DEADLINE LIVE EXCLUSIVE: DEA Protecting the Most Dangerous and Powerful Mexican Drug Cartel

The Mexican drug war that began in 2004 was started by the Sinaloa Drug Cartel with the blessing and the protection of the DEA. The Sinaloa Drug Cartel reached an agreement with the DEA to provide information about drug cartel rivals. In exchange, the DEA would protect their drug shipments and their people.

By Mario Andrade
DeadlineLive.info
August 3, 2011

Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman

For several years now, DeadlineLive.info has been reporting that Mexico’s biggest and most powerful drug cartel, known as the Sinaloa Cartel, has been protected by the DEA and the CIA. The entire leadership of the Sinaloa Cartel is made of CIA operatives and DEA informants. The Sinaloa Drug Cartel is headed by Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman, who is listed among one of the richest men in the world according to Forbes Magazine. Ever since his capture and ‘mysterious’ escape from a maximum security prison in 2001, everyone in Mexico believes Guzman reached a deal with the DEA to provide information about his rival cartels. In exchange, the DEA would provide protection for him, his people, and his drug shipments. Guzman would also allow DEA operatives into his organization. This was kind of a rumor in Mexico; however, today we know it’s true.

In essence, the Mexican Drug War that began around 2003-2004 with the capture of Gulf Drug Cartel leader Osiel Cardenas, was indeed started by the DEA through the Sinaloa Cartel. Guzman also betrayed his inner circle members: The Beltran-Leyva Brothers, who left his organization after they found out they were being ratted-out.

When the Beltran-Leyva Brothers left and formed their own drug cartel, ‘El Chapo’ sent one of his trusted bodyguards to work for them: an American by the name of Edgar ‘Barbie’ Valdez. Soon after that, four out of the five Beltran-Leyva Brothers were either killed or captured. The only surviving brother, Hector Beltran-Leyva has accused Valdez of being responsible for the death and capture of his brothers because he provided information to the DEA. Valdez has been identified as a DEA informer by many Mexican journalists and investigators.

Edgar 'Barbie' Valdez

A well respected Mexican columnist by the name of Raymundo Riva Palacio has written extensively about Valdez’s DEA connections. In one of his columns, he mentioned that he learned about a meeting between the leaders of Los Zetas and the Beltran-Leyva Brothers. Riva Palacio reported that ‘Barbie’ Valdez provided a live feed to the DEA using his cell phone. Also, the DEA actually bragged to Mexican authorities, saying that they had a source in the meeting, confirming Riva Palacio’s claim. The DEA has many operatives like Valdez inside the Sinaloa Drug Cartel and other criminal organizations.

As Valdez’s continued to sabotage and dismantle the organization of Joaquin Guzman’s former business partners (and now rivals), two more foreign nationals were arrested with charges of laundering money for the Beltran-Leyva Brothers: German citizen Röhrig Ronny (the European connection), and Ramón Ricardo Martinelli Corro, who is the cousin of Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli. Guzman probably didn’t like the fact that his European and Panamanian contacts went with the Beltran-Leyva Brothers. Therefore, the DEA made its move against them. Coincidently, Valdez also worked for Gulf Cartel leader Osiel Cardenas right before he was captured in 2003, as well as the Juarez Cartel, which is currently at war with Sinaloa and the DEA. When Edgar Valdez was allegedly captured by Mexican authorities (some say he turned himself in because Hector Beltran-Leyva was going to kill him), he stated in his interrogation that Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman started the Mexican Drug War. He wasn’t able to explain why; he just said that for some reason, El Chapo started it. This is because Guzman was acting under the orders of the DEA. Sinaloa (Guzman’s organization) went to war against Los Zetas for the south east Mexican territory (to receive cocaine shipments from Colombia), as well as the Tijuana Cartel and the Juarez Cartel in order to gain border access to drug shipments into the United States.

Across the border from Juarez, in El Paso, Texas, journalist Diana Washington Valdez has just reported that the DEA has been allowing cocaine shipments from the Sinaloa Cartel into the United States in exchange for information. She discovered this information after reviewing court documents from a Sinaloa cartel member being tried in a Chicago court named Vicente Zambada. Diana Washington Valdez has also been reporting that many weapons have been leaving the DEA’s air operations center to the El Paso area, where they are being smuggled into Mexico, where they end up in the hands of Mexican drug cartels. Some believe the weapons are going to the Sinaloa Cartel. Others, like former CIA analyst Phil Jordan and Robert Plumlee, a former CIA pilot believe they are going to Los Zetas, and they think these weapons may be used in a possible 2012 Mexican elections disruption or a coup attempt.

