THE ILLEGAL DRUGS TRADE

THE ILLEGAL DRUGS TRADE


The history of LSD and its links to MK ULTRA should make one wary of a covert experimental agenda in the highly organised drugs industry.

Drugs make up a huge industry. An industry which relies on a large and organised monstrous infrastructure, which transcends the dope head pusher who arrives on a street corner just after school breaks up. It is undeniable that the CIA engaged in drug running to finance armaments – see Oliver North in Wikipedia and Time Magazine. The evidence points to other secret service agencies doing the same sort of trade. The youth are their target market, so drugs, far from being anti-establishment, make up the revenues of a large part of the establishment of our covert and unfunded Security Services, (see Oliver North and other internet evidence at the end of this chapter) who find drug running a lucrative trade to finance their illegal arms trade and other nefarious covert activities.

This is a multi-trillion dollar industry. Industries like that don’t just happen. They are nurtured and protected, the right people are bought off and politicians, in every country, can be counted to be in the pockets of, if not active participants in, the drug over-lords’ industry. Why do leading drugs barons appear in the Forbes Rich List?

I am now not sure it is a good idea to legalize drugs, having seen the impact of the alcohol industry lobbyists on our Parliamentarians. I once thought it a good idea to make all illegal drugs legal. Users could have health tests, paid for from drug revenues. If the cheapest and best, most trusted supplier is a clinical environment it would, I thought, take the ‘cool’ out of drugs.

However having seen alcohol being made into ever more sweet and palatable liquids, to wean the young to a taste they would otherwise reject, I realise how foolish and naïve I was. Opening hours have been extended, through the efforts of alcohol industry lobbyists. Politicians joined the argument and lobbied for a ‘café culture’ - politicians of all parties. The lack of foresight in realising that one cannot change a Northern European alcohol culture by extending opening hours apparently failed to plumb the reasoning faculties of all our politicians. All that has happened is an increase in alcohol consumption and who can reasonably argue that was not the ultimate aim of the alcohol industry?

A moderate café culture has not been the result of relaxing of the law, instead we have a growing binge culture, where ‘getting off your face’ is the sole purpose of an extended evening out. The cost to the public of policing the binge culture has risen in line with the rising profits accruing to alcohol manufacturers.

I can now see that those who legally make and supply recreational drugs would inevitably manufacture more and more products to entice even those who would not have touched illegal recreational drugs in a million years, into the drug taking fraternity.

The recent history of alcohol lobbying shows that neo con capitalism can be stretched beyond any moral limits.

By punishing small time pushers and refusing to deal with the big fish are we really trying to save the Titanic from sinking by sending men down with thimbles to bale out the ship? After all when a Mexican drug Baron makes it into seventh place on the Forbes Rich List (2009) there must be some high level protection in place.

The drugs industry is one of the most profitable in the history of the world. Taxes do not apply – it is all revenue, and revenue resistant to the credit crunch. Bribes make but a small dent in this income creating industry. Drug use has taken off to such an extent that even the Dorks and Boffins cannot escape being offered drugs at some time in their school career. When I was young those who took drugs knew not to offer them to certain types of people – usually Dorks and Boffins. Now the dorks are made to think it is ‘really cool’ to be in on the act and the boffins feel they are missing out on an intellectual experience by refusing the invitation. Education has become so hum drum that the excitement of drug taking takes the edge off school life, without any noticeable effect on grades since one doesn’t need a great deal of brain power to score straight ‘A’s any longer. Both drugs and alcohol affect those little grey cells. If the world no longer has any use for the really intelligent, and our increasingly ignorant politicians seek to smother the intellectual capabilities of those they ‘rule,’ then what purpose is there in preserving that brain power?

Every civilization and culture has invented its own form of mind-bending intoxicant or stimulant.

