John Stockwell on George Bush, the CIA, and Drug Trafficking Video
The Medellín Cartel was an organized network of "Drug Suppliers and Smugglers" originating in the city of Medellín, Colombia. The Cartel operated in Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, Central America, the United States, as well as Canada and even Europe throughout the 1970s and 1980s. It was founded and run by Pablo Escobar together with the Ochoa Vázquez brothers Jorge Luis, Juan David and Fabio.
During the height of its operations, the Cartel brought in more than $60 million per day. The total amount of money made by the Cartel was in the tens of billions, and very possibly the hundreds of billions of dollars. There were many "groups" during the Cartel's years, usually white Americans, Canadians or Europeans, organized for the sole purpose of transporting shipments of cocaine destined for the United States, Europe and Canada. While many "groups" were infiltrated and taken down by Federal agents and informers, a few were stumbled upon by authorities, usually due to some small misstep or careless behaviour by a member(s) of a particular "group".
Once authorities were made aware of "questionable activities", the group would be put under Federal Drug Task Force surveillance. Evidence would be gathered, compiled and presented to a Grand Jury, resulting in indictments, arrests and prison sentences, for those convicted. The number of Colombian Cartel Leaders actually taken into custody as a result of these operations, was very few. Mostly non-Colombians, conspiring with the Cartel, were the "fruits" of these indictments.
Most Colombians targeted, as well as those named in such indictments, lived and stayed in Colombia, or fled before indictments were unsealed. However, by 1993 most, if not all, Cartel fugitives had been imprisoned or hunted and gunned down by the Colombian National Police trained and assisted by U.S. Delta Force units and the CIA.
Cultural references
* The 1996 Gabriel García Márquez novel News of a Kidnapping
* The 2001 film Blow depicts the life of American cocaine trafficker George Jung, who had ties with the Medellín cartel. Pablo Escobar appears as a character.
* Killing Pablo, the 2001 book by Mark Bowden. The rise and fall of Escobar's reign.
* The 2005 Don Winslow novel The Power of the Dog
* The 2006 documentary Cocaine Cowboys
* Characters in the HBO series Entourage create a film, titled "Medellín", based on the life of Pablo Escobar.
* Both the novel and film versions of Clear and Present Danger by Tom Clancy depict the US's attempt to fracture the cartel.
Noriega worked with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from the late 1950s to the 1980s, and was on the CIA payroll for much of this time, although the relationship had not become contractual until 1967.
Nonetheless, he retained U.S. support until February 4, 1989, when the Drug Enforcement Administration indicted him on federal drug charges. On February 25, President Eric Arturo Delvalle issued a decree declaring that Noriega was relieved of his duties. Noriega ignored the decree, but instead instructed the National Assembly, dominated by the PRD, to remove Delvalle from office; Delvalle fled the country. Noriega claims that on March 18, 1988, he met with United States Department of State officials William Walker and Michael Kozak, who offered him $2 million to go into exile in Spain. According to Noriega, he refused the offer. In early 1988, an Associated Press story alleged he attempted to buy thousands of Browning Hi-Power pistols from U.S. businessman and arms trader Leo Wanta.
The U.S. saw Noriega as a double agent (his State Department nickname was "rent-a-colonel") and believed that he gave information not only to the U.S. and U.S. allies Taiwan and Israel, but also to communist Cuba. He also sold weapons to the leftist Sandinista government in Nicaragua in the late 1970s.
Senator John Kerry's 1988 Senate Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations concluded that "the saga of Panama's General Manuel Antonio Noriega represents one of the most serious foreign policy failures for the United States. Throughout the 1970s and the 1980s, Noriega was able to manipulate U.S. policy toward his country, while skillfully accumulating near-absolute power in Panama. It is clear that each U.S. government agency which had a relationship with Noriega turned a blind eye to his corruption and drug dealing, even as he was emerging as a key player on behalf of the Medellín Cartel (a member of which was notorious Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar)." Manuel Noriega was allowed to establish "the hemisphere's first 'narcokleptocracy.'"
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MEMPHISBUG: DAMN!
MrDylanJG: WOW, they need more videos and interviews like this. TRUTH this proves the apple dosent fall far from the tree. haha and i bet the pope wacks off too. people are fucked up thank this man for speaking out Just wish people today would keep this kind of thing up. i hate politictions, but i love justice, too bad the vision of justice today is skewed and crooked.
Author: thefilmarchive; Uploaded: Nov 9, 2009; Duration: 9:34; Views: 315
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