KEYSTONE COPS ON BOTH SIDES OF THE BORDER (2)

Detainee’s attorney alleges DEA attempted to get used car dealer to lie and say he was Sinaloa cartel chief El Chapo’s son

Last week, the Mexican navy announced with great fanfare that it had captured El Gordo, the son of El Chapo. That was before it discovered that instead of El Gordo, they were holding a used car dealer. The Mexicans claimed they acted upon information furnished them by the DEA. The DEA claimed the information came from the Mexicans, not from them.

What has happened to the DEA that I once held in the highest regard? It looks as though it has become politicized under the oversight of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. If what the attorney for Felix and Kevin Beltran says is true, and I suspect it is, then the DEA has a black mark against it that will be hard to erase.

From Borderland Beat:

GORDO-GATE: DEA ASKED DETAINEES TO PRETEND BEING RELATIVES OF EL CHAPO UNTIL THE ELCECTION CONCLUDES

La Jornada
June 26, 2012

Inside the offices of Specialized Investigation of Organized Crime (SIEDO) Personnel of the Drug Enforcement Administration Agency (DEA) offered the brothers Felix and Kevin Beltran, to accept the role of a relationship with Joaquin El Chapo Guzman Loera, leader of Sinaloa Cartel, and they would set them free after the elections, according to the lawyer Juan Heriberto Rangel Mendez, defense counselor of the two young men arrested by Marine/Army Secretariat (SEMAR) last Thursday in Zapopan, Jalisco.

The litigant said “the offering happened during Thursday night before the detainees gave their ministerial declaration. DEA approached them when we were not there to defend them.”

“First, they tell Felix to accept being son of El Chapo and that his situation could be resolved after the elections. They wanted him to sign the statements given by SIEDO. Then he told them that he was not going to sign anything, and fortunately he didn’t.”

“The DEA insisted: ‘Accept this, sign your statement and the we make the clarification that you are not the son’; then after he convinced them that he was not going to do it, they told him ‘we want you to blame the people that we tell you to and you are free right now”, but he didn’t agreed either, so says the attorney.

“Obviously, they couldn’t convinced him of anything, and Felix refers that another DEA agent appeared, a bald one, and asked him to turn around and to take his shirt off and then the agent added: ‘no he’s not it, Gordo, has a scare”. (Chapo’s son bears a scar)

How did you know it was a DEA agent?

Because they said that both agents were blonde, tall and they spoke English. Felix said that the words in Spanish were mispronounced and when Felix didn’t agreed they spoke between them in English.

When did the detainees tell you these things?

Midnight, almost at 1:00 o’clock of Saturday, which was the time when I was allowed to meet them. I saw that they were not beaten or abused, and then they told me that the DEA agents were with them and proposed the role playing.

Meanwhile, SIEDO will keep the brothers Kevin and Felix Beltran under arrest during the following 40 hours, although it is confirmed that Felix is not the son of Joaquin El Chapo Guzman.

PGR will continue with the integration of the preliminary investigation PGR/SIEDO/UEIARV/051/2012, for the probable responsibility in the offenses of organized crime, possession of a fire arm, exclusive of the Army and Air Force, and operations with illicit resources.

The above due to the authorization of arrest given to the PGR by a federal judge, in order for the Federal Public Ministry determine the origin of four fire guns, four grenades, 135 thousand dollars and 295 thousand pesos.

The officials of the Secretariat of Marines that detained the suspects last Thursday in Zapopan, Jalisco, then transferred the men to SIEDO.