Amerindians used datura and tobacco, Africans pot . dagga or chwala, Europeans alcohol, South Americans the coca leaf and Asians khat. The only difference is the rise in chemical technology – to ensure they become more potent and addictive. The opium poppy was known to be grown in Mesopotamia. At the time of the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition it fell from fashion but was hugely revived with the ‘Opium Wars’ sending British Gun Boats into Chinese ports, insistent on selling opium to the Chinese, to profit British mercantile companies, against the Chinese Government’s wishes and laws. In the history of intoxicants there is nothing new on the face of the earth. But we live in a time where more sophisticated chemical compounds have become possible and the mantra of neo con capitalism appears to be that anything that makes money is OK. Provided you don’t break the thirteenth commandment – ‘Thou shalt not get found out.’

What is clear is that one is not opting out of the rat run or opting into an alternative youth culture by doing drugs. All that is happening is that rich men are becoming richer; small time addicts are contributing to another litre of petrol the next time the drug Barons they fill up their Porshe or Rolls Royce.

Users may also, unwittingly, be used as yet another lab rat upon which unscrupulous scientists in government patronised laboratories or ‘private’ mental health clinics.

Those answerable to no one, except our unethical and unaccountable security services, can try out yet another form of mind bending weaponry on unsuspecting people desperate to appear cool, whose brains will be fried by those very same drugs, so that they become more politically malleable and biddable in the democratic process. Whilst LSD was rolled out across College campuses in the 60’s, the effects on the growing brains of younger school children is creating a generation whose brain power is deleteriously affected prior to full maturity.

The way drug crime is dealt with is so patently ineffective that one has to wonder, what possible motive there might be to subvert the youngest generation and prevent them reaching their full intellectual potential?

Most youths in towns up and down the country will tell you stories of known drug pushers who are never ever prosecuted. This phenomenon is so common that many young people are themselves questioning whose side the police and judicial powers are on.

Are drugs being used as a political tool to provide a more malleable electorate, burdened with the debt of education and chasing either the dragon or profit at the expense of a more moral society?

Aldous Huxley’s novel Brave New World shows a world in which recreational drugs (Soma) are not only legal, but actively encouraged. In his ‘fictional’ world the population are segregated and ruled with no idea of freedom. The drug – Soma – is an important part of population control and is encouraged by the State in Huxley’s novel.

I fear we may well be somewhere deep along that road. Our security services, privatised security companies, and secret societies feel themselves so immune from the rule of law that they can, with impunity, lace the drinks of those who are not sufficiently neo con or right wing for their sensibilities, in the hope of inducing madness. At the centre of this is our unjust and unaccountable legal system, which allows these assaults on our civil liberties. Anyone suffering such an assault cannot speak out for fear of being diagnosed as mad.

To paraphrase Dr Samuel Johnson - Patriotism is indeed the last bastion of the utter scoundrel. Too many in our Security Services appear to think that protecting the drugs trade is patriotic.


Wikipedia

Copyright (C) 2000,2001,2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc. 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA. Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.

See Wikipedia on Lt Col Oliver North (USA) – heavily sanitized version of what was admitted in 1990 – ish about drugs running to supply funds for arms to General Noriega. Taken from Wikipedia in November 2008.

