is a case of ICE running amok,” one DEA source told Narco News. “If
this [operation] was being run by the book, they would not be doing it
unilaterally” – [without the participation of DEA] – “and without the
knowledge of the Mexican government.”<br><br>
The fact that the Gulfstream was forced to ditch over the Yucatan after
being refused landing clearance at two Mexican airports is strong
evidence that this operation, if ICE operated as alleged, does not have
the proper controls in place, law enforcement sources told Narco News. If
the operation was being adequately monitored and controlled by U.S. law
enforcement, in coordination with Mexican authorities, the jet would have
been directed to a safe landing zone, they add.<br><br>
Mexican law enforcers subsequently apprehended the two pilots of the
downed jet. Neither one of them appears to be a U.S. citizen, according
to Mexican press accounts.<br><br>
Narco News has previously reported that the bill of sale for the
Gulfstream jet which was sold only weeks before its crash landing
lists an individual named Greg Smith, whose name also shows up in public
documents that indicate he worked as a pilot in the past for an operation
involving the FBI, DEA and CIA that targeted narco-traffickers in
Colombia. [See link
<a href="http://www.narconews.com/Issue48/article2919.html">here.</a>]<br>
<br>
Mexican authorities interrogated the pilots of the ill-fated cocaine jet
prior to turning them over to DEA agents for questioning. DEA confirmed
that it is now handling the investigation into the jet crash and
subsequent seizure of the cocaine.<br><br>
It appears that the pilots spilled the beans on the ICE operation during
their interrogation by Mexican authorities, DEA sources tell Narco News.
The meeting held at DEA headquarters was focused, in part, on assessing
the implications of that information. The Mexican government has chosen
not to raised a stink over the matter, the DEA sources claim, for fear of
jeopardizing the pending $1.4 billion U.S. aid package promised as part
of the proposed “Mérida Iinitiative” commonly known as “Plan Mexico,”
which will provide a Christmas list of training and equipment to the
Mexican government to battle “drug cartels.”<br><br>
Mexican law enforcement authorities recently arrested an alleged money
launder,
<a href="http://www.pgr.gob.mx/prensa/2007/bol07/Nov/b58607.shtm">Pedro
Alfonso Alatorre Damy</a>, who they contend is linked to the Sinaloa
narco-trafficking organization. They claim the narco-trafficking
organization financed the purchases of the Gulfstream II as well as a
DC-9 jet that was busted by Mexican authorities last April with a payload
of some 5.5 tons of cocaine. Both jets were sold while parked at the St.
Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport, according to a recent report
by Howard Altman of the
<a href="http://www2.tbo.com/content/2007/nov/15/jets-st-pete-airport-tied-drug-cartel/?news-breaking">
Tampa Tribune.</a><br><br>
So, there is clearly a connection between the two jets. The thread that
ties the Sinaloa organization, Greg Smith and the U.S. federal agencies
that appear to have been involved together, however, remains very
unclear. Did the cartel hire Smith and Clyde O’Connor (the other
individual listed on the Gulfstream’s bill of sale) to handle the plane’s
purchase, unaware that it was falling into a sting? Was the Sinaloa
organization’s connection to the planes simply invented by authorities as
part of a cover-up of the operation? Or is there another explanation yet
to be found?<br><br>
The alleged involvement of ICE in a unilateral counter-narcotics
operation in a foreign nation is unusual (though not unprecedented)
because DEA is supposed to be the lead U.S. agency in such efforts. ICE,
however, generated a major controversy when it ran an operation several
years ago targeting the Vicente Carrillo Fuentes (VCF) narco-trafficking
organization in Juarez, Mexico. As part of that operation, ICE placed an
informant (a former Mexican cop) inside a VCF cell in Juarez and
continued the operation even after ICE agents became aware of their
informant’s participation in murder.<br><br>
That case, since dubbed the
<a href="http://www.narconews.com/houseofdeath/">House of Death</a>
resulted in some 12 people being tortured, murdered and buried in the
back yard of a house in Juarez – all in an effort to make a drug case
