Former U.S. anti-drug official's arrest 'a complete shock'

LA Times ^ | Sept. 17, 2009 | Sebastian Rotella

[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....

[AuntB]

Article forwarded by NAFBPO. The entire thing is worth the read, this guy had quite a racket going as he earned 6 figures from our government.

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.

[AuntB]

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]

[bayliving]

I feel very ill......

[AuntB]

“I feel very ill......”

Dang government ought to be giving us all ulcer meds just to read the news!

[mgstarr]

This is a surprise? Politicians are utterly corrupt liars, thieves and whores; why should their minions be any less so?

[SpaceBar]

I assume his assets will be liquidated and the money sent back to taxpayers. /s

[classified]

Your right! This has been going on for so, so, long! Officials in both Dem and Rep. parties have known this.

[texmexis best]

Next stop, Gitmo. Forever.

[ridesthemiles]

Money will buy anybody.

[ChrisInAR]

Federal investigators say he served as a secret ally of traffickers...

...& federal lawmakers have been secret allies of the traffickers by keeping their product illegal.

[bayliving]

I have to disagree with you.

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.

[HiTech RedNeck]

We call a “war” and wonder why we see double agents.

[rednesss]

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.

[La Lydia]

It's even worse. They spent a full one-third of the entire funding Congress provided for the fence, the physical fence, on this project and this is STILL ALL THEY HAVE TO SHOW FOR THOSE HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS: 23 miles of virtual fence that they aren't even sure will work like it's supposed to. They could have built another couple of hundred miles of double layer fence, instead of the vehicle barriers they built across the desert, with that money. Link to the physical fence here:

http://americanpatrol.com/ABP/SURVEYS/BORDER-2009/Border-Main-20009.html

[Ken H]

A "complete shock"??? BS. Milton Friedman warned of this many years ago. Here is an excerpt from his 1989 "Open Letter to Bill Bennett":

"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.

[AuntB]

“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!

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

It was his nature, his essence, his very being that cried out for graft.

[Diego1618]

Illegality creates obscene profits that finance the murderous tactics of the drug lords;

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.

[Vendome]

Where are Tango and Cash?

[peeps36]

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.

[Anima Mundi]

And then there is the mysterious and aggressive pursuit of Ramos, Campion and others who are seeking to protect the borers. They deserved a a FULL pardon and apology.

[mikeus_maximus]

If guilty,stick his head on the border fence.

[airborne]

Another notch in the belt for those fighting the “War on Drugs”.

Another successful government program, just like the “War on Poverty!”

“Thank you sir! May I have another?”

[ansel12]

LOL, yeah don’t use the word war and cops don’t go crooked.

Corruption didn’t exist until that darn word showed up.

[ChrisInAR]

Thanx for the Milton letter post, Ken...that was a good read.

[mysterio]

I’m never shocked to find out that the drug war is a failure.

[gkf111]

Unreal. When will an honest hard ass stand up to all this corruption and start cracking heads? There has to be someone on our side capable and willing.

[microgood]

During Prohibition about 70% of the Federal agents were on the take. When it ended the FBI did not want all these corrupt agents and they ended up in what is today the DEA. I imagine that 70% figure is kind of low today since there is so much more money in drugs than there was in alcohol.

[Vigilantcitizen]

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!

Don't forget about the government.

[Forgotten Amendments]

I didn't know if this was hippie myth or not, but I remember David Crosby's book saying that J. Edgar Hoover never let the FBI go after big drug mobs because it would be impossible to not be corrupted. There was just too much money. He wanted the FBI clean.

I don't know if that's true, but it sounds pretty believable.

[PhilDragoo]

Hey wow I am shocked shocked I tell you.

In the rush to defend Ramos and Compean did anyone wonder that George W. Bush described Johnny Sutton as his good friend, dear friend, amigo, compadre.

Have we not quietly wondered why the bipartisan resistance to building the border barrier.

I had been occasionally corresponding and calling John Carman, who served on the Secret Service team in the Ford White House, and later as an exemplary U.S. Customs Officer who resigned and ran the archived customscorruption.com.

He was a thorn in the side of this corruption to which the article alludes, and was framed in 2007, tried, convicted, imprisoned in Federal prison.

He was defended by former U.S. Customs Officer and corruption whistleblower Darlene Fitzgerald Price .

We have a friend who reports that serving on the border one must be wary of moles, those within the agency who watch and report for the cartels.

The whistleblower running for the senate has said there are those within various agencies even now who would gladly put her in a cell as they did John Carman.

I would submit the obvious observation, that those who lobby for open borders are not merely looking for a rich, new political demo--

--they are anxious to keep the free flow of drugs at market prices operating at peak efficiency.

And to make an example of any law enforcement officers who actually take their oath and duty seriously.

War on Drugs?

It is to laugh.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Scary....meanwhile we have the Mooselimbs laughing at us....see this:

Zazi breaks off talks with FBI, calls reports of terror ties 'nonsense'

[AuntB]

Most interesting, thanks!

[dixiechick2000]

Lordy! The enemy really is within!

Thank you for the post and ping.

I’m sad for my country.

[Trailerpark Badass]

You mean that big illegal drug profits corrupt our government and legal system?

Who knew?

[kcvl]

Richard Padilla Cramer, a 26-year veteran anti-drug official, is behind bars, arrested after officials accused him of directing a massive cocaine shipment to Spain via the United States

“Cramer’s duties as the ICE attache in Guadalajara included serving as a liaison with Mexican police,”

“The complaint also says Cramer and the smuggling organization invested about $400,000 in a 660-pound shipment of cocaine. The cocaine was shipped from Panama and went through the U.S. en route to Spain, where it was seized in June 2007.

Press Here

[kcvl]

It was later learned that CRAMER utilized his law enforcement position to persuade DEA agents to run DEA database queries under the guise of an active drug investigation. Further interviews with DEA agents who were stationed in Mexico revealed that CRAMER was stationed in Guadalajara, Mexico and was known to ask to have database checks run on various subjects

Criminal Complaint

[kcvl]

The Gulf Cartel has shifted its drug market to Europe over the past two years but Guadalajara, where Padilla Cramer worked, is under the control of longtime kingpins “El Azul,” Juan Jose Esparragoza, and Ignacio “Nacho” Coronel Villarreal. Eyebrows were raised across both sides of the border in February when Coronel allegedly visited the Ambos Nogales area. Coronel is wanted by the United States, which is offering a $5 million bounty.

Press Here

[meadsjn]

If the charges are proven, nothing less than the death penalty is appropriate.

[Nate505]

Corruption in the drug war? And there are some morons shocked about it?

[Lurker]

"Just wait till we get Prohibition back." Johny Rocco in Key Largo.

People never, ever learn.