Oliver Laurence North (born October 7, 1943 in San Antonio, Texas) is an American best known for his involvement in the Iran-Contra Affair. Currently, he is an American conservative political commentator, host of "War Stories with Oliver North" on Fox News Channel, and a New York Times best-selling author. His latest book, American Heroes, offers a first-hand account of his extensive coverage of U.S. military units engaged in Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Philippines. He is a 1968 graduate of the United States Naval Academy and was a career officer in the Marine Corps, retiring at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel after twenty years of service.
North was at the center of national attention during the Iran-Contra Affair, during which he was a key Reagan administration official involved in the clandestine sale of weapons to Iran. The sale of these weapons served both to encourage the release of US hostages and to generate proceeds to support the Contra rebel group. Vice Admiral John M. Poindexter and his deputy, Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, secretly diverted to the Nicaraguan Contras millions of dollars in funds received from a secret deal - the sales of anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles to Iran - in spite of Reagan's public pledge not to deal with the nation.
North served as a platoon leader in Vietnam where, during combat service, he was awarded the Silver Star, Bronze Star and two Purple Heart medals.[1] North then became an instructor at the Marine Corps Officer Basic School in Quantico. In 1970, North returned to Vietnam to testify at the trial of Corporal Randy Herrod, a former Marine under his command who had been charged with a mass killing of Vietnamese civilians. North was promoted to Captain in 1971 and served as commanding officer of the Marine Corps Northern Training Area in Okinawa, Japan.
After Okinawa, North was assigned to Marine Headquarters in Arlington, Virginia for four years, was promoted to Major, and then served two years as operations officer of 3d Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, commanded by then LtCol John Southy Grinalds, Second Marine Division in Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. It was through LtCol Grinalds that North developed a deep personal commitment to the Christian faith. He next attended the Command and Staff Course at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island and graduated in 1981.
After Newport, North began his now-famous assignment to the National Security Council (NSC) in Washington, D.C., where he served as the deputy director for political-military affairs[2] from 1981 until his reassignment in 1986. In 1983, North received his promotion to Lieutenant Colonel,[3] which would be his last.
During his tenure at the NSC, North managed a number of highly sensitive missions. This included leading the hunt for those responsible for the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing that killed 241 U.S. Marines; an effort that included North arranging a midair interception of an EgyptAir jet carrying those responsible for the Achille Lauro hijacking. Also while at the NSC, helped plan the U.S. invasion of Grenada and the 1986 Bombing of Libya.[4]
During his trial, Oliver North spent his last two years in the Corps reassigned to Marine Headquarters in Arlington, Virginia.
[edit] Iran-Contra affair
Main article: Iran-Contra Affair


