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Saturday, January 14, 2023

Undercover DEA Informants Used Rafael Caro-Quintero's Name to Entrap Colombian Ex-FARC Leader

 "Socalj" for Borderland Beat


The objective, apparently, was to derail the peace achieved between the Colombian government and the FARC guerrillas. The method set a trap for Jesús Santrich through two DEA collaborators who posed as high-ranking members of the Sinaloa Cartel, supposedly sent by Rafael Caro Quintero, and invited the former guerrilla commander to traffic cocaine to the United States. The trap worked, from Washington's point of view, but it has no validity in the South American nation, according to Colombian legal experts.

Perhaps unintentionally, the United States Department of Justice has just officially revealed that the DEA used Mexican drug trafficker Rafael Caro Quintero as a decoy in a sting operation in Colombia, whose purpose was to incite Jesús Santrich to traffic cocaine, former commander of the demobilized FARC guerrilla.

In a document sent on December 1 to a US federal judge, the Department of Justice indicates that two "confidential sources" of the DEA posed as "high-ranking members of the Sinaloa Cartel" and established contact with Santrich, who according to the accusation, he fell into the trap and agreed to participate in a business selling cocaine.

The "confidential sources" (cees) were two DEA collaborators, one of whom introduced himself to Santrich and his Colombian interlocutors as the son of Caro Quintero, and the other as a relative and member of the drug lord's criminal organization, which according to the US agency it was the Sinaloa Cartel.




The undercover operation was carried out by the DEA between 2017 and 2018 and, according to what the Colombian president himself, Gustavo Petro, has said, was carried out with the support of the then Attorney General Néstor Humberto Martínez with the purpose of damaging the peace process with the FARC by presenting Santrich, an emblematic ex-chief of that demobilized guerrilla force, as a drug trafficker who continued to commit crimes.

Lawyers consulted by Proceso agree that the Justice Department document confirms that Santrich was the victim of "entrapment" (incitement to crime, something prohibited under Colombian law) and that the two Mexicans who presented themselves as members of the Sinaloa Cartel and relatives de Caro Quintero actually worked for the DEA.



“That was a DEA entrapment operation to torpedo the peace process; this was the main objective. The Justice Department document corroborates that it was a trap in which DEA ​​agents posed as drug traffickers,” says criminal lawyer Reynaldo Villalba.

For law professor Pablo Reyes, the document "officializes that the DEA did carry out an entrapment operation in Colombia in which the name of a well-known Mexican drug trafficker was used and in which there were DEA agents who claimed to be his relatives and that they incurred in incitement to crime, which is illegal in this country.”



Santrich, who was 54 years old, and blind for the last 15 years due to a degenerative disease and whose real name was Seuxis Paucías Hernández Solarte. He was a lawyer with a degree in Education and a postgraduate degree in History. In addition, he played several musical instruments as a singer-songwriter, wrote short stories and poetry, and oil painted with a Braille technique.

When he turned his back on the peace agreement and took up arms, many politicians on the Colombian left who had called for due process for the drug charges he faced felt betrayed.


Santrich Assassinated in 2021

Santrich was part of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) team that negotiated peace with the government of Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos between 2012 and 2016 in Havana and was even a congressman when that ex-guerrilla became, in 2017, a legal political party.

In 2018, the former guerrilla was accused of violating the peace accords by negotiating a shipment of cocaine with envoys of Mexican drug trafficker Rafael Caro Quintero, for which Santrich was sent to prison for extradition purposes to the United States.

In May 2019, the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) denied the extradition and ordered the release of the former insurgent commander, who fled to Venezuela two months later. The FARC dissident, Jesús Santrich, took up arms in 2019 after accepting the peace agreement, and was killed in Venezuela by a commando, they reported Colombian security agency sources.

The death occurred under unclear circumstances, as Colombian military intelligence officials told local media that Santrich had been attacked by a rival armed group, but the organization of the dejected dissident, called FARC-Segunda Marquetalia, refuted that version.

