Beyond The Horizon
ICYMI: A Corrupt DEA Agent Points The Finger Back At The Agency (Part 1)
The DEA has had it's share of controversies in it's history and it has also had it's share of embarrassments because of those controversies. In todays episode we hear from a disgraced agent who has some very, very concerning things to say about his colleagues and how the corruption didn't stop or start with him.
Let's check it out.
(commercial at 11:11)
to contact me:
bobbycapucci@protonmail.com
source:
https://lasvegassun.com/news/2022/nov/14/deas-most-corrupt-agent-parties-sex-amid-unwinnabl/
- Duration:
- 21m
- Broadcast on:
- 21 Jun 2024
- Audio Format:
- mp3
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At Lucky Land, you can play over a hundred casino-style games for free for your chance to redeem some serious prizes. Go to LuckyLandslots.com and get lucky today. No purchase necessary. BGW Group, void we're prohibited by law. 18+ terms and conditions apply. What's up, everyone, and welcome back to the program. When we talk about the War on Drugs here on the podcast, I talk about it as an unwinnable war. And I say that because if you look at the lessons that should have been learned for the past few decades, it shows us that trying to arrest our way out of this is never going to work. And it also shows us that some of the people who are pursuing and prosecuting these criminals are as big of criminals as the people that they're chasing. Especially when you have people like the agent we're going to talk about in this episode who worked with the Columbians, who worked with the cartels, and enriched himself in the process. However, now that he has been nailed, he's saying he's not going to go down alone. And he's saying that there is corruption that is running rampant through the DEA. And to be honest with you, why should we not believe him? Considering everything we know about these gigantic, bloated bureaucracies that we have, and the corruption within all of them, why should the DEA be any different? And especially when you talk about human nature. We're talking about so much money here, folks, that it's almost hard to comprehend how much money these cartels are bringing in. So you have DEA agents, federal agents who are making, you know, an okay salary. But sometimes it's a little too much for them to turn down the benefits that these cartels or drug dealers are offering them. And in the story that we're about to talk about, that is certainly the case. So today, we're going to talk about a man who is considered the DEA's most corrupt agent. And his name is Jose Irazari, and he is about to be sentenced to prison by the American government for his role working with these cartels. But before he starts his stint, he's talking to the AP and telling them a little bit about the inner workings and how he wasn't the only one who was corrupt. This article was published by the Las Vegas son. And the authors are Jim Mustian and Josh Goodman. Arteez Potta and Chris Majarian also contributed to this report. Jose Irazari accepts that he's known as the most corrupt agent in the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's history, admitting he became another man in conspiring with Colombian cartels to build a lavish lifestyle of expensive sports cars, Tiffany Jules, and paramores around the world. Look, not everybody's built to decline when they're being offered this stuff. And you have to think as a DEA agent, somebody working these cases, when you're investigating somebody, you bring them in for questioning or whatever, they're going to offer you bribes because we all know money talks. But as he used his final hours of freedom to tell his story to the Associated Press, Irazari says he won't go down for this alone, accusing some long-trusted DEA colleagues of joining him in skimming millions of dollars from drug money laundering stings to fund a decade's worth of luxury overseas travel, fine dining, top seats at sporting events, and frat house-style debauchery. This is your DEA, folks. And this is why they want to keep the gravy train of the war on drugs running. People are getting paid. People are getting rich. If the war on drugs goes away, what happens to the DEA? Oh, that's right. It goes away, doesn't it? And they can't have that. God forbid they ever shrink the bureaucracy. See what happens is, once they're given power, meaning the government, they never cede that power back to the people. They just increase that power. The way Irazari tells it, dozens of other federal agents, prosecutors, informants, in some cases, cartel smugglers themselves, were all in on the three-continent joyride known as Team America, that chose cities for money laundering pickups, mostly for party purposes, or to coincide with Rial Madrid soccer or Rafael Nadal tennis matches. Must be nice to do this on the taxpayer's dime while you're enriching