*Another* U.S. govt agency supplying weapons to drug cartels?

Has the "Zeta" drug cartel been buying heavy weapons in the United States under the "Direct Commercial Sales" program, then taking them into Mexico via El Paso?

Under the Direct Commercial Sales program our State Department regulates and licenses businesses to sell weapons, "defense services" and training for export. The program is separate from the Foreign Military Sales program, which handles government-to-government sales.

Last year, according to U.S. statistics, the DCS program was used to sell Mexican companies $416.5 million worth of weapons and equipment, including military-grade weaponry.

The El Paso Times reports that Phil Jordan, a former director of the DEA's El Paso Intelligence Center, said the Zetas are thought to have shipped large amounts of military weapons through the El Paso area--specifically through the tiny town of Columbus, New Mexico.

"They're purchasing weapons in the Dallas area and flying them to El Paso, then taking them across the border," said Jordan, who is now a law enforcement consultant.

But later in the story it's noted that this has been going on for a couple of years now. If so, why is the story just now surfacing?

Turns out that just 21 days ago Mexican federal authorities captured the number three man in the Zeta's hierarchy, a guy named Jesús Rejón Aguilar. Mexican authorities presented him in a press conference the next day, and he seems to have revealed everything.

His statement was allegedly recorded on video and uploaded to YouTube.

At that point about the only way U.S. officials could have suppressed it would be to claim it was a hoax. But of course the Mexican authorities thought it was genuine, so that would have been a problem.

But we'll admit, so far it's just YouTube, a tiny paper in El Paso and the notoriously untrustworth Mexican government. So you can expect the U.S. mainstream media to ignore the entire story as nothing more than rumor or wild and baseless accusations by a "digruntled former employee."

Yeah, dat's da ticket. Who ya gonna believe: Two female cub reporters at the El Paso Times or your gubmint's o-fishul Attorney General, Eric Holder? So...nothing to see here, citizen.

Oooh, wait: Headline in El Paso Times, July 21, 2011:

5th guilty plea made in Columbus firearms trafficking,
by Ashley Meeks

LAS CRUCES -- A fifth defendant has pleaded guilty in a case charging the Columbus police chief, mayor, a village trustee and nine others with trafficking firearms to Mexican cartels.

Manuel Ortega, 25, of Palomas, Mexico, faces up to 15 years in federal prison for firearms smuggling and conspiracy after entering the plea Wednesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge William P. Lynch in Las Cruces.

Between January 2010 and March 2011, the 13 defendants, headquartered in Columbus, allegedly conspired to smuggle about 200 firearms favored by Mexican cartels, at least partly on the orders of Jesus "Mantequilla" Molinas, an inmate at Cereso federal prison in Juárez. Some weapons were reportedly found at the scenes of a murder, a kidnapping and a drug bust in Mexican border towns.

The defendants allegedly paid Chaparral Guns about $70,000 for the AK-47 pistols and American Tactical 9 mm pistols, with the potential to sell the firearms for three times that on the other side of the border.

Four other defendants have pleaded guilty since last week, including former Mayor Eddie Espinoza.

Espinoza, 51, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy, three counts of making false statements in the acquisition of firearms and three counts of smuggling firearms from the United States. He faces up to 50 years in prison at sentencing.

Alberto Rivera, 40, of Columbus, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and nine counts of making false statements in the acquisition of firearms and smuggling firearms from the United States.

Both men remain in federal custody.

Eva Lucie Gutierrez, 22, of Las Cruces, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and making a false statement in the acquisition of firearms.

Ricardo Gutierrez, 25, of Columbus, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy, three counts of making false statements in the acquisition of firearms, and three counts of smuggling firearms from the United States. He is free on a $10,000 unsecured bond pending sentencing. He faces up to 50 years in federal prison [which strongly suggests to me that he's highly likely to flee the country].

The U.S. Attorney's Office in El Paso, which unexpectedly took over the prosecution from the New Mexico U.S. Attorney's Office in June, has been tight-lipped about the court proceedings, telling the Sun-News in a written statement: "We will not be commenting on any aspects of the investigation, our prosecutorial decision-making process or potential outcomes."

When people are pleading guilty in the face of a possible 50 year sentence, something illegal has definitely happened. So the "disgruntled former employee" cover story ain't gonna fly here.

The key is to see whether this blockbuster story gets picked up in the MSM. If the MSM gets right on it, asking pointed questions at every press conference on every level of government--from little Columbus, NM right up to the White House--we have a chance--a very small chance, but one I'll welcome--of rooting out the corruption.

On the other hand, if the MSM chooses to ignore this story, or trivialize it without asking the hard questions, then I suspect it'll take a literal shooting revolution to get the country back.

So: Watch your papers and newscasts to see which way they decide to jump.