Posted on 09/18/2009 1:39:28 PM PDT by AuntB
As a high-ranking U.S. anti-drug official, Richard Padilla Cramer held front-line posts in the war on Mexico's murderous cartels. He led an office of two dozen agents in Arizona and was the attache for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Guadalajara.
While in Mexico... Cramer also served as a secret ally of drug lords.... allegedly advised traffickers on law enforcement tactics and pulled secret files to help them identify turncoats. He charged $2,000 for a Drug Enforcement Administration document that was sent to a suspect in Miami....
But the investigation revealed that he worked for "a very high-level drug lord," the federal official said.....the 26-year government veteran became a full-time advisor to traffickers after retiring from ICE in January 2007...
A trafficker "convinced Cramer to retire . . . and begin working directly for [him] in drug trafficking and money laundering," ....Cramer continued to sell secret documents that he obtained from active U.S. agents....
The charges underscore the corruptive might of the cartels, which have bought off Mexican politicians, police chiefs and military commandos. Drug lords have corrupted U.S. border inspectors and agents to help smuggle cocaine north. In 2006, the FBI chief in El Paso was convicted of charges related to concealing his friendship with an alleged kingpin.
Cramer, 56, stands out because his rank and foreign post made his work especially sensitive, officials said.
In 2007, an informant revealed documents -- four from the DEA database, one from ICE, two from the state of California -- supplied by an American in Mexico named "Richard," according to the complaint.
Cramer allegedly helped the Mexican drug lord conduct an internal hunt for henchmen responsible for the bust. Suspects under surveillance in Miami declared that Cramer would check databases to help unmask informants, whose families would be kidnapped in retaliation....
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Federal investigators say he served as a secret ally of traffickers while he was posted in Guadalajara.
We're fighting BIG money here, and this guy isn't the only 'official' being bought off by these foreign cartels.
Also from NAFBPO today, ‘virtual border’ not working so well!
http://www.nextgov.com/site_services/print_article.php?StoryID=ng_20090917_5482
Agents crippled by tech deployment delays along Southwest border
By Jill R. Aitoro 09/17/2009
Border Patrol agents along the U.S.-Mexico border are forced to rely on outdated and unreliable equipment because of extensive delays in the deployment of new technology, an official from the Government Accountability Office said during a hearing on Thursday.
The technology portion of the multiyear Secure Border Initiative was scheduled for an initial deployment along the entire Southwest border in early fiscal 2009, with full capability along the southern and northern U.S. borders planned for later this year, according to a September 2006 contract signed with the prime contractor for SBInet. The initiative is aimed at reducing illegal immigration and protecting U.S. borders. But after numerous schedule delays occurred because of flaws found during testing, the first phase of SBInet was not launched until May, with the most recent estimates for full deployment extending as late as 2016, said Richard Stana, director of homeland security and justice issues at GAO.
Stana testified during a hearing before the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Border, Maritime and Global Counterterrorism, and submitted a GAO report on SBInet’s progress with his testimony.
“A key aspect of managing large programs like SBInet is having a schedule that defines the sequence and timing of key activities,” he said. An ongoing GAO review of SBInet will determine whether Homeland Security has established a comprehensive, accurate and realistic schedule for the program that reflects the scope, timing and sequence of the work necessary to fulfill goals.
Until SBInet capabilities are deployed across the Southwest border, Border Patrol agents are using existing resources, including legacy technology and equipment installed during a prototype test of the SBInet system called Project 28 — factors that are very limiting, Stana said. In a March visit by GAO to an area of the Southwest border near Tucson, Ariz., “agents [said] they must continue to work around ongoing problems, such as finding good signal strength for the wireless network, remotely controlling cameras and modifying radar sensitivity.” In both the Tucson and San Diego sectors, Border Patrol agents rely on cameras that have been in place since before 2000.[snip]
I feel very ill......
“I feel very ill......”
Dang government ought to be giving us all ulcer meds just to read the news!
This is a surprise? Politicians are utterly corrupt liars, thieves and whores; why should their minions be any less so?
I assume his assets will be liquidated and the money sent back to taxpayers. /s
Your right! This has been going on for so, so, long! Officials in both Dem and Rep. parties have known this.
Next stop, Gitmo. Forever.
Money will buy anybody.
...& federal lawmakers have been secret allies of the traffickers by keeping their product illegal.
Money will buy most people.
Those with integrity cannot be bought. Although those people are few and far between.
People with connections like this guy needed to be WATCHED constantly and by several institutions at once.
We call a “war” and wonder why we see double agents.
This POS no doubt caused the death and suffering of many, many people. He should be ran over, slowly, by the biggest damn steamroller available, feet first of course.
http://americanpatrol.com/ABP/SURVEYS/BORDER-2009/Border-Main-20009.html
"You are not mistaken in believing that the majority of the public share your concerns. In short, you are not mistaken in the end you seek to achieve. Your mistake is failing to recognize that the very measures you favor are a major source of the evils you deplore. Of course the problem is demand, but it is not only demand, it is demand that must operate through repressed and illegal channels.
Illegality creates obscene profits that finance the murderous tactics of the drug lords; illegality leads to the corruption of law enforcement officials; illegality monopolizes the efforts of honest law forces so that they are starved for resources to fight the simpler crimes of robbery, theft and assault.
Drugs are a tragedy for addicts. But criminalizing their use converts that tragedy into a disaster for society, for users and non-users alike. Our experience with the prohibition of drugs is a replay of our experience with the prohibition of alcoholic beverages.
“This POS no doubt caused the death and suffering of many, many people. He should be ran over, slowly, by the biggest damn steamroller available, feet first of course.”
Indeed!
It was his nature, his essence, his very being that cried out for graft.
All you have to do is stop and think.....who would be the most upset if the drug trade was legalized? The current drug lords and traffickers.....of course!
It boggles my mind that normally intelligent people....here on this forum (especially)....do not understand that, and want to continue this stupid, time consuming, tax dollar eating, idiotic war on drugs. The demand remains.....it does not go away simply because you make the trade illegal. All that does is make the commodity more expensive.
I wish Milton Friedman were still around. Maybe John Stossel will be able to fill his shoes....eventually.
Where are Tango and Cash?
People in the government are making money off the drug trade. It would be stopped from coming in if they weren’t making money off it. That’s the reason I say the drug war is a joke. The smugglers who are busted are the ones who didn’t make their payments to corrupt officials.
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