against a VCF lieutenant. As is alleged with the current Mayan Express
operation, ICE officials were accused of running the House of Death case
unilaterally and going to great lengths to conceal information about
their informant and the murders from the Mexican government.<br><br>
ICE public affairs officials in Washington, D.C., failed to reply to
several inquiries (by phone and e-mail) from Narco News seeking comment
on the alleged Mayan Express operation.<br><br>
Narco News also contacted Steve Robertson, a special agent assigned to
DEA public affairs in Washington, D.C., for comment about the allegation
that the Gulfstream II jet that crashed in Mexico in late September with
some four tons of coke onboard was, in fact, part of an ICE
operation.<br><br>
Robertson’s response:<br><br>
</font>
<dl>
<dd>I can’t confirm or deny that it was an ICE operation even if I knew
it was the case, and I’m not saying it’s true. <br><br>
<dd>Our Mexico City office is working an investigation on it now. It
started after the seizure [the jet crash]. It’s an ongoing
investigation.<br><br>
<dd>… It was not a DEA operation. The briefings I’ve gotten is that our
investigation started after the seizure.<br><br>
<br>
</i>
</dl><h5><b>Out of Control</b></h5><font size=3>The structure of the
Mayan Express operation, as outlined by the DEA sources, puzzles law
enforcement officials contacted by Narco News. The operation appears to
be playing out in Mexico and Colombia (where the cocaine was picked up)
absent any tight law enforcement controls. As a result, the law enforcers
agree, any criminal cases that might result from the effort likely could
only be pursued once the cocaine entered the United States via an
ICE-controlled delivery point, given the laws governing complex
international narcotics investigations.<br><br>
The apparent lack of control of the operation south of the U.S. border
also raises questions as to how much of the cocaine made its way into the
United States unchecked due to the mechanizations of crafty informants
and assets involved in the operation or the indifference of federal
agents looking to advance a career-boosting case. In the case of the
House of Death, the informant actually
<a href="http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2007/4/13/205247/431">
smuggled a 100 pounds of marijuana</a> across the U.S. border behind the
backs of his ICE handlers, yet ICE continued to use the
informant.<br><br>
The bottom line, though, according to the DEA sources who leaked the
information to Narco News, is that the real purpose of the Mayan Express
operation remains unclear, as does the volume of drugs involved in the
operation to date.<br><br>
<br>
</font><h5><b>Spooks at the Levers</b></h5><font size=3>One proposition
that all of the law enforcers who spoke with Narco News agreed on with
respect to the Mayan Express is that even if DEA was precluded from
participating in the effort, the CIA almost certainly was involved on
some level. They say no law enforcement operation is carried out overseas
without the CIA lurking in the background.<br><br>
Some U.S. media have reported that the Gulfstream II jet that crashed in
Mexico in September is suspected of possible links to the CIA’s terrorist
rendition program and that the aircraft made several trips to Guantanamo
Bay in years past prior to being enlisted as a cocaine transport
plane.<br><br>
The Gulfstream II with tail number N987SA, one month before it crashed in
the Yucatán peninsula.<br>
Photo D.R. 2007 George N. Dean,
<a href="http://www.airliners.net/">Airliners.net<br>
</a></i>Confirming that information independently has proven difficult,
but Narco News did find a report from a British government agency that
lists the Gulfstream II’s registration number (N987SA) among the aircraft
registration numbers European investigators were interested in obtaining
more information about in relation to a probe into CIA rendition
flights.<br><br>
Information on N987SA along with a number of other jets was released
to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in June 2006 by
Britain’s Department of Transport.<br><br>
From the
<a href="http://www.dft.gov.uk/foi/responses/2006/jun/additionaleurocontrol/">
British agency’s</a> Web site:<br><br>
<dl>
<dd>On 7 April the Government published flight plan data received from