yourself on the skim. Is this the mafia or the DEA? And you folks see why I get so fired up about this shit. And the crazy part is, there's a lot of this happening. We just don't hear about it. And you would think that the legacy media would be more into finding stories like this and exposing them. So props to the AP for digging into this one. Because these are important stories. And these are the kind of stories that we need to look at when we're talking about the overall war on drugs and the providence that we give groups, like the DEA. That included stops along the way in VIP rooms of Caribbean strip joints, Amsterdam red light districts, and aboard a Colombian yacht that launched with plenty of booze, and more than a dozen prostitutes. And I'm sure there were no drugs on that ship. I'm sure that these great agents, who were working for the DEA, were not involved in any kind of drug use at all. That would just be absurd. We had free access to do whatever we wanted. The 48 year old Arizari told the AP in a series of interviews before beginning a 12 year federal prison sentence. We would generate money pickups in places we wanted to go. And once we got there, it was all about drinking in girls. So they were acting like the mafia. That's what they were. You know, when you're in the mafia, the Italian mafia, you have different crews. And these guys thought they had their own crew, basically, according to what Mr. Arizari has to say here. All this revelry, revelry was rooted, Arizari said, in a crushing realization among DEA agents around the world, that there's nothing they can do to make a dent in the drug war anyway. Well, who's been telling you that for months? And not just me, obviously. There's a lot of people out here who have been talking about this for way longer than I've been alive. The war on drugs has failed, folks. Okay, the DEA knows it. Your elected politicians know it. Everybody knows it. And the big joke is they continue going the way they're going because it's enriching people. And that's what it always comes down to. Where does that bag land? Follow the money and you'll have your answers. Only nominal concern was given to actually holding cases or stemming a record flow of illegal cocaine and opioids into the United States. That has driven more than 100,000 drug overdoses in a year. So what exactly are they doing? If you're not working to keep these drugs out of America, if you're not working to take these cartels down, then what's the point of even having the DEA? You can't win an unwinnable war. DEA knows this, and the agents know this. Here, as Ari said, there's so much dope leaving Colombia and there's so much money. We know we're not making a difference. The drug war is a game. It was a very fun game that we were playing. That's real nice, a fun game that causes so much death and destruction to regular folks. And now I'm not sitting here saying anyone forced anyone to do these drugs. Nobody did. People have to take some self responsibility. But as a society, well, it's all of our problem now. Have you taken a walk down the street in any major city lately? Because it's a fucking nightmare, folks. An absolute nightmare. And the DEA knows it. The government knows it. And they keep doing the same shit. And it's going to cost us, our relatives, our friends, and our loved ones. Here is Ari's story, which some former colleagues have attacked as a fictionalized attempt to reduce his sentence. Came in days of contrite, bitter, sometimes tearful interviews with the AP in the historic quarter of his native San Juan. It was much of the same account he gave the FBI in lengthy debriefings and sealed court papers obtained by the AP after he pleaded guilty in 2020 to 19 corruption counts, including money laundering and bank fraud. So the DEA will have you believe that he's a rogue agent and everything he's saying is BS. I don't believe it for a minute. Yeah, the agents in the DEA, they're above reproach, huh? Sure they are. But years after betraying, Arizari as a rogue agent who acted alone, the US Justice Department investigators have, in recent months, begun closely following his confessional road map, questioning as many as two dozen current and former DEA agents and prosecutors accused by Arizari of turning a blind eye to his flagrant abuses and sometimes joining in. So you mean to tell me this was the only guy with his hand in the bag, huh? Yep, because that's how this works. One guy all alone, some DEA agent was the mastermind with the whole entire skim here. With little fanfare, the inquiry is focused on jet-setting former partner of Arizari and several other trusted DEA colleagues assigned to international money laundering. And at least three current and former federal prosecutors have faced questioning about Arizari's raucous parties, including one still in a senior role in Miami, another who appeared on