North's mugshot, after his arrest
North came into the public spotlight due to his participation in the Iran-Contra Affair, in which he claimed partial responsibility for the sale of weapons via intermediaries to Iran, with the profits being channeled to the Contras in Nicaragua. Although taking blame, he was widely known to be the "fall guy" for the scandal. He was reportedly responsible for the establishment of a covert network used for the purposes of aiding the Contras. U.S. funding of the Contras by appropriated funds spent by intelligence agencies had been prohibited by the Boland Amendment. Funding was facilitated through Palmer National Bank of Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1983 by Harvey McLean, Jr., a businessman from Shreveport, Louisiana. It was initially funded with $2.8 million dollars to McLean from Herman K. Beebe. Oliver North supposedly used this bank during the Iran-Contra scandal by funneling money from his shell organization, the "National Endowment for the Preservation of Liberty", through Palmer National Bank to the Contras.
According to the National Security Archive, in an August 23, 1986 e-mail to John Poindexter, Oliver North described a meeting with a representative of Panamanian President Manuel Noriega: "You will recall that over the years Manuel Noriega in Panama and I have developed a fairly good relationship", North writes before explaining Noriega's proposal. If U.S. officials can "help clean up his image" and lift the ban on arms sales to the Panamanian Defense Force, Noriega will "'take care of' the Sandinista leadership for us."
North tells Poindexter that Noriega can assist with sabotage against the Sandinistas, and supposedly suggests paying Noriega a million dollars cash; from "Project Democracy" funds raised from the sale of U.S. arms to Iran – for the Panamanian leader's help in destroying Nicaraguan economic installations.[5]
In November 1986 as the sale of weapons was made public, North was fired by President Reagan, and in July 1987 he was summoned to testify before televised hearings of a joint Congressional committee formed to investigate Iran-Contra. The image of North taking the oath became iconic, and similar photographs made the cover of Time and Newsweek, and helped define him in the eyes of the public. During the hearings, North admitted that he had lied to Congress, for which he was later charged among other things. He defended his actions by stating that he believed in the goal of aiding the Contras, whom he saw as freedom fighters, and said that he viewed the Iran-Contra scheme as a "neat idea."[6]
North was tried in 1988 in relation to his activities while at the National Security Council. He was indicted on sixteen felony counts and on May 4, 1989, he was initially convicted of three: accepting an illegal gratuity, aiding and abetting in the obstruction of a congressional inquiry, and destruction of documents (by his secretary, Fawn Hall, on his instructions). He was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Gerhard A. Gesell on July 5, 1989, to a three-year suspended prison term, two years probation, $150,000 in fines, and 1,200 hours community service.
However, on July 20, 1990, with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU),[7] North's convictions were vacated, after the appeals court found that witnesses in his trial might have been impermissibly affected by his immunized congressional testimony.[8] Because North had been granted limited immunity for his Congressional testimony, the law prohibited the independent counsel (or any prosecutor) from using that testimony as part of a criminal case against him. To prepare for the expected defense challenge that North's testimony had been used, the prosecution team had - before North's congressional testimony had been given - listed and isolated all its evidence[citation needed]; further, the individual members of the prosecution team had isolated themselves from news reports and discussion of North's testimony. While the defense could show no specific instance where any part of North's congressional testimony was used in his trial, the Court of Appeals ruled that the trial judge had made an insufficient examination of the issue, and ordered North's convictions reversed. The Supreme Court declined to review the case. After further hearings on the immunity issue, Judge Gesell dismissed all charges against North on September 16, 1991, on the motion of the independent counsel.
[edit] Allegations of involvement with drug trafficking
During the early and mid 1980s, Lt. Colonel North was alleged to participate in organizing the transportation of cocaine and marijuana from the various sites in Central and South America into the United States as a means of funding the Contra rebels. Congressional records show North was tasked with finding funding “outside the CIA” after the Boland Amendment cut off funding for the Contras in October, 1984.[9]
On February 10, 1986, Robert Owen, North’s liaison with the Contras, wrote North regarding a plane being used to carry "humanitarian aid" to the Contras that was previously used to transport drugs. The plane belonged to the Miami-based company Vortex, which is run by Michael Palmer, one of the largest marijuana traffickers in the United States. Despite Palmer's long history of drug smuggling, Palmer receives over $300,000 from the Nicaraguan Humanitarian Aid Office (NHAO) -- an office overseen by Oliver North, Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs Elliott Abrams, and CIA officer Alan Fiers -- to ferry supplies to the Contras.[10]
During Manuel Noriega’s trial in 1991, pilot Floyd Carlton testified that his smuggling operation was flying weapons to the Contras at the same time he was flying dope to the United States. When Carlton’s lawyer asked about Oliver North’s knowledge of these flights, federal prosecutors vehemently objected, and U.S. judge William Hoeveler became angry. “Just stay away from it,” the judge snapped, refusing to allow any more questions on the topic.[11]
Investigations into Lt. Col North’s involvement have not been limited to the United States. One notable example is the second report of the Costa Rican Legislative Assembly’s Commission on Narcotics Trafficking, which examined the explosion of cocaine trafficking in that country during the 1980’s. After studying the involvement of Contras and U.S. officials with illegal arms running and drug trafficking, the commission recommended that former ambassador Lewis Tambs, CIA station chief Joseph_F._Fernandez, and Lt. Col. Oliver North be forever denied entry in Costa Rica, a recommendation adopted by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias.[12]
North has consistently denied any involvement with drug trafficking, stating on Fox’s Hannity and Colmes, “…nobody in the U.S. government, going all the way back to the earliest days of this under Jimmy Carter, ever had anything to do with running drugs.”[1] Critics[who?] counter that although no one in the United States government may have physically trafficked in drugs, there was a coordinated and well documented effort to assist those who did. At the very least, North’s critics[who?] contend, high ranking government officials turned a blind eye to the trafficking going on all around them because it proved to be such a reliable source of funding.
[edit] Shredding government documents
North admitted shredding government documents when the Iran Contra scandal became public. North admitted shredding all documents relating to his contra and Iranian activities - at William Casey's suggestion. He testified that Robert McFarlane had asked him to alter official records to delete references to direct assistance to the contras and that he'd helped.[13]
[edit] Books and media
North has written several best-selling books including Under Fire, One More Mission, War Stories — Operation Iraqi Freedom, Mission Compromised, The Jericho Sanction, and The Assassins.
His latest book, American Heroes, was released nationally in the U.S. on May 6, 2008. In this book, North addresses issues of defense against global terrorism, Jihad, and radical Islam from his firsthand perspective as a military officer and national security advisor and current Middle East war correspondent [16]. Lieutenant Colonel North is also a syndicated columnist[17].
From 1995 to 2003, North was host of his own nationally-syndicated radio program known as the "Oliver North radio show" or "Common Sense Radio." He also served as co-host of Equal Time on MSNBC for a couple of years starting in 1999. North is currently the host of the television show War Stories with Oliver North, and a regular commentator on Hannity and Colmes, both on the Fox News Channel. North appeared as himself on many television shows including the sitcom Wings and three episodes of the TV military drama JAG in 1995, 1996 and 2002[18]. In addition, he regularly speaks at both public and private events.
[edit] Other
In 1990 North founded the Freedom Alliance, a 501(c)(3) foundation "...to advance the American heritage of freedom by honoring and encouraging military service, defending the sovereignty of the United States and promoting a strong national defense." The foundation's primary activities include providing support for wounded combat soldiers, and scholarships for the sons and daughters of service members killed in action.[19]
Pictures of North in the NSA buildings with former British Intelligence Officer John P. Lawrence were flashed around the world, when the two former colleagues were asked to help the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Although raised a Roman Catholic, he has long attended Protestant evangelical services with his family.
North is a board member in the National Rifle Association, and appeared at their national conventions in 2007[20] and 2008.[21]
In 2008, American Dad!, an animated TV show produced by Seth McFarlane, aired an episode that had the Iran-Contra affair as the main storyline called "Stanny Slickers: The Legend of Ollie's Gold" in which the main character, Stan Smith, looks for a crate full of gold that Ollie North had to hide before the Iran-Contra affair blew up.

