That's right about when I smelled the stench.
And I believe the term is deja vu.
FLASHBACK:
"Stolen oil flowing north to the US; Mexico fights smuggling rings" by Martha Mendoza, Associated Press | August 11, 2009
Pffft!
That's ONE HELL of a SMUGGLING OPERATION!
Sure they aren't biting off more than they can drink?
MEXICO CITY - US refineries bought millions of dollars worth of oil siphoned from Mexican government pipelines and smuggled across the border, in some cases by drug cartels expanding their reach.
At least one US oil executive has pleaded guilty to a conspiracy that involved what prosecutors said was about $2 million in stolen Mexican oil, US Justice Department officials confirmed.
Today, the US Department of Homeland Security is scheduled to hand over $2.4 million to Mexico’s tax administration. It is the first batch of money seized during a joint investigation into smuggled oil that authorities expect to lead to more arrests and seizures.
“The United States is working with the Mexican government on the theft of oil,’’ said Nancy Herrera, spokeswoman for the US attorney’s office in Houston. “It’s an ongoing investigation, with one indictment so far.’’
Donald Schroeder, president of Houston-based Trammo Petroleum, is scheduled to be sentenced in December after pleading guilty in May. Trammo, a small firm, profited about $150,000 in the scheme, in which various US companies hauled stolen Mexican petroleum products across the border in trucks and barges, according to court records....
So US OIL COMPANIES are DEALING DRUGS now, huh? Sigh.
The shit we are fed as news is thoroughly depressing. It is ALL SHIT!
In Mexico, federal Police Commissioner Rodrigo Esparza said the Zetas, a fierce drug gang aligned with the Gulf cartel, used false import documents to smuggle tanker loads of oil to US refineries. Earlier this year, the Mexican government froze 149 bank accounts after tracking more than $46 million in transfers tied to the Zeta theft. The losses continue at a record rate, according to Mexico’s state oil monopoly Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex.
In a surprising public acknowledgment, President Felipe Calderon of Mexico said last week that drug cartels have extended their operations into the theft of oil, Mexico’s leading source of foreign income.
I'm really getting annoyed at propaganda now.
That's why the posts are tightening up and I'm moving on.
Oil finances about 40 percent of the national budget. “These are Mexican resources, and we do not have to sit back or turn a blind eye,’’ Calderon said. “This is our national heritage, and we must defend it.’’
Yes, DEFEND the OIL with your LIFE!!!!!
From my SUNDAY LOCAL:
"Mexico nabs gas thieves; US refineries implicated
MEXICO CITY — They bleed the fuel lines just about anywhere, drug cartel members and other criminals, sucking millions of dollars of Mexican petroleum from makeshift taps hidden in sheds or on remote desert stretches, with thousands of gallons ending up in U.S. refineries.
“Bullshit!”
Mexican police busted gas thieves twice this week....
Globe?
But those busts will do little to plug a stream of stolen petroleum products, millions of dollars worth of which is smuggled across the border and sold to U.S. refineries, according to the U.S. Justice Department.
??
The bigger the lie.... why the Globe ignored it?
While Mexican authorities try to patch the leaks, U.S. officials are tracking proceeds from various Texas bank accounts and taking a close look at several Texas companies to quell the theft at their end. To date, the companies identified are small fuel distributors, not the major U.S. refiners....
On Tuesday U.S. officials handed their Mexican counterparts a separate $2.4 million refund check... to partially compensate Pemex for its losses....
Unbelievable!!!
When is the US GOVERNMENT going to COMPENSATE YOU, taxpayers?
Mexico's federal police commissioner, Rodrigo Esparza, has said the Zetas, a fierce drug gang aligned with the Gulf cartel, used false import documents to smuggle at least $46 million worth of oil in tankers to unidentified U.S. refineries. Mexico froze 149 bank accounts this year in connection with that crime. U.S. federal officials say further arrests are expected, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have served 10 federal search warrants on bank accounts in Texas....
Do you know HOW TIRED I AM of S*** DRUG WAR FOOLEYS!!
HEY! the GOVERNMENT is the BIGGEST DRUG DEALER and MONEY LAUNDERER in the world the BANKS LIVE of the JEWISH CRIME SYNDICATE DOUGH!
Just LEGALIZE the STUFF, collect taxes on it, END THE STRANGLEHOLD of the "VIOLENT DRUG CARTELS."
John Auers, senior vice president at Turner Mason & Co., a Dallas-based petroleum consultancy, said it's unlikely any major U.S. refiner knowingly bought stolen products....