TV's The Bachelorette, and a former Ohio prosecutor who was confirmed to serve as the US Attorney in Cleveland this year before abruptly backing out for unspecified family reasons. Oh yeah, family reasons, huh? Had nothing to do with the fact that you had your hand in the cookie jar with Arizari, huh? Nothing to do with that at all. But what the government will do is they'll just say, "Oh, family reasons." And they don't feel like they have a responsibility to be transparent with you and let you know, you know, the person paying the bills, the taxpayer, that this shit is happening. We need full transparency from our government, and if we have corrupt officials or corrupt agents, it needs to be dealt with. The expanding investigation comes as the nation's premier narcotics law enforcement agency has been rattled by repeated misconduct scandals in its 46 agent-hundred, 46 hundred agent ranks, from one who took bribes from traffickers to another accused of leaking confidential information to law enforcement targets. But by far the biggest black eye is Arizari, whose wholesale betrayal of the badge is at heart of an ongoing external review of the DEA's sprawling foreign operations in 69 countries. Now think about that for a minute. The DEA's in 69 countries around the world, folks. What the hell are they doing in 69 countries? And who's in charge of the oversight? When's the last time we had some commission for public consumption about all of this? So what are these dudes doing in all of these countries? Why are we involved in all of these countries? And how is it that people don't see that the war on drugs is an absolute scam? 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Chumbakocino has all your favorite social casino games, like spin slots, bingo, and solitaire that you can play for free for a chance to redeem some serious prizes. So hop on to Chumbakocino.com now and live the Chumbalife. Sponsored by Chumbakocino. No purchase necessary. VGW Group. Void we're prohibited by law. 18+ terms and conditions apply. The once standout agent has accused some former colleagues in the DEA's Miami-based Group 4 of lining their pockets and falsifying records to replenish a slush fund used for foreign jaunts over the better part of a decade until his resignation in 2018. So what they would do is they would seize money and then they would use that seized money to replenish these slush funds. And it's all legal, by the way, the government can seize money from drug dealers and then use it for the police department or whatever. So they would seize this money and instead of using it to go after drug dealers or use it to, you know, whatever law enforcement procedures they have, they would instead go on these trips and use it basically as a slush fund to go on adventures. He accused the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent of accepting a $20,000 bribe. And recently the FBI Office of Inspector General and the Federal Prosecutor interviewed Irazari in prison about other federal employees and allegations. He raised about misconduct in maritime interdictions. So this dude's unloading and he's ratting on everybody. So whoever was involved with him as far as people in the DEA, they should be running for cover. And it's going to be interesting to see the fallout from all of this. It was too outlandish for them to believe this was actually happening. Irazari said of investigators, the indictment paints a picture of me, the corrupt agent, that did this entire scheme. But it doesn't talk about the rest of the DEA. I wasn't the mastermind. The federal judge in Tampa, who sentenced, Irazari last year, seemed to agree, saying other agents corrupted by the allure of easy money, need to be investigated. This has to stop. Judge Charlene Honeywell told prosecutors, adding, Irazari was the one who got caught, but it's apparent to this court that there are others. So how many times are we going to hear that in court and then not see any other action? We heard it with Epstein and his co-conspirators and we're hearing it here. So you know that this is occurring, the courts know it's occurring, but nobody else is getting nailed? Ask yourselves, why is that? The Justice Department declined to comment. A DEA spokesperson said, Jose Irazari is a criminal who violated his oath as a federal law enforcement officer and violated the trust of the American people. That's rich coming from the DEA, considering they're violating our trust on a regular basis. Over the past 16 months, DEA has worked vigorously to further strengthen our discipline and hiring policies to ensure the integrity and effectiveness of our essential work. Look, the war on drugs is a failed war and when there's this kind of money, people are going to be corrupt. That's just how it works. You can have all of your hiring policies changed and you can raise the standards and you're