North is considered a figure of great controversy, with supporters enjoying his impassioned defense of his actions, and opponents disapproving of his actions.
North remains a largely popular figure among conservatives. Many conservatives sympathize with the basis of North's activities within the Reagan administration, due to the fact they believe the "Boland Amendment" — a Congressional act specifically barring the U.S. government from providing material support to the Contras in Nicaragua — infringed on the constitutional power of the executive branch to conduct foreign policy. Some believe that North was used as a scapegoat for the Iran-Contra affair, and that other top government officials in the Reagan administration disproportionately laid the blame on him.
North's critics argue that in a democracy and a nation of laws, one cannot act above the law regardless of what his goals to be. Some point out that his activities substantially contributed to an attempted overthrow of a sovereign, democratically elected government and to terrorism in Nicaragua, and that they aided Iran, a nation that has been militarily hostile to the United States since 1979. They mention that along with other Reagan administration players, North has been banned from Central America's leading democracy, Costa Rica, for drug running.[22]
In October 2006, North revisited Nicaragua in the run up to the nation's presidential elections. Claiming he was invited in a private capacity to Nicaragua by friends, he warned against his old foe, Sandinista leader, Daniel Ortega's possible return to power. Despite this, Ortega did win Nicaragua's presidency without the need of a runoff. During his visit, he expressed support for the PLC candidate, Jose Rizo, rather than the United States government's preferred candidate, Eduardo Montealegre, a dissident PLC candidate. North's support of Rizo quite possibly helped to further splinter the PLC vote allowing Daniel Ortega to win the first round with 38% of the vote.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,962859-2,00.html
Time Magaz\ine 17 November 1986
…/news of secret U.S. dealings with Iran began to appear last week, attention inexorably turned to a cluster of suites in the Old Executive Office Building next door to the White House. They house a select band of globe- trotting staffers of the National Security Council, the executive agency that coordinates U.S. defense and foreign-affairs activities. Known for its bravado and love of derring-do, the small group conceived and ran the secret talks with Iran. While the group is part of a crisis-management team within the 46-person NSC staff, its freewheeling style has led Washington insiders to call its members the "cowboys."


