by Alex Newman

The New American

The Central
Intelligence Agency’s involvement in drug trafficking is back in
the media spotlight after a spokesman for the violence-plagued Mexican
state of Chihuahua became the latest high-profile individual to
accuse the CIA, which has been linked to narcotics trafficking for
decades, of ongoing efforts to “manage the drug trade.” The infamous
American spy agency refused to comment.
In a recent
interview, Chihuahua state spokesman Guillermo Terrazas Villanueva
told
Al Jazeera that the CIA and other international “security” outfits
"don't fight drug traffickers." Instead, Villanueva argued, they
try to control and manage the illegal drug market for their own
benefit.
"It's like
pest control companies, they only control," Villanueva told the
Qatar-based media outlet last month at his office in Juarez. "If
you finish off the pests, you are out of a job. If they finish the
drug business, they finish their jobs."







Another Mexican
official, apparently a mid-level officer with Mexico’s equivalent
of the U.S. Department of “Homeland Security,” echoed those remarks,
saying he knew that the allegations against the CIA were correct
based on talks with American agents in Mexico. "It's true, they
want to control it," the official told Al Jazeera on condition of
anonymity.
Credibility
issues with employees of the notoriously corrupt Mexican government
aside, the latest accusations were hardly earth shattering –
the American espionage agency has been implicated in drug trafficking
from Afghanistan to Vietnam to Latin America and everywhere in between.
Similar allegations of drug running have been made against the CIA
for decades by former agents, American officials, lawmakers, investigators,
and even drug traffickers themselves.
Some of the
most prominent officials to level charges of CIA drug trafficking
include the former head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
(DEA), Robert Bonner. During an
interview with CBS, Bonner accused the American “intelligence”
outfit of unlawfully importing a ton of cocaine into the U.S. in
collaboration with the Venezuelan government.









Even the
New York Times eventually covered part of the scandal in a
piece entitled "Anti-Drug
Unit of C.I.A. Sent Ton of Cocaine to U.S. in 1990." And the
agency’s Inspector General, Frederick Hitz, was eventually forced
to concede to a congressional committee that the CIA has indeed
worked with drug traffickers and obtained a waiver from the Department
of Justice in the 1980s allowing it to conceal its contractors’
illicit dealings.
An explosive
investigation by reporter Gary Webb dubbed the “Dark Alliance” also
uncovered a vast CIA machine to ship illegal drugs into the U.S.
to fund clandestine and unconstitutional activities abroad, including
the financing of armed groups. Webb eventually died under highly
suspicious circumstances – two gunshots to the head, officially
ruled a “suicide.”









Responding
to Webb’s discoveries, top officials and even lawmakers eventually
acknowledged that the CIA almost certainly had a role in illegal
drug trafficking. "There is no question in my mind that people affiliated
with, or on the payroll of, the CIA were involved in drug trafficking,"
explained U.S. Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) after the Dark Alliance
series.
Top-level Mexican
officials have suggested complicity by U.S. officials in drug trafficking
as well – even recently. “It is impossible to pass tons of
drugs or cocaine to U.S. without some grade of complicity of some
American authorities,” observed
Mexican President Felipe Calderon in a 2009 interview with the BBC.
Last year,
an explosive report in the Washington Times, citing a CIA
source, speculated that the agency may be deliberately
helping certain Mexican cartels to beat out others for geopolitical
purposes. According to the sources, the intelligence outfit might
have also played a key role in the now-infamous Fast and Furious
scandal, which saw the federal government providing
thousands of high-powered weapons to Mexican cartels.
Shortly before
that, The New American reported
on federal court filings by a top Sinaloa Cartel operative that
shed even more insight on the U.S. government’s role in drug trafficking.
The accused “logistical coordinator” for the cartel, Jesus Vicente
“El Vicentillo” Zambada-Niebla, claimed that he had an agreement
with top American officials: In exchange for information on rival
cartels, the deal supposedly gave him and his associates immunity
to import multi-ton quantities of drugs across the border.“Indeed, United States government agents aided the leaders of the
Sinaloa Cartel,” the court filing states. Zambada-Niebla is currently
being held in federal prison, but he argues
that he is innocent because he had approval from — and collaborated
with — U.S. agencies in his illegal drug-trafficking operations.

Another
expert who spoke with Al Jazeera, a university professor, also
indicated that the American federal government was deeply involved in
the drug trafficking business. He said the drug war was an “illusion"
aimed at justifying control of populations and intervention in Latin
America. As evidence, he pointed to the fact that one of the top drug
kingpins in the world — billionaire “El Chapo” of the Sinaloa cartel —
operates openly and with impunity.

Numerous drug bosses and
American officials have made similar claims, alleging that the U.S.
government in essence controls at least some of the cartels. According
to former DEA operative and whistleblower Celerino Castillo, American
federal authorities have even been training members of the brutal Los Zetas cartel in Texas.

CIA and DEA insider Phil Jordan, meanwhile, publicly claimed
last year that the Obama administration was selling military-grade
weaponry to the deadly organization through a front company in Mexico.
And with the Fast and Furious scandal, it emerged that the Obama
administration was using tax money to arm Mexican cartels, then exploiting the ensuing violence to attack the Second Amendment.

The
President and his Department of Justice have been engaged in a cover-up
since whistleblowers first exposed the scheme more than a year ago,
leading Congress to hold disgraced Attorney General Eric Holder in
contempt. Another congressional investigation being obstructed by the
Justice Department surrounds DEA drug-money laundering operations revealed in an explosive New York Times article late last year.

"While
the quality of the involvement of the CIA and other security agencies
may be debatable, it is impossible to excise the blame from America," noted
an analysis about the latest allegations published by Catholic Online.
"If the CIA is part of the problem, then it will only be one more sign
of the corruption and evil that pervades American and Mexican politics
and holds hostage millions of innocents."

Some 50,000 people have
died just in recent years as part of Mexico’s U.S. government-backed
“war on drugs,” and anger south of the border continues to build. But
even as Latin American leaders openly debate legalization and threaten to defect from
the controversial “war,” the Obama administration has promised to
continue showering taxpayer money on regimes that expand the battle.

Meanwhile, as the bloodshed continues to spiral out of control, the U.S. border remains virtually wide open on purpose, according to experts. And despite tens of billions spent on the endless “war,” numerous analyses
indicate that the flow of illegal drugs into America is actually
growing — not to mention consumption. By contrast, Portugal, which
legalized all drugs about a decade ago, has seen declining rates of addiction, drug abuse, and crime.

In the United States, pressure is still growing on both sides of the aisle
to reform or end the unconstitutional federal drug war once and for
all, with polls showing rapidly declining support among voters. Over a
dozen states have already nullified some unconstitutional federal statutes
on marijuana as well. How long the "war" will go on, however, may
depend on the federal government’s ability to continue borrowing funds
to wage it.