{"id":2352,"date":"2015-11-11T10:09:13","date_gmt":"2015-11-11T10:09:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/armando.info\/?p=2352"},"modified":"2015-11-11T10:09:13","modified_gmt":"2015-11-11T10:09:13","slug":"the-sinaloa-cartel-infiltrated-maiquetia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/armando.info\/en\/the-sinaloa-cartel-infiltrated-maiquetia\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sinaloa Cartel infiltrated Maiquet\u00eda"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

(*) This reportage was \r\noriginally published on June 16th 2013 on the journal El \r\nUniversal.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

A DC-9 plane coming \r\nfrom Venezuela appeared as a touristic charter, but on April 10th 2006 it landed \r\non the southern shores of Mexico not precisely with passengers in shorts and \r\nbeach wear, but with 128 suitcases packed with cocaine. Although the scandal \r\ndiluted itself after the Government denied that the drugs were loaded in the \r\ncountry, some documents filed on Mexican courts expose that drug trafficking \r\ncells used the Sim\u00f3n Bol\u00edvar International Airport on Maiquet\u00eda as an air bridge \r\non this and other occasions. <\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

The then president of \r\nthe National Anti-Drugs Office, Luis Correa, assured that the felony wasn\u2019t \r\ncommitted on Maiquet\u00eda. \u201cI cannot say if the plane landed on Colombia, Panama or \r\nany other place, but we have hard evidence that it took off empty from \r\nVenezuela\u201d, he pointed out on April 25th 2006, two weeks after the \r\nincident. <\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

What Correa didn\u2019t say \r\nwas that behind this operation was no less than the Sinaloa Cartel. Since then \r\nnor this or any other Venezuelan functionary has noticed that the biggest criminal organization \r\nin Mexico had infiltrated the Maiquet\u00eda Airport, and not even once or \r\ntwice\u2026<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

This information comes \r\nfrom a sentence dictated by the Mexican State\u2019s Fifth \r\nCourt on Federal Criminal Proceedings on \r\nJune 23rd 2009, and which details are known now that the Mexican \r\nState made them public by a request made for this journalistic \r\nwork.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

According to that \r\ndocument, several of the planes that were mentioned during the trial as part of \r\nthe Sinaloa Cartel\u2019s fleet, match with the acronyms and characteristics of a \r\nseries of aircrafts that, during the years 2005 and 2006, came and went without \r\nproblems by the most important airport in the country.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n

The same airstrip<\/h2>\n\n\n

The official story \r\nstates that a DC-9 airship with an American flag proceeding from Venezuela with \r\nthe N900SA acronym was detained with more than 5 tons of drugs on the airport of \r\nCiudad del Carmen, where another suspicious Falcon 20 plane with the XB-IYK \r\nacronym was parked on the opposite hangar waiting for the 128 suitcases, so it \r\ncould continue with the journey which final destination was the United States. \r\n<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

The drug suitcases \r\njourney ended when the Mexican authorities detained several crew members from \r\nboth airplanes. Nevertheless, there was no one anywhere who would realize that \r\nthe second plane \u2013 the Falcon 20 that would wait for the suitcases in Mexico \u2013 \r\nwas seen around Maiquet\u00eda Airport on other occasions. And no other than in the \r\nsame seventh ramp from the auxiliary terminal where the famous 128 suitcases \r\nscandal started. <\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

On 2006 the Government \r\nguaranteed that the 5,5 tons of cocaine where not loaded on Maiquet\u00eda or \r\nanywhere else in Venezuelan territory. But anyhow, the same players related to \r\nthe Sinaloa Cartel used the same airstrip, hangar and air terminal, at least \r\ntwice, to park the other airplane involved in the biggest drug trafficking case \r\nthat is remembered on any airport in the region.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

It is stated on the \r\nInternational Take-off and Landing Permits stored in the International Maiquet\u00eda \r\nAirport Institute. According to some filed forms dated November 2nd \r\n2005 and February 10th 2006, the Falcon 20 that would continue its \r\njourney from Mexico carrying the suitcases had also entered and departed \r\nMaiquet\u00eda using the name of the Mexican Ra\u00fal Jim\u00e9nez Alfaro, who turned out to \r\nbe Fernando Blengio, better known as one of the pilots of Joaqu\u00edn Guzm\u00e1n Loera, \r\nalias \u201cEl Chapo Guzm\u00e1n\u201d, the most wanted drug dealer in Mexico. \r\n<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