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The most prominent is Lieut. Colonel Oliver North, 43, a Marine who earned the Silver Star and two Purple Hearts -- among other medals -- in the Viet Nam War. He is deputy director for political-military affairs on the NSC. A close friend and military comrade of former National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane, North arouses strong emotions in people. "Nobody can be indifferent to Ollie," says the wife of a top foreign diplomat. "Either you love him, or you hate him with a passion."
Since he joined the NSC in 1981, North has handled many highly sensitive missions. After the 1983 Beirut bombing that killed 241 U.S. Marines, North led the hunt for those responsible. The chief suspect, however, managed to escape. When terrorists seized the Achille Lauro cruise ship off the coast of Egypt last year, North arranged the midair interception of an EgyptAir jet carrying Abul Abbas, the mastermind of the hijacking, to safety in Tunisia. North helped plan the 1983 U.S. invasion of Grenada and last April's Libyan air raid. It was not surprising that North turned up in Cyprus last week just when Released Hostage David Jacobsen arrived there. "Oliver North is the prototype of the modern American hero," says a friend and colleague. "Wherever and whenever Americans are in trouble, sooner or later you will see him at the scene."
Yet North's global troubleshooting has sometimes landed him in trouble. As head of NSC operations in Central America, he organized a private supply network that provided aid to the contra rebels seeking to oust the Marxist Sandinista government in Nicaragua. Senate and House committees investigated North's role last year, but found no proof that he had violated a U.S. law regulating aid to the contras. The colonel's name briefly surfaced again last month when Gunrunner Eugene Hasenfus was captured in Nicaragua after his plane was shot down while he was flying weapons to the contras. A card found in the wreckage belonged to a businessman thought to have links to North.
A confirmed workaholic, North regularly puts in 16-to-18-hour days while in Washington. He dislikes paperwork, and once groused to a friend, "Every time a terrorist fires a bullet, we have to fill out a pile of papers." Colleagues quip that North's real power comes from two office computers hooked into the major U.S. intelligence-gathering agencies, and from a secure telephone line that he uses for classified conversations. For his own protection, the slender officer is rarely photographed or quoted in news accounts. "He is there to serve the President, and that is it," a colleague says.

Like North, the rest of the cowboys tend to be hard-line conservatives who crave adventure and seem to generate controversy. Howard Teicher, 35, a respected expert on the Middle East, recently emerged as a source of a Washington disinformation campaign designed to suggest, among other things, that the U.S. was planning military moves against Libya. The Administration caused a furor last month when it admitted that the reports were false.


