A wave of investigative reporting in 2011 revealed that the Central Intelligence Agency was deeply entangled in the U.S. federal government’s notorious “Operation Fast and Furious” gun-walking program, while multiple agencies simultaneously facilitated narcotics shipments across the southern border into the United States.
CIA Backed Sinaloa Cartel to Counter Los Zetas Threat
According to a Washington Times investigation citing an anonymous CIA source, American officials were actively supporting the Sinaloa drug cartel by providing weapons and legal immunity in exchange for intelligence on rival organizations. The primary target was Los Zetas, a paramilitary criminal syndicate that U.S. intelligence reportedly believed had both the capability and the intention to overthrow the Mexican government of President Felipe Calderon.
Journalists Robert Farago and Ralph Dixon reported that the U.S. government’s motivation was straightforward: preventing a Zetas-led coup against the Calderon administration. Their sources, including former CIA personnel and retired Drug Enforcement Administration chief Phil Jordan, indicated that Los Zetas had already laid groundwork to disrupt and potentially hijack Mexico’s 2012 national elections.
Los Zetas: U.S.-Trained Forces Turned Criminal Empire
In a deeply ironic twist, many of the Zetas’ founding members received their military training on American soil at the School of the Americas, the controversial U.S. military facility long criticized for producing graduates who went on to commit human rights abuses across Latin America. Originally composed of elite Mexican special forces operatives, Los Zetas had grown into an organization controlling vast swaths of Mexican territory with the organizational structure, firepower, and financial resources to potentially seize the entire country.
Sinaloa Operative Confirms Federal Deal for Drug Immunity
Federal court documents filed by Jesus Vicente Zambada-Niebla, identified as a senior logistics coordinator for the Sinaloa cartel, provided damning corroboration. Zambada-Niebla claimed he had brokered an agreement with high-ranking U.S. officials: his organization would supply intelligence on competing cartels, and in return, he and his associates would receive protection to move multi-ton drug shipments across the border without interference.
The court filing stated explicitly that American government agents had assisted Sinaloa’s leadership. Thousands of high-powered firearms also flowed to the cartel through the Fast and Furious pipeline under this arrangement, according to both Zambada-Niebla’s testimony and statements from U.S. officials.
Whistleblowers Allege U.S. Also Armed and Trained Zetas
The story grew even more disturbing when former government operatives came forward with claims that the United States was simultaneously supporting Los Zetas as well. Celerino Castillo, a former DEA agent turned whistleblower, alleged during a radio interview that training facilities in Texas were actively producing new Zetas recruits working on behalf of the cartels.
Separately, retired CIA and DEA insider Phil Jordan made an even more explosive allegation: the Obama administration had been selling military-grade weaponry to Los Zetas through a front company established in Mexico. Robert Plumlee, a former CIA pilot who corroborated Jordan’s account, noted that investigators had discovered anti-aircraft weapons and Vietnam War-era hand grenades among the arsenal.
Even members of the Zetas organization itself confirmed these claims. Jesus Aguilar, known as “El Mamito” and one of the cartel’s co-founders, told Mexican law enforcement during a recorded interrogation that his group was receiving weapons directly from the American government.
Taxpayer Money Funded Cartel Arms Purchases
Subsequent reporting revealed that U.S. taxpayers were unwittingly financing cartel weapons acquisitions through multiple federal agencies. Evidence indicated that authorization for these programs reached into the senior ranks of the Department of Justice and other executive branch departments.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had officially maintained that Fast and Furious was designed to trace weapons and build cases against cartel leadership. However, once the operation became public, numerous analysts and internal whistleblowers rejected that explanation. Some observers theorized the program was engineered to generate political ammunition for stricter domestic gun control legislation, a process that was already underway using Mexican border violence as justification.
CIA’s Long History of Drug and Arms Trafficking
The Mexico revelations fit a well-established historical pattern. The CIA had been implicated in drug and weapons trafficking scandals stretching from Vietnam and Iran to operations throughout Central and South America. In each case, the agency was caught moving narcotics and arms to advance covert geopolitical objectives.
Whether definitive proof of CIA orchestration in the Mexican operations would ever surface remained uncertain. A former DEA agent suggested that if the agency was indeed directing the program, any incriminating evidence would almost certainly be classified under national security protections.
By August 2011, the Obama administration was deploying additional CIA personnel to Mexico, and Congressional investigations into the expanding gun-running scandal were underway. Multiple analysts and the Washington Times investigation argued that only the appointment of a special prosecutor with authority to compel testimony and access classified materials could reveal the full scope of what had transpired. Without such accountability, the complete truth about American complicity in Mexico’s devastating cartel wars risked remaining permanently buried.