It is STILL a CRIME! Receiving stolen property.
Auers noted that stolen gasoline would be even more difficult to sell because imports are heavily regulated.
Which makes you QUESTION the WHOLE DAMN THING!!!!!
"Any reputable refiner ... would have to first have detailed paperwork from the importer," he said. "I have a hard time believing any refiner in the U.S. would not be able to see through stolen gasoline or stolen diesel."
Yeah, it is pretty clear when it comes out of the pump.
--more--"
What else is the GLOBE LYING ABOUT and/or CONCEALING?
"Theft of oil by drug traffickers is a blow to Mexico government; Portion was sold across border to US companies" by Steve Fainaru, Washington Post | December 15, 2009
I'm sorry, but I can no longer trust the Washington Post because it is the CIA 's newspaper.
MALTRATA, Mexico - Drug traffickers employing high-tech drills, miles of rubber hose, and a fleet of stolen tanker trucks have siphoned more than $1 billion worth of oil from Mexico’s pipelines over the past two years, in a vast and audacious conspiracy that is bleeding the national treasury, according to US and Mexican law enforcement officials and the state-run oil company.
Oh, is that ever IN YOUR FACE, America?!!
Related: Drug money saved banks in global crisis, claims UN advisor
Yes, I AM TIRED of the DOUBLE-CROSSING DOUBLE-DEALING and the S*** FOOLEY INSULTS and LIES, how could you tell?
Using sophisticated smuggling networks, the traffickers have transported a portion of the pilfered petroleum across the border to sell to US companies, some of which knew that it was stolen, according to court documents and interviews with American officials involved in an expanding investigation of oil services firms in Texas. The widespread theft of Mexico’s most vital national resource by criminal organizations represents a costly new front in President Felipe Calderon’s war against the drug cartels, and it shows how the traffickers are rapidly evolving from traditional narcotics smuggling.
Time to LEGALIZE the DRUGS and PUT THEM OUT of BUSINESS.
Oil theft has been a persistent problem for the state-run Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, but the robbery increased sharply after Calderon launched his war against the cartels shortly after taking office in December 2006. Authorities said they have traced much of the oil rustling to the Zetas, a criminal organization founded by former military commandos. Although the Zetas initially served as a protection arm of the powerful Gulf cartel, they now call their own shots and dominate criminal enterprise in the oil-rich states of Veracruz and Tamaulipas.
C'mon, readers, are you really going to fall for these half-truth cover stories?
“The Zetas are a parallel government,’’ said Eduardo Mendoza Arellano, a federal lawmaker who heads a national committee on energy. “They practically own vast stretches of the pipelines, from the highway to the very door of the oil companies.’’
The Zetas earn millions of dollars by “taxing’’ the oil pipelines - organizing the theft themselves or taking a cut from anyone who does the stealing, according to Mexican authorities.
Readers, why am I finding it difficult to discern between organized crime and government? Both loot and kill you.
The US Treasury Department this summer designated two Zeta commanders as narcotics “kingpins,’’ which allows authorities to seize assets. The Zetas often work with former Pemex employees, according to Ramon Pequeno Garcia, chief of antidrug operations at Mexico’s Public Security Ministry. The former employees “are highly skilled people who have the technical knowledge to extract oil from the pipelines. They are now under the control of the Zetas,’’ Pequeno said.
How much s*** do you need RUBBED in your FACE, American newspaper readers?
This year, executives of four Texas companies pleaded guilty to felony charges of conspiring to receive and sell millions of dollars worth of stolen petroleum condensate. US law enforcement officials said in interviews that they have no evidence showing that the men were connected to drug traffickers....
No, no, not the American businessman, no.
In August, US authorities presented the Mexican government with an oversize check for $2.4 million as a repayment....
YOUR TAX DOLLARS for WHAT EXACTLY, America?
Because MEXICAN CRIMINALS SOLD STOLEN OIL to U.S. COMPANIES?!
Just insert that gas pump in the pooper and save yourself the trouble.
To steal the oil, Mexican authorities said, thieves sometimes use safe houses from which they build extensive tunnel networks leading to the pipelines. They fabricate powerful drills that enable them to puncture the highly pressurized steel pipes and extract the oil without causing spills or suspicious drops in pressure.
Yeah, whatever, MSM.
--more--"
Rule of thumb, readers:
The more outrageous and ridiculous a MSM story sounds, all's the more likely it is a huge, rotten, rancid, fetid, steaming, stinking pile of you-know what!
