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Timeline
by A.X. Perez
[email protected]

Attribute to L. Neil Smith's The Libertarian Enterprise

Ca. 2006 or earlier: Mexican Government begins crackdown on drug cartels at behest of US government.

Same time period to present: DEA begins various "stings" in which it helps Sinaloa cartel smuggle drugs and money. However, while smuggling occurs no one actually gets stung.

Ca 2006: Bush Administration starts Operation Wide Receiver in coordination with Mexican Government to trace movement of guns from US to Mexico. Operation stopped when it becomes clear it is impossible to keep track of guns.

Ca Nov. 2009: Lanny Breuer, Kenneth Melson, and others dream up and begin implementation of Operation Fast and Furious. The "plan" was to require licensed gun dealers to sell weapons to known strawmen who would help smuggle them into Mexico. This time the Mexican government was left out of the loop and cynically the plan to "trace" the weapons was based on them being recovered at crime scenes, preferably murders. The Operation would run through December of 2010 when an American Border Patrol Agent was killed with a Fast and Furious gun and the truth becomes available to the American public. We got real furious, real fast. Most of these weapons appear to have gone to the Sinaloa Cartel. Some of the guns were paid for with money from informant fees paid by the FBI.

Ca 2009-early 2011: Juarez, Mexico becomes Murder Capital of the World while El Paso, Texas becomes the Safest Large American City. Murder count in Juarez was eight a day, with a massacre of 12 or more people every third day. Five people were murdered in El Paso that year (however, there is the "accidental death" of a possible stool pigeon while escaping from jail that maybe should count as number six.), the count for a bad morning in Juarez. Murder victims in Juarez would include cartel members, cops who had sold out to various cartels by their rivals, cops who wouldn't sell out on the "plata o plomo" (silver or lead) principle, shop owners who would not pay protection, shop owners who did pay protection but to the wrong people, and a wide variety of innocent bystanders. Corrupt Federal Police and soldiers sent to get Juarez under control would exacerbate the situation.

Two incidents are worth noting: In March of 2010 Leslie Ramirez and her husband Arthur Redelfs were killed in Juarez, as was a third person in a vehicle similar to theirs. Originally it was reported that Redelf, a jail guard in El Paso, was the target in retaliation for mistreating members of the Barrio Azteca, and that the third party was hit as a result of mistaken identity. In May of that year it was bandied about that Ramirez was the intended target as payback for not helping a Sinaloa cartel get a visa to enter the US. In a current trial of a Barrio Azteca leader in El Paso the claim is that she was hit for helping rivals of the Azteca get visas (this would have been members of the Sinaloa cartel).

In July of 2010 The Juarez Cartel set up an ambush for Juarez cops using a car bomb. They left graffiti warning they would do more of the same unless the DEA and FBI investigated the link between Mexican Federal law enforcement and the Sinaloa Cartel. Little did they realize who they were talking to.

2011-2012 Fast and Furious is a major scandal in the US. Attorney General Eric Holder and his minions stonewall with Barrack Obama's support. Democratic party and American Media support Holder (Quelle surprise). Meanwhile Sinaloa cartel wins fight for control of Juarez drug smuggling corridor and things calm down in Juarez, though now out of work sicarios make trouble. In a gallow humoresque twist the Juarez funeral service industry suffers a recession.

Also in 2011: Sinaloa Cartel leader on trial in US claims the cartel has deal permitting them to smuggle drugs into US in exchange for suppressing other cartels.

It is a widely spread conspiracy theory in Mexico that this person is telling the truth. Awareness of, if not credence in, this theory appears to be a plot twist in Season Four of The Sons of Anarchy. Whether it is a case of life imitating art or if Kurt Sutter really knew about the theory (and whether or not he subscribes to it) I can not say.

Given that DEA helped the Sinaloa Cartel move drugs and money, that the FBI provided them with money to buy guns, that the BATFE helped them smuggle guns, and that at at least some State Department employees were suborned into helping Sinaloa Cartel members get visas to enter the US there is some credibility to this theory.

So it is time to ask the Administration in so many words, "Is the US government allied to the Sinaloa Cartel?"

PS John Taylor corresponded to me regarding related events. Events are very sketchily described in this article to keep it down to an article. This is easily a two hundred page book. Feel free to write it as I won't have the opportunity to do so before July 2014 at the earliest, assuming I can work up the ambition. Acknowledgement and a half percent of royalties would be nice.

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