DHS Stash

Bill Conroy has the latest on the case of the jet that crashed in Mexico in September with nearly four tons of cocaine:

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.”

Conroy also points out how in the House of Death case, ICE was much more comfortable with their foreign contacts breaking laws so long as it got them closer to the "prime target" they were after. While scenarios where the government is involved in smuggling seem like crazy conspiracies to some, its actually what you expect to see when you have agencies involved in drug enforcement who believe the ends justify the means.

Another question is whether or not the CIA is involved. Conroy writes:

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.

Even though the plane had recently been sold, if it had been used for CIA rendition flights, I have trouble coming up with any good explanation for why it later ends up crashing in Mexico with enough cocaine to fill a sand trap. Wouldn't it be cool if we actually lived in a country where this kind of corruption raised an eyebrow in Washington DC? Or is it just too easy to spend $1 billion dollars to fight cocaine trafficking while ignoring the fact that our own Department of Homeland Security folks are involved with it?