Eurocontrol, the European Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation,
concerning the movement of certain US aircraft into or out of UK
aerodromes since 1 January 2001. This data had previously been released
by Eurocontrol to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe to
assist with its enquiry into allegations of “extraordinary rendition”
flights operating within Europe. It provided information on the
aircraft’s type, registration number, date and time of flight, point of
origin and destination and recorded user’s name. It did not however
contain information about any passengers on board or the purpose of the
flight. <br><br>
<dd>Since the disclosure of that initial flight plan data, the Council of
Europe’s enquiry broadened to include investigations into a number of
additional US registered aircraft. Further flight plan information was
therefore sought from Eurocontrol concerning the movement of these newly
identified aircraft to and from European aerodromes….<br><br>
</i>
</dl>Attorney Mark Conrad, a former high-level supervisory Customs agent
who has an extensive background in the intelligence world, has no problem
entertaining a CIA scenario in the Gulfstream II narco-world saga. Though
he stresses that he has no knowledge of the Mayan Express operation,
Conrad says based on its description, he suspects the CIA could even be
running the show.<br><br>
Conrad says in recent years, ICE’s investigative talent has defected in
droves from the agency due to Homeland Security’s obsessive focus on what
he describes as a “snatch and grab” mission targeting undocumented
immigrants.<br><br>
As a result, he told Narco News:<br><br>
<dl>
<dd>It [the Mayan Express] makes no sense and it makes perfect sense.
There probably aren’t six people left at ICE who could put an operation
like this together. It could well be a CIA operation working under ICE
cover.<br><br>
</i>
</dl>Conrad says such a “cover” approach is not a crazy conspiracy
theory. He adds that when he was with U.S. Customs which has since
become part of ICE the CIA placed one of its agents in Japan with
Customs credentials as a cover.<br><br>
Though speculation, such a structure could provide the Agency with the
clearance it needed to carry out the operation stateside and a convenient
scapegoat if the operation imploded along with plenty of plausible
deniability.<br><br>
It wouldn’t be the first time that the CIA has been accused of running
rough shod over law enforcement priorities.<br><br>
In the early 1990s, the CIA ran a spook mission designed to infiltrate
Colombian narco-trafficking groups that resulted in at least a ton of
cocaine some estimates put the figure much higher entering the United
States unchecked. The former head of the DEA, Robert Bonner, incensed at
the Agency’s actions, which were carried out over DEA’s objections, went
on <a href="http://www.csun.edu/coms/ben/news/cia/ven/60m.html">national
TV</a> at the time and essentially accused the CIA of engaging in drug
trafficking.<br><br>
The CIA operation, which was carried out with the assistance of the
Venezuelan National Guard, unraveled after U.S. Customs seized a load of
the dope in Miami.<br><br>
So, one way to avoid a repeat of that mistake in an operation like the
alleged Mayan Express, assuming it is a CIA-run effort, is to use Customs
(ICE) as a cover for the operation, one law enforcer suggests.<br><br>
Whatever the Mayan Express is designed to accomplish, the DEA sources who
came forward with this information did so because they are convinced that
the operation could jeopardize future legitimate law enforcement efforts
overseas, but that official Washington will do whatever it can to
cover-up the mess.<br><br>
Congress could get to the bottom of these allegations, if it chose to,
but the DEA sources contend that the Mayan Express has delivered a can of
worms to their doorstep that no one wants to open during this election
season.<br><br>
Stay tuned….<br><br>
<br><br>
</font><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<font size=3 color="#FF0000">Freedom Archives<br>
522 Valencia Street<br>
San Francisco, CA 94110<br><br>
</font><font size=3 color="#008000">415 863-9977<br><br>
</font><font size=3 color="#0000FF">
<a href="http://www.freedomarchives.org/" eudora="autourl">
www.Freedomarchives.org</a></font><font size=3> </font></body>
</html>