U.S. Intelligence Assets Present During Torture and Murder of DEA Agent Enrique ‘Kiki’ Camarena

October 13th, 2013

How this appeared on Fox News is a mystery to me, but it’s worth saving.

Via: Fox News (mirror):

The details of the case are not new. However, those involved in investigating the case, have until now remained silent about the role U.S. intelligence assets played in Camarena’s capture and Quintero’s escape.

“Our intelligence agencies were working under the cover of DFS. And as I said it before, unfortunately, DFS agents at that time were also in charge of protecting the drug lords and their monies,” said Berrellez.

“After the murder of Camarena, (Mexico’s) investigation pointed that the DFS had been complicit along with American intelligence in the kidnap and torture of Kiki. That’s when they decided to disband the DFS.”

Complicit is a strong term that Berrellez doesn’t shy away from. However, when he raised the issue internally, his supervisors told him to drop it. Eventually he was transferred to Washington D.C., and was ordered to stop pursuing any angle that suggested U.S. assets knew of Camarena’s capture.

“I know and from what I have been told by a former head of the Mexican federal police, Comandante (Guillermo Gonzales) Calderoni, the CIA was involved in the movement of drugs from South America to Mexico and to the U.S.,” says Phil Jordan, former director of DEA’s powerful El Paso Intelligence Center.

“In (Camarena’s) interrogation room, I was told by Mexican authorities, that CIA operatives were in there. Actually conducting the interrogation. Actually taping Kiki.”

Eventually, the prosecution did obtain tapes of Camarena’s torture and murder.

“The CIA was the source. They gave them to us,” said Berrellez. “Obviously, they were there. Or at least some of their contract workers were there.”

On Thursday night, a CIA Spokesman told Fox News that “it’s ridiculous to suggest that the CIA had anything to do with the murder of a U.S. federal agent or the escape of his killer.”

Berrellez says two informants from the Mexican state police, who witnessed Camarena’s torture, independently and positively identified a photo of one man, a Cuban, who worked as a CIA operative who helped run guns and drugs for the Contras.

Tosh Plumlee claims he was hired to fly covert missions on behalf of U.S. intelligence. He says he flew C-130s in and out of Quintero’s ranch and airports throughout Central America in the 1980s.

“The United States government played both ends against the middle. We were running guns. We were running drugs. We were using the drug money to finance the gun running operation,” says Plumlee, who now works in Colorado.

Plumlee flew for SETCO, which according to a CIA Inspector General’s report delivered “military supplies to Contra forces inside Nicaragua.”

In 1998, CIA Inspector General Fred Hitz told Congress he “found no evidence…of any conspiracy by CIA or its employees to bring drugs into the United States. However, it worked with a variety of …assets (and) pilots who ferried supplies to the Contras, who were alleged to have engaged in drug trafficking activity.”

Hitz said the “CIA had an operational interest” in the Contras. And while aware the rebels were trading “arms-for-drugs” the CIA “did nothing to stop it.”

Plumlee puts it more directly.

“You want me to say this on camera? Alright. Those entities were cut outs financed and operated by the Central Intelligence Agency,” he said. “Our operations were sanctioned by the federal government, controlled out of the Pentagon. The CIA acted in some cases as our logistical support team.”

In the past the CIA has insisted, it was not involved supplying or helping the Contras.

However, all three men, say it was an American pilot – who worked for the CIA as well as the Contras and drug cartels – who flew Quintero to freedom from Guadalajara.

“You have the CIA employees,which are your badge, carrying CIA personnel and then you have all of these subcontract employees that work with these intelligence agencies,” Berrellez explains. “Some of them are pilots, some of them run boats, but they are contract employees. Now, the pilot that flew Caro Quintero to Costa Rica was a contract employee.”

“Absolutely,” agreed Jordan. “That’s a fact.”

“That’s absolutely right,” added Plumlee.

Plumlee says the pilot now lives in New Mexico and regrets that flight.

Quintero’s escape was short-lived. After significant pressure from the Reagan administration, including shutting down the border, in April 1985 the Mexicans nabbed Quintero in Costa Rica and brought him back to stand trial.

He was convicted and sent to prison. Two months ago a Mexican court ordered his release on a legal technicality – that his trial should have taken place in state not federal court. He hasn’t been seen since.

Research Credit: Dr. David Sabow, brother of Col. James Sabow

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