Mexican authorities who issued an arrest warrant for a top financier of the Sinaloa drug cartel uncovered the connection between the cartel and the purchase of two jets that took off from St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport on separate dates. One jet was seized, and the other crashed in Mexico. A total of nearly 10 tons of cocaine was found onboard the jets, according to Mexican authorities.
Gulfstream II jet that crash landed in the Mexican Yucatan in late September carrying close to four tons of cocaine was part of an operation being carried out by a Department of Homeland Security agency, The operation, codenamed “Mayan Express,” is an ongoing effort spearheaded by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the sources claim. The information surfaced during a high-level meeting at DEA headquarters in mid-December, DEA sources familiar with the meeting assert.
The operation also appears to be badly flawed, the sources say, because it is being carried out unilaterally, by ICE and without the knowledge of the Mexican government.Mexican law enforcers subsequently apprehended the two pilots of the downed jet. Neither one of them appears to be a U.S. citizen, according to Mexican press accounts.
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