Posted on 04/24/2012 10:42:53 PM PDT by PieterCasparzen
MIAMI — A former Venezuelan Supreme Court justice flown by federal agents to the United States is likely to be a trove of valuable information for U.S. authorities investigating the nexus of cocaine, payoffs and corruption in the government of President Hugo Chavez.
Ex-Judge Eladio Aponte Aponte, who is associated with a Venezuelan kingpin facing indictment in New York, is expected to supply the Drug Enforcement Administration with the names of high-level suspects in the cocaine trade, Chavez government and its military, according to sources familiar with the former justice and other observers.
"Aponte is bringing enough information to prove that Venezuela has become a narco state," said Johan Pena, a former inspector with Venezuela's intelligence service who is now exiled in Miami.
"He knows all the crimes being committed by high-ranking officials of the Venezuelan government," Pena said. "He was a member of the judiciary used by Chavez to hold everybody in check."
Otto Reich, the former U.S. assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere, wrote in an editorial that Aponte is "the judge who could convict Chavez."
Aponte, who left Venezuela for Costa Rica in early April because he feared for his life, was flown out of the Central American country Tuesday night to the United States on a DEA-chartered flight.
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(Excerpt) Read more at mcclatchydc.com ...
I found the following out from a Senate subcommitte hearing video (posted on FR).
China has purportedly provided billions to Hugo Chavez to prop him up, in exchange for...
(not money (Chavez/Venezuela apparently ain't got much))
crude oil.
The Chinese apparently are accepting this at...
$18 per barrel.
You know, oil, the stuff going for about $100 a barrel.
So, I'm just searching around for related info...
Sounds like the Judge fell from Grace with the Narco boys he used to let off and now is looking for a sanctuary.
Beyond the reach of the DEA are the two biggest figures in the drug trade: Supply and Demand.
Chavez government and its military
Having that information, we'll do what - arrest them?
This whole business is just the latest dog and pony show intended to distract us from the ongoing failure of the War On Drugs.
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