[NYTr] Crashed Gulfstream Coke Jet Part of Cowboy Govt Op: DEA Sources

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

[This story was broken originally by Mad Cow Morning News. Background
earlier articles (many) from Mad Cow Morning News and NarcoNews are
here:

Pilot of Crashed Drug Plane: "Don's $2 Million Bought the Plane"
http://blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/Week-of-Mon-20071022/070535.html

See NarcoNews - Nov 17, 2007 for embedded links to more sources:
http://www.narconews.com/Issue47/article2885.html

Link to DEA/FBI/CIA to Crashed Drug Plane in Mexcio?
http://blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/Week-of-Mon-20071203/072531.html

-NY Transfer

NarcoNews - Dec 19, 2007
http://www.narconews.com/Issue48/article2941.html


Cocaine Jet That Crashed in Mexico Part of Cowboy Govt Operation, 
DEA Sources Claim

Mexican Officials Fear the Case, if Exposed, Could Jeopardize US
Funding for “Plan Mexico”

By Bill Conroy
Special to The Narco News Bulletin

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.

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.

Those sources have requested anonymity out of fear they will be
retaliated against by the government for revealing the information.

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.

“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.”

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.

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.

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
http://www.narconews.com/Issue48/article2919.html

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.

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.”

Mexican law enforcement authorities recently arrested an alleged money
launder, Pedro Alfonso Alatorre Damy, 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 Tampa Tribune.

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?

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.

That case, since dubbed the House of Death 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.

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.

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.

Robertson’s response:

    "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.

    Our Mexico City office is working an investigation on it now. It
started after the seizure [the jet crash]. It’s an ongoing
investigation.

    … It was not a DEA operation. The briefings I’ve gotten is that our
investigation started after the seizure."


Out of Control

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.

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 smuggled a 100 pounds of
marijuana across the U.S. border behind the backs of his ICE handlers,
yet ICE continued to use the informant.

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.

Spooks at the Levers

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.

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.

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.

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.

>From the British agency’s Web site:
http://www.dft.gov.uk/foi/responses/2006/jun/additionaleurocontrol/

    "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.

    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..."

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.

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.

As a result, he told Narco News:

    "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."

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.

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.

It wouldn’t be the first time that the CIA has been accused of running
rough shod over law enforcement priorities.

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 national TV at the time and essentially accused the
CIA of engaging in drug trafficking. See
http://www.csun.edu/coms/ben/news/cia/ven/60m.html

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.

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.

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.

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.

Stay tuned...