Thread by @themarketswork

1) My latest @EpochTimes String of Indictments by DOJ Point to Multiple Global Operations
theepochtimes.com/string-of-indi…

2) The Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces program (OCDETF) is an unusually broad coalition that, as noted by former AG Jeff Sessions, “brings together just about every federal law enforcement agency there is.

It’s the Swiss Army knife of law enforcement.”

3) The program’s strategy, which currently operates under the direction of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, aims to “focus federal drug resources on reducing the flow of illicit drugs and drug proceeds by identifying and targeting the major trafficking organizations."

4) Until early January 2018, the OCDETF operated under the direction of DOJ official Bruce Ohr.

On Dec. 7, 2017, Ohr was demoted and stripped of his title as associate deputy attorney general.

A month later Ohr had been removed as the head of the OCDETF, as well.

5) Ohr was demoted and stripped of his responsibilities after it was learned that the FBI used Ohr as a conduit for unofficial information from former MI6 spy Christopher Steele.

But Ohr’s troubles don’t end there.

6) Ohr, “as the head of OCDETF, was directly involved with Project Cassandra, the interagency investigation spearheaded by the DEA that tracked a massive international drug and money-laundering scheme allegedly run by Hezbollah.”

7) Project Cassandra was the subject of a lengthy, detailed, and highly critical Politico report which examined how the Obama administration may have derailed a “campaign targeting drug trafficking by the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah.”
politico.com/interactives/2…

8) The investigation traced its way to the “innermost circle of Hezbollah and its state sponsors in Iran.”

“Hezbollah’s network moved metric ton quantities of cocaine [to] launder drug proceeds on a global scale, and procure weapons and … explosives.”

9) It was at this point that roadblocks began to appear:

“As Project Cassandra reached higher into the hierarchy of the conspiracy, Obama administration officials threw an increasingly insurmountable series of roadblocks in its way."

10) Katherine Bauer, a former Treasury official in the Obama administration, testified to the House:

“Under the Obama administration … these [Hezbollah-related] investigations were tamped down, for fear of rocking the boat with Iran and jeopardizing the nuclear deal.”

11) Ohr’s 1st demotion occurred on Dec. 7, 2017, following the release of that Politico report.

On Dec. 22, Sessions announced that the allegations in the Politico report would be reviewed.

Ohr was removed as OCDETF head ~ a week later.

12) Days after Ohr was removed as the head of the OCDETF in early January 2018, Sessions announced the creation of the Hezbollah Financing and Narcoterrorism Team (HFNT).

13) On Oct. 15, 2018, Sessions designated five groups as the nation’s top transnational organized-crime threats:

• MS-13
• Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion
• the Sinaloa Cartel
• Clan del Golfo
• Lebanese Hezbollah

Sessions singled out Hezbollah for additional focus.

14) Sessions had, to this point, been the man directing the OCDETF’s efforts.

Concurrent with his Oct. 15th announcement, Sessions appointed Rosenstein to lead the new transnational task force and direct OCDETF’s actions.

15) Sessions had been leading efforts on MS-13.

Rosenstein's appointment came after Trump’s Oct. 8 affirmation following their meeting on Air Force One.

This hinted at a pre-planned succession occurring in the weeks prior to Sessions’s formal resignation, which occurred Nov. 7

16) Efforts by the OCDETF continue.

Immediately following Sessions’s October press conference, 15 indictments, along with new measures aimed at destroying the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion, were unveiled Oct. 16, 2018.

17) Money-laundering & fraud activities are also being pursued.

On Oct. 31, 2018, a “former executive director at the Venezuelan state-owned oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA), pleaded guilty for his role in a billion-dollar international scheme to launder funds."

18) Notably, the Politico report highlighted Venezuela’s prominent role in the flