CLAIM: FAST & FURIOUS WAS PART OF SECRET DEAL WITH SINALOA DRUG CARTEL TO SUPPLY THEM WITH ARMS IN EXCHANGE FOR INFORMATION ABOUT THEIR COMPETITORS

I think the big headline is justified, but bear in mind the first word: Claim.

The program, supposedly, began in the year 2000.

An investigation by El Universal has found that between the years 2000 and 2012, the U.S. government had an arrangement with Mexico's Sinaloa drug cartel that allowed the organization to smuggle billions of dollars of drugs in exchange for information on rival cartels.

I didn't mention that part in the headline, the part about "allowing the organization to smuggle billions of dollars of drugs." The Fast and Furious inducement is more outrageous (if true).

...

Zambada-Niebla also alleged that Operation Fast and Furious was part of an agreement to finance and arm the cartel in exchange for information used to take down its rivals. (If true, that re-raises the issue regarding what Attorney General Eric Holder knew about the gun-running arrangements.)

A Mexican foreign service officer told Stratfor in April 2010 that the U.S. seemed to have sided with the Sinaloa cartel in an attempt to limit the violence in Mexico.

True? Bullshit? I don't know. As far as partisan/presidential blame, the narrative goes like this: The agreement (about permitting Sinaloa drugs to get through to the US in exchange for tips on rivals) is struck by Clinton. It "peaks" under Bush, in 2006, through Obama, in 2010, but at that point we seem to still be talking about laying off Sinaolo drug deliveries. I'm not sure if there is anyone blamed for the "arming the narcogangsters" by this narrative except for Holder and Obama.

It strikes me as hard to believe... and yet the government does things which are hard to believe.

posted by Ace at 04:48 PM

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