Here's one place the drug war is not touching at least:
ROSARITO BEACH, Mexico - In recent years, the tranquility has been eclipsed by battles between the Mexican government and organized crime. Military trucks brimming with heavily armed soldiers have rumbled through the manicured grounds of luxury developments, and gunmen pepper local police stations with automatic-weapon fire. Baja California’s most notorious crime boss once eluded authorities by running through a beach popular with American retirees.
Since 2008, more than 1,000 Mexicans in northern Baja California have died in drug violence. Rarely does a week go by without news of another person being beheaded or dissolved in acid or chopped up and left in a parked car.
Yeah, I guess that ISN'T NEWS which is why I'm constantly Xing out crap stories in my paper!
But for most expatriates, the violence seems as distant as headlines from Iraq.
The IN-YOUR-FACE INSULTS NEVER END, 'eh, Globe readers?
Along the 70-mile stretch of coastline from Tijuana to Ensenada, 14,000 Americans live in a bubble of relative security, many in gated developments or high-rise condominiums where they run a greater risk of being sideswiped by a golf cart or a wave-tossed surfer than staring down an AK-47-toting drug trafficker. Not that expatriates are oblivious to the drug war. Bill Kirchhoff, former city manager of Redondo Beach, Calif., says he suspects some of the boaters speeding by his seaside house at Playa La Mision are drug traffickers. But he’s not planning to move back to the States any time soon, saying a few precautions can keep people out of harm’s way....
The curving, craggy coastline of northern Baja California, a one-hour drive from San Diego, was once a popular getaway for Southern California residents who came for the solitude and the surf.
In recent years, the coastal stretch has taken on an upscale look with condominiums, spacious homes, bed-and-breakfasts, and spas rising on bluffs. In the nearby Guadalupe Valley, hacienda-style inns and wineries sit amid vineyards blanketing the tawny hills.
Oh, to have the world as your oyster, 'eh, foreclosed upon and unemployed Amurkn?
The area attracts a range of Americans. Young telecommuters and Internet entrepreneurs live alongside artists and urban refugees in hillside villages. Retirees enjoy five-star luxury resorts with vanishing-edge pools, private beaches, and shuttle service to the border. For less than $300,000, a spacious home on an 18-hole golf course at Baja Mar can be purchased. Ocean-view houses with balconies and gardens can be had for $400,000.
“Look at this. I can’t live in La Jolla [Calif.] like this,’’ Richard Cargill, 66, said as he took in the ocean views from his deck at the Palacio Del Mar resort. The retired mortgage banker paid $490,000 for the 2,300-square-foot condominium one year ago. “I call this the smart man’s San Diego.’’
Yes, LIFE is great if you are a BANKSTER!!!!
********************************
From the balcony of their home one row back from the ocean, the Dawsons can see dolphins dancing in the waves and pelicans gliding low over the surf break. Carol keeps watch for migrating whales; Bob pours his margarita mix for neighbors....
For the Dawsons, the appeal was early retirement. Bob, who used to own a paper packaging company, and Carol, a former flight attendant, cut their expenses 30 percent when they moved to Baja from Santa Ana, Calif. They live in the Las Gaviotas development about 6 miles south of Rosarito Beach, where 298 homes sit behind high walls and visitors must pass through a gate manned by security guards. There’s a clubhouse, a pool, tennis courts, and a promenade lined with minimansions that overlook a strand dotted with beach huts.
Five years ago, anticipating visitors, the Dawsons expanded their house, adding two bedrooms, a bathroom, and an elevator. They started a property management business catering to Americans who own second homes in the area. Then the troubles started. The Mexican government’s crackdown against organized crime struck Baja California in 2007. Late that year, heavily armed men dressed as police pulled over a San Diego-area family on the coastal road.
Sure they were not FORMER MILITARY COMMANDOS?!
They pointed guns, pocketed cash and jewelry, and stole the family’s truck and trailer. That attack, along with the robbery of a surfer and the rape of his girlfriend on an isolated beach, was repeatedly mentioned in media accounts of Baja California violence. To the Dawsons, the recycled reports give the distorted impression that Americans are constantly under siege.
I know the feeling from reading a Boston Glob everyday.
Media coverage of “a shootout in the States lasts one day,’’ Bob said. “We have a shootout here, and it lasts for years.’’
Well, it depends on the shootout and its agenda-pushing value.
--more--"