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Teicher, who speaks fluent Hebrew, caused another flap five years ago when he tried to publish a fictionalized account of Israel's nuclear secrets. The manuscript was confiscated by the Israeli military censor, and Teicher did not seek to publish it elsewhere.
Another zealous cowboy is Vince Cannistraro, 41, a twelve-year veteran of the CIA. He took over Central American operations from North last spring after first being responsible for operations in Africa. He has directed the channeling of weapons and aid to Jonas Savimbi's UNITA rebels fighting the Marxist regime in Angola. Insiders say Cannistraro managed to supply Savimbi with more arms than the White House originally intended. A quiet official who joined the NSC in 1983, Cannistraro has helped funnel supplies to the mujahedin guerrillas at war with the Soviet-backed government of Afghanistan.
Other members of the crisis-management team are more shadowy figures. Robert Earle, 42, a Marine lieutenant colonel and Rhodes scholar, joined the staff from the CIA last year and now serves as North's deputy. He meets regularly with foreign counterterrorist experts and coordinates operations with them. Craig Coy, 36, a Coast Guard commander, joined the NSC after serving on a White House terror task force. Lieut. Colonel Jim Stark, 38, worked with North in planning last spring's Libyan air raid. He is considered to be more disciplined than his sometimes freebooting colleagues, while sharing their tough-minded attitudes.
The crisis-management cowboys, of course, have attracted critics, and their methods are often questioned. One congressional staffer calls North a "ruthless operator." But if the cowboys sometimes appear to ride roughshod, NSC officials say, they are only carrying out Administration policies.
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Mexico's ex-drug czar busted for cartel collaboration
Submitted by WW4 Report on Fri, 11/21/2008 - 03:48.
Mexican authorities detained the country's former Drug Czar—officially the Special Investigative Sub-Prosecutor for Organized Delinquency (SIEDO)—Noé Ramírez Mandujano Nov. 20, a day after he voluntarily spoke to investigators. Ramírez was named to the post in December 2006 when President Felipe Calderón took office. He submitted his resignation in July at the request of the Prosecutor General of the Republic (PGR).
Mexico's Prosecutor General Eduardo Medina Mora announced after the arrest that Ramírez is believed to have recieved $450,000 in monthly payments over the last two years from the Beltran Leyva and Zambada García drug mafias. Several high-ranking Mexican law enforcement officials already have been detained in Operación Limpieza ("Operation House Cleaning"), aimed at weeding out officials suspected of sharing information with the Beltran Leyva brothers' Sinaloa Cartel. The operation was launched following exposure of official by the January arrest of Alfredo Beltran Leyva.
An anonymous PGR official told reporters earlier Nov. 20 that Mario Arturo Velarde Martínez, formerly a close aide to Public Safety Secretary Genaro García Luna, is also being taregted in the investigation. The official was not authorized to be quoted by name.
In another drug-related case, a lawyer for former Federal Preventive Police commander for Regional Security Javier Herrera said that same day that his detention was a reprisal for his complaints about alleged mismanagement on the force. Herrera was detained Nov. 17 for questioning on allegations that he received money from the cartels. His lawyer, Raquenel Villanueva, said he is innocent and is being punished for publicly alleging earlier this year that Garcia Luna had appointed unqualified police officers.
Earlier this month, Rodolfo de la Guardia Garcia, the number-two official at the Federal Investigative Agency (AFI) from 2003-2005, was placed under house arrest pending an investigation of claims he leaked information to the Sinaloa Cartel in return for monthly payments. De la Guardia was elected to Interpol's executive committee in 2002 but was removed from that post by the Mexican government in 2004. Former federal police commissioner Gerardo Garay and three other officials of the Public Safety Department also were placed under house arrest.
Interpol is sending a special investigative team to Mexico to determine whether sensitive information from its database was leaked to the cartels following the house arrest of Ricardo Gutierrez Vargas, director of the international police agency's National Central Bureau in Mexico. Gutierrez Vargas had access to Interpol's database on suspected terrorists, wanted persons, fingerprints and DNA profiles, among other data. Staffers from Interpol's General Secretariat plan to meet with Mexican authorities to discuss potential improper use of Interpol's systems, admitted officials at agency's headquarters in Lyon, France. (Cronica de Hoy, Nov. 22; AP, El Universal, Nov. 21; AP, El Universal, El Universal, Nov. 20)

