Fast And Furious Has Gotten Interesting

Via The Blaze

A high-ranking Mexican drug cartel operative currently in U.S. custody is making startling allegations that the failed federal gun-walking operation known as “Fast and Furious” isn’t what you think it is.

It wasn’t about tracking guns, it was about supplying them — all part of an elaborate agreement between the U.S. government and Mexico’s powerful Sinaloa Cartel to take down rival cartels.

The explosive allegations are being made by Jesus Vicente Zambada-Niebla, known as the Sinaloa Cartel’s “logistics coordinator.” He was extradited to the Chicago last year to face federal drug charges.

Zambada-Niebla claims that under a “divide and conquer” strategy, the U.S. helped finance and arm the Sinaloa Cartel through Operation Fast and Furious in exchange for information that allowed the DEA, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal agencies to take down rival drug cartels. The Sinaloa Cartel was allegedly permitted to traffic massive amounts of drugs across the U.S. border from 2004 to 2009 — during both Fast and Furious and Bush-era gunrunning operations — as long as the intel kept coming.

This is egregious. I would like to see Issa go after Bush administration officials (specifically Alberto Gonzales) to go along with the justifiable pressure on Eric Holder and the Obama administration. And anyone on the left saying "See! This is all Bush's fault!" needs to shut up. The death tolls in the Mexican Drug War went from 9601 from 2006-2008 combined to over 11000 in 2010 alone. Obama took a Bush administration policy and escalated it with fervor. Just like he did with every other policy.

And for some perspective, this is like President Hoover's administration funneling guns to Al Capone's Chicago Outfit for intelligence on its rivals like the North Side Gang and the Genna brothers, and then Roosevelt coming in and ramping it up to an unprecedented level.

If these charges are true (which I don't doubt), it should put new context for those who are in support of the Drug War. It has never been about getting rid of drugs. It's been about controlling them. Looks like they're getting their wish. At least until another cartel decides to make a play for Sinaloa power and violence escalates again. Maybe the Romney administration will supply them if that happens.