(A Public Service Announcement from Suburra Publishing.)
Fact #5
The Drug War Debilitates Our Government
Page 2
D. Corruption Is A Third World Thing:
Wrong
Narco-dollars have so overwhelmed and infested the Latin American governments
and their relatively miniscule budgets that it is questionable who is actually
in charge. Drug corruption does not appear to have reached into the upper levels
of the United States’ government. However, one reason for this could be that the
higher ups in the federal hierarchy are unnecessary.
Between 1993 and 2000 the number of
American law enforcement officers sentenced to federal prison increased 600%.
The corrupt have included notables, such as DEA supervisor Rene de la Cova who
was famous for bringing Panamanian Dictator Manuel Noriega into custody, and
they have included large groups, in New Orleans an FBI sting investigation led
to roughly 200 police officers being fired for violence and theft of cocaine
from drug dealers.
In 1999, a LAPD officer confessed that
he and fellow officers had been stealing drugs and money from drug dealers,
using prostitutes to sell the drugs for them, planting evidence, and committing
perjury repeatedly in court. Further testimony revealed he and a fellow officer
had shot and killed a suspected drug dealer for merely leaning into their
undercover police car. At another time they shot an unarmed black man already in
handcuffs who they suspected of drug dealing. To cover this up they planted a
sawed-off .22 rifle on him and testified the man had assaulted them. That man is
wheelchair bound for the rest of his life and had already served three years of
a 23 year sentence when this testimony released him. This type of police
behavior should make the Los Angeles jury’s decision to acquit O.J. Simpson of
murder less ponderous to those living outside of the inner-city.
The corrupted Americans that have been
caught have included officials of every sort – judges, police commissioners,
mayors, former Justice Department lawyers, FBI agents, border guards, military
personnel, immigration inspectors, and criminal prosecutors. This should not be
surprising. The war on drugs has made the drug business arguably the most
profitable venture in the world. A United States customs inspector can easily
double his annual income of $45,000 by merely choosing to search truck A as
opposed to truck B in the never ending flow of trucks coming across the Mexican
border. In 1995 a couple of inspectors charged with assistance to traffickers
had pocketed $1 million.
In 1995 the DEA testified before
Congress that Mexican drug cartels were corrupting American police agencies “on
a systematic basis” with bribes of about a million per week. Tucson FBI Chief
Steve McCraw said that the border corruption was so “pervasive ... it’s a
national disgrace.”
Although corruption has not been
discovered at top levels it does not mean that it is not present. One hint is
provided by the experience of Mike Horner, a United States Customs inspector. He
flagged a Mexican truck driver in the computer system as being suspected of drug
trafficking. This driver was later stopped at the border and searched due to a
fluke – and over a supervisor’s objections – and was found with four tons of
cocaine. When Horner checked the system he discovered that a number of his
warnings had been erased.
When Horner later passed along a tip on
a group of major traffickers out of Tijuana the top man in his region asked for
his informants. This was an odd and unnecessary request and Horner at first
objected. Four days after Horner capitulated one of Horner’s informants was
found with a tire iron in one ear and out the other and the other informant was
stabbed 16 times. When Horner requested an internal investigation from the
Treasury Department, the top man took an early retirement and the investigation
was dropped.
Another hint is provided by CIA
activities. After some brazen investigative journalism, government officials
finally acknowledged there has been CIA involvement with rebel organizations
active in drug trafficking. This should not be surprising either, as drug
profits have made drug kingpins some of the most powerful people in the third
world.
Where the lines are drawn in this
involvement may never be known. In the murky and off-the-record world of
international power-brokering the words “national security” can stop any
investigation cold. Decorated former DEA undercover agent, Michael Levine, has
alleged the drug war is an illusion in The Big White Lie: The CIA and the
Cocaine/Crack Epidemic. In it he writes major drug traffickers targeted by the
DEA were repeatedly regarded by the CIA as “assets” terminating the DEA’s
investigations.
All information taken from You Will Die: The Burden of Modern Taboos, Book I by Robert R. Arthur. Detailed documentation of sources can be found therein.
Page last modified August 29, 2007.