In 2009, the son of Joaquin Guzman’s compadre (‘El Mayo’ Zambada – a major player in the Sinaloa Cartel) was captured by Mexican authorities. His name is Vicente Zambada, aka ‘El Vicentillo’ (little Vinnie). Soon after his capture, little Vinnie Zambada was extradited to the United States. His trial is taking place in Chicago. Last January, Zambada stated in court documents that he worked with the DEA and the FBI. Fearing that the judge was going to throw the book at him, he decided to spill the beans. Zambada presented evidence stating that U.S. Government agencies, such as the DEA and the FBI protected him and worked with him. Furthermore, he did not just make baseless accusations; Zambada actually named names, such as “the DEA Regional Assistant for South America, the Director General of the Office of the DEA in Mexico, the DEA agents commissioned in Monterrey, Hermosillo and Mexico City , including but not limited to those who are named Eduardo Martinez “Manny” LNU, “David” LNU, and Stephen Monk, as well as other people, including FBI agents whose names are unknown but the defendant agencies are known for,” according to court documents presented by his lawyer. In these documents, Zambada stated that the U.S. Government agencies were in contact with him and were fully aware of his operations between January of 2004 and March of 2008, just months before his arrest.

DEA operative and Sinaloa Drug Cartel member Vicente Zambada

Last week, Zambada presented another court pleading. Researcher Bill Conroy from Narconews.com examined Zambada’s most recent court documents in this new pleading and he found out that not only Zambada was being protected by the DEA, but Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman himself, leader of the Sinaloa Drug Cartel also became a DEA asset. This finally and officially confirms what we at DeadlineLive.info have been reporting for a long time.

CIA Connections

Four years ago, the Mexican military caught and confiscated an airplane with almost 4 tons of cocaine in the state of Yucatan. A month later, there was a plane crash in the same region, involving a similar aircraft –a Gulfstream II with registration N987SA, belonging to a U.S. company known as Donna Blue Aircraft Inc.  When authorities arrived at the crash site, they discovered around 4 tons of cocaine onboard the aircraft. The narcotics reportedly belonged to the Sinaloa Drug Cartel, under the command of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. However, the airplane did not belong to Guzman; it was later discovered by both Mexican authorities and independent news sources that the aircraft was used for CIA rendition flights. Mexico’s leading newspaper, El Universal, obtained the flight records and other documents related to the ownership and recent flight information and confirmed that it was a CIA aircraft.

The local Yucatan drug cartel cell was headed by Ignacio ‘Nacho’ Coronel. He was literally running “El Chapo” Guzman’s cocaine operations in the Yucatan Peninsula since 2004, when evidently, he became the visible head of the Sinaloa Cartel which operated out of the cities of Merida, Cancun, and Cozumel. This was known as “the Yucatan Peninsula Route.”

CIA Operative and Sinaloa Drug Cartel boss Ignacio 'Nacho' Coronel

Coronel’s Yucatan operations included the transportation of narcotics via air, mainly cocaine from Colombia to be later smuggled into the United States using both Sinaloa Drug Cartel and CIA aircraft. During that time, Nacho Coronel had the protection and collaboration of corrupt elements from local, state and Mexican federal police, as well as from Mexican military. One particular example of the involvement of Mexican military in his operations included the arrest of 11 Mexican Navy officials who were caught smuggling cocaine from Colombia into Yucatan on May 12 of 2006. Coronel would later use CIA aircraft to smuggle the cocaine into the United States. He had apparently established connections with the Colombian drug cartel known as “Valle del Norte” (North Valley).

Nacho Coronel was (allegedly) killed last year by the Mexican military. His subordinates moved to the Mexican State of Jalisco and replaced the local cartel members in the Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarta area. His Sinaloa Cartel cell still has ties to the CIA. They’ve recently created the death squad known as ‘Los Matazetas’ (Killers of Zetas), and in a video posted at YouTube, they’ve announced their intentions to eliminate Los Zetas in the state of Veracruz.