Right Wing Media's New 'Fast and Furious' Authority Was in Jail During 'Fast and Furious' Timothy Johnson - Media Matters
go to original January 17, 2014

Jesus Vicente Zambada Niebla, aka "El Vicentillo" (Azteca)

Right-wing media are citing the claims of a high-level Mexican drug cartel figure, who faces life in prison for narcotrafficking, to advance its latest conspiracy theory about a failed federal law enforcement operation to stop the flow of guns into Mexico.

According to Vicente Zambada-Niebla, a high-level Sinaloa Cartel figure known as "El Vicentillo" who will soon face trial in Chicago, the purpose of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' (ATF) Operation Fast and Furious was to arm the Sinaloa Cartel so that it would have the firepower to destroy rival drug cartels. Zambada-Niebla's testimony is not credible for a number of reasons, the most glaring being that he was arrested in March 2009, more than six months before the ATF even conceived of Fast and Furious.

Despite this red flag, Zambada-Niebla's claims have been repeatedly promoted on the National Rifle Association's radio and television shows, by Fox News contributor Katie Pavlich, and throughout the fringe conservative blogosphere.

For years right-wing media have attempted to make Fast and Furious a major Obama administration scandal. Beginning in October 2009 through its termination in January 2011, ATF agents involved in Operation Fast and Furious allowed guns to cross the United States-Mexico border with the hopes of building arms trafficking cases against high-level drug cartel figures.

Read the rest at Media Matters

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