The organization confirmed Santrich's death through a statement posted on the internet but assured that it occurred "in an ambush carried out by commandos of the Colombian Army" on the afternoon of Monday, May 17.


According to the armed group, which is assumed to be an insurgent organization whose main source of financing is drug trafficking and mineral smuggling from Venezuela, the attack occurred in the Perijá mountain range, in Venezuela, near the border with Colombia.

The operation, the statement said, was "by direct order" of Colombian President Iván Duque, and it took place when Santrich was traveling in a truck that was attacked with rifles and grenades.

Once Santrich was killed, "the assassins cut off the little finger of his left hand" and they were picked up at the scene "in a yellow helicopter" that returned them to Colombia, according to the version of the "FARC-Segunda Marquetalia.”

Colombian Defense Minister Diego Molano said that Santrich's death in the neighboring country would confirm that the Venezuelan government "protects narcoterrorists in its territory." Hernández-Solarte was reportedly partnered with the Cártel de los Soles, a drug trafficking organization in Venezuela comprised of high-ranking government officials including wanted President Nicolas Maduro.



On 26 March 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice issued charges against Marin-Arango and Hernández-Solarte, former Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro, and 14 other high-ranking government officials. The following year, he also announced with Marin-Arango that the FARC was continuing their "armed struggle" despite previous peace talks.

Colombia's current leftist President Gustavo Petro is seeking to suspend arrest orders against some of the country's biggest criminal suspects, including at least one individual, Jobanis Villadiego, alias “Bad Boy,” who is wanted in the US on narcotics charges, as part of an ambitious plan to dismantle armed groups that have long dominated the countryside.


Source Proceso, NY Times, Proceso, Yahoo, Borderland Beat


24 comments:

  1. Rats should be illegal in court proceedings due to the fact someone (usually a criminal) benefits from this evidence.

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  2. They blame RCQ for anything now days.

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    1. RCQ was a rapist and a killer. Fact! So when you narco scum cheerleaders cheer for that guy, remember, you are cheering for a innocent killer and a rapist!

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  3. Very sloppy as with even a little research there would've, should've could've been 2 dead informants!

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  4. Peace is terrible for business!

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  5. Destabilization of a country. Very CIA of the DEA

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  6. I don't see what the problem here is. Common sense tells everyone Santrich wouldn't traffic coke with nobodys.

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  7. First Venezuela then Colombia elected a leftist government and now leftist Lula has taken the reins in Brazil while Argentina will soon join the BRICS. The Monroe doctrine is in shambles but be assured life will soon get unpleasant for all these leftist gvts!

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    1. Better than right wingers who will sell you illusions and that progress is instant.

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    2. Multipolar world is inevitable from the looks of things but hey nothing is what it seems right or left

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    3. Yeah, you gave them Democracy, and what did the ungrateful fuckers do? They went and voted, so their kids could eat! You'll learn em tho, I have no doubt.

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  8. Is this the same guy in wheelchair that set maduros nephews up ?

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  9. Yea ok, there’s no way in hell farc let some random dudes come and talk about business. Under the guise of working for RCQ.. he set them up to get less time. Cmon we all know what CDS is about . Think about it.

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    Replies
    1. The fact they believed these guys were working for RCQ merits an entirely separate issue….

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  10. Do Colombians even make cocaine anymore for real? For Cartel Biden - Or is it more of a Bolivia to Venezuela to Munich Germany to Albania type of deal?!

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    1. They still make at least 40% of the coke, and are technically the largest producer.

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    2. Then there is Peru and Bolivia

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    3. Yes… the coca production goes like this:

      Colombia — 40%
      Bolivia — 20%
      Peru — 20%
      Rest (Chile/Venezuela/Etc) — 10%

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  11. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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    1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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    2. And there you go. Live proof

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    3. Welcome to the circus @643

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    4. Everyone fighting because of this guy's arrest and the use of Quinteros name : who cares? Good job DEA keep up the good work

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  12. His head is so big that the main photo almost looks like a photoshop lmao

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