Fast & Furious News -- ATF Arms Sinaloa in Quid Pro Quo Deal

More damning news from the Fast & Furious Gun-Running scandal.  Many have said this, but new information has come out supporting the fact that US officials that were purposely arming cartels had been given the green light for drug trafficking (specifically the Sinaloa Cartel) in exchange for information 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. READ MORE>>>

I'm not entirely sure why we'd be surprised by this news. Look at our history.  We created Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden to fight our enemies then they became our enemies.  Now we're doing the same thing.  Do we think it'd be better to have one ENORMOUS CARTEL South of the border or several smaller ones killing each other.  Our CIA trafficked in cocaine to finance operations in the 1980s.

The only thing we haven't done yet (at least that we know of) is send the CIA down to train the cartels.  Oh wait we did... Correction:  we used "Special Forces" to train Mexican federal agents who later changed sides and became the ruthless cartel known as the Zetas.

What are the illegal guns being obtained by Mexican drug gangs?

John Lott always has good material, but this post is extremely insightful especially in light of AG Eric Holder's statement.

"...there are just a few gun-related changes that we would like to make, and among them would be to reinstitute the ban on the sale of assault weapons. I think that will have a positive impact in Mexico, at a minimum."

You should've known that the media wasn't telling you the WHOLE truth when you read stuff like "the Mexican army also seized 23 assault rifles, 20 handguns, 23 grenades, two grenade launchers, a rocket launcher..." (LA Herald Tribune).

Somebody please show me a gun store in the U.S. that sells grenades and grenade and rocket launchers.

It just doesn't make sense.

This isn't some piddly NYC gang, this is the Mexican Cartels--they're the Mexican Mafia.

Their power and influence is only dwarfed (slightly) by their government. Why bring a few guns (that would have to be illegally converted and cleaned of any identifying marks) across the U.S. border at great risk and cost when you could bring shipping containers of them into the ports from overseas at a much lesser risk and cost?

Don't believe the media when they say that the availability of American guns are fueling the Mexican arms trade and the cartel wars.

For the real story read John Lott's post.