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MEXICO CITY – Mexican authorities detained a former top anti-drug prosecutor on Thursday as part of an investigation into possible links between senior law enforcements officials and drug cartels.
The federal Attorney General's Office said in a statement that former Assistant Attorney General for Organized Crime Noe Ramirez was detained a day after he voluntarily spoke to investigators.
Ramirez was named to the post in December 2006 when President Felipe Calderon took office. He submitted his resignation in July at the request of the attorney general and with Calderon's authorization.
Federal officials said at the time that the move was part of a law enforcement shake-up by the Calderon administration.
Several high-ranking Mexican law enforcement officials already have been detained during Operation Clean House, a sweeping probe aimed at weeding out officials who allegedly shared police information with the Beltran Leyva brothers, once associated with the powerful Sinaloa drug cartel.
An official at the Attorney General's Office said earlier Thursday that Mario Velarde, a former close aide to the country's top police official, also was being looked at in the investigation. The official was not authorized to be quoted by name.
Velarde served as Public Safety Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna's private secretary several years ago, and continued to work in the Public Safety Department in a different job until he was asked to retire this year, according to a spokesperson in Garcia Luna's office who is prohibited by department regulations from being quoted by name.
Velarde has not been charged with a crime, nor has he been detained, prosecutors said.
There was no telephone number listed under Velarde's name in Mexico City and it was not known if he had an attorney.
Mexican law enforcement agencies have been rocked in recent weeks by the detention or house arrest of about a dozen high-level police and prosecution officials on suspicion they leaked information to Mexico's powerful Sinaloa drug cartel.
Those detained in the probe include a Mexican police official who led the local Interpol office.
In another drug-related case, a lawyer for former federal police regional commander Javier Herrera said Thursday that his detention was a reprisal for his complaints about alleged mismanagement on the force.
Herrera was detained Monday for questioning on allegations that he supposedly received money from drug traffickers, but his lawyer, Raquenel Villanueva, said he is innocent and is being punished for publicly alleging earlier this year that Garcia Luna had appointed unqualified police officers.
___
Associated Press Writer E. Eduardo Castillo contributed to this story.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

See the daily Mail for Saturday 1` November 2008:

A UK Politician in the frame?

MICHAEL HOWARD, the drugs baron and an extraordinary £400,000 bribery claim.

By Michael Seamark and Ian Drury Saturday 1 November 2008 – page 11 Daily Mail

Michael Howard was last night at the centre of extraordinary claims by a drugs baron who alleges he paid a £400,000 ‘bribe’ to the former Home Secretary.

Career criminal John Haase told a Labour MP that he was released from prison early after making the payment via one of Mr Howard’s relatives.

Haase and fellow drug lord Paul Bennett were released 11 months into an 18-year jail sentence for heroin smuggling after Mr Howard approved a royal pardon in exchange for the pair turning ‘supergrass’ in 1996, the court heard.

But the men are accused of fixing the pardons by merely pretending to help the police and giving bogus tip-offs about gun caches they arranged to have planted by accomplices.

The prosecution allege that Haase’s current wife Deborah, 37, and their friend Sharon Knowles, 36, were among those who helped organise the scam.

Haase told MP Peter Kilfoyle that their plot included a £400,000 payment to Mr Howard’s cousin Simon Bakerman, the court heard.

Mr Bakerman allegedly collected the cash from Haase’s Liverpool home. Mr Kilfoyle, giving evidence at Southwark Crown Court, said that Haase told him about the alleged bribe when he signed a statement in prison in 2004.

Haase 59, and his nephew Bennett, 44, were arrested in July 1993 following a major investigation into an ‘international drug trafficking operation’.

The court heard they hatched a plan to reduce their sentences by telling HM Cutoms and Excise they would become informants.

After they were jailed in 1995, the judge in the case wrote privately to Mr Howard asking for a royal pardon.

He had been told that the information which the pair passed on to the authorities was so sensitive that their lives ‘would be at risk’ if it became known they had become informers. The then Home Secretary (Michael Howard) approved the ‘Royal Prerogative of Mercy’ and cut their sentences to five years. They were released in July 1996 – ten months and two weeks after being sentenced.

Mr Kilfoyle told the court he had spent some time investigating the men’s early release, and had visited Haase in prison.

It was on one of the visits, the court heard, that Haase made the allegation that he had bribed Mr Howard.

In his affidavit to the MP, Haase claimed: ‘Bennett said he knew a relation of Howard’s. He said £400,000. It didn’t sway me. We had £1 million to play with.

‘The £400,000 was to pay off Michael Howard when the judge’s letter reached him.’

The four defendants, from Liverpool, all deny conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. Mrs Haase also denies possession of firearms and ammunition without permission.
The trial continues.