After a legal process \r\nin Mexico that allows to ask for information through mechanisms established by \r\nthe Federal Law for Transparency and Access to Public Information, now it\u2019s \r\nclear that Chapo Guzm\u00e1n\u2019s pilot spent periods of time working in Caracas under \r\nthe name of Ra\u00fal Jim\u00e9nez Alfaro.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

\u201cI phoned Ra\u00fal Jim\u00e9nez \r\nAlfaro from the office to Venezuela because he traveled there a lot\u201d, declared \r\none of the Mexican aeronautic inspectors that were summoned to collaborate on \r\nthe trial and that later and without knowing it ended up confirming, by a photo \r\nof the subject shown to him, that he was talking about Chapo Guzm\u00e1n\u2019s pilot: \u201cI \r\nidentify him as Ra\u00fal Jim\u00e9nez Alfaro and after listening to remarks made on this \r\ncase I learn that he answers to the name of Fernando Blengio Cese\u00f1a and I have \r\njust heard comments saying that he is Blengio.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n

The same person<\/h2>\n\n\n

The already famous 128 \r\ndrug stuffed suitcases are just the slip from a drug trafficking net that made \r\nuse of some of the most important airport facilities in the country. Although \r\nthe Venezuelan prosecutors limited themselves to investigate three employees in \r\nMaiquet\u00eda, the Mexican Justice System concluded that \u201cthe activities developed \r\non this case related to the illegal cocaine traffic and transport came from \r\nVenezuela by air for its distribution and transport to the border with the \r\nUnited States of America\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

The drugs route was \r\ndrawn in Mexico and even in the United States where Chapo Guzm\u00e1n\u2019s pilot was \r\nsentenced to 13 years in prison and another 5 years of supervised release for \r\nusing American airplanes for drug trafficking.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

Blengio was arrested in \r\nDominican Republic on 2011 and from there he was transferred to a court in \r\nFlorida\u2019s South District. However, his detention was unnoticed because he had \r\nchanged his name again, just like in Maiquet\u00eda.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

At the beginning of the \r\ntrial, prosecutor Andrea Hoffman didn\u2019t realize that she had introduced him with \r\none of his nicknames, but anyhow there was no lack of words to describe all the \r\ntrickery that him and other drug dealers have been employing on this part of the \r\nworld.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a handmade \r\nindustry in the United States that is faking American airplane registers and \r\nusing them for drug trafficking outside the country\u201d said the prosecutor on \r\nNovember 29th 2011 on one of the hearings where she presented Blengio \r\nto judge Patricia Seitz. \u201cThe longest routes in the world right now are boarding \r\nin a zone called Apure in Venezuela. The drug dealers fly from there to the \r\noutskirts of the Colombian air space where they go to Honduras and \r\nGuatemala\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

(*) You can read the \r\nfirst part of this reportage on El Universal<\/p>\n\n

\"\"<\/span><\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been a while since Venezuela\u2019s anti-narcotics organisms have been having their alarms ringing. Now that the drug has been connected once again to the Bolivarian Government elites, it\u2019s good to remember that the main airport in Caracas served as an aerial bridge for the largest Cartel in the hemisphere, the Chapo Guzm\u00e1n\u2019s. And it did it, surprising as it is, next to the presidential hangar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":51324,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"give_campaign_id":0,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","ghostkit_customizer_options":"","ghostkit_custom_css":"","ghostkit_custom_js_head":"","ghostkit_custom_js_foot":"","ghostkit_typography":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2387,2210],"tags":[208,408,1841,988,180],"pais":[4216],"serie":[],"localizacion":[4227],"ppma_author":[2376],"class_list":["post-2352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-internacionales","category-investigacion","tag-drogas","tag-el-chapo-guzman","tag-ingles","tag-mexico","tag-narcotrafico","pais-venezuela-en"],"acf":{"reportage-top-html":""},"views":2415,"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":2387,"label":"Internacionales"},{"value":2210,"label":"Investigacion"}],"post_tag":[{"value":208,"label":"Drogas"},{"value":408,"label":"El 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