still going to have people who are going to take the bribes. AP was able to corroborate some, but not all, of Irazari's accusations through thousands of confidential law enforcement records and dozens of interviews with those familiar with his claims and the ongoing investigation, including several who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss them. So there is no doubt that there is more behind the scenes here and that more is going on and that other agents were surely involved, but the problem is getting people to speak on the record because they're scared of the blowback. The probe is focused, in part, on George Zombaros, one of Irazari's former partners who traveled overseas extensively for money laundering investigations. I mean, who better than to get in on the money laundering than the guy investigating it, huh? Irazari told AP that Zombaros enjoyed unfettered access to so-called commission funds and improperly tapped the money for personal purchases and unwarranted trips, using names of people that didn't exist in DEA reports justifying the excesses. It's almost like when you're working in a casino, you have all of these high rollers, all of these big players, and if one of your friends comes and they want to get a comp, you're right to comp in that guy's name. Basically what they're saying here, we'll just write up a report, make a fake person, and that way we can justify pulling all of these funds out of this slush fund. Zombaros remained a DEA agent even after he was arrested and briefly detained on allegations of sexual assault during a trip to Madrid in 2018. He resigned only after being stripped of his gun badge and security clearance for invoking his Fifth Amendment rights to stay silent in late 2019 when the same prosecutor who charged Irazari some of them to testify before a federal grand jury in Tampa. And he kept his job, think about that for a minute, just think about that. This isn't working at Macy's, you're not working at the local car wash, you're a DEA agent, you have to live to a different standard or you should have your gun and badge taken. Authorities are so focused on Zombaros that they also subpoenaed his brother, a Florida wedding photographer who traveled and partied around the world with DEA agents and even granted him immunity to induce his cooperation. But Michael Zombaros also refused to testify and has been jailed outside Tampa since March for civil contempt, an exceedingly rare pressure tactic that underscores the rising temperature of the investigation, and this is certainly a tactic that they'll use. They'll ice you, they'll put you in jail on a contempt charge, hoping that you'll turn and tell them what they want to hear. For sure, this is definitely something they'll do. I didn't do anything wrong, but I'm not going to talk about my brother, Michael Zombaros told AP in a jailhouse interview. I'm basically being held as a political prisoner of the FBI, they want to coerce me into cooperating. And again, that is, I don't put that past the FBI or the DEA. This is the same kind of thing they do all the time, and they'll try and put immense pressure on you to rat on your family, your friends, if they feel like they can get a conviction that way. But when we're looking at this overall case here, it looks like somebody needs to be pressuring the DEA and forcing them to come correct and be upfront about what's going on here, because as usual, they're not. All right, folks, that's going to do it for part one. Part two is on the way. If you'd like to contact me, you can do that at bobbykapoochie@protonmail.com. That's b-o-b-b-y-c-a-p-u-c-i@protonmail.com. You can also find me on Twitter at b-o-b-b-y_c-a-p-u-c-i. The link that I discussed can be found in the description box. Owning a rental property sounds like a dream until you realize how much work goes into getting it ready. Determine a competitive rent price, market the property, schedule the showing screen tenants, draft the lease at a rent collection, handle maintenance request, maintenance communication. Whew! Sound complicated? Renters' warehouse is here to take the hard work off your rental to-do list. Qualify tenants? Check. Rent collection? Check. Maintenance coordination? You got it. Go to runnerswarehouse.com for a free rental analysis to find out how much your home can rent for. 303-974-9444. Because from now on, the only thing you need on your to-do list is to call runnerswarehouse. It is Ryan Seacrest here. There was a recent social media trend which consisted of flying on a plane with no music, no movies, no entertainment. But a better trend would be going to chumbakacino.com. It's like having a mini social casino in your pocket. Chumbakacino has over a hundred online casino-style games all absolutely free. It's the most fun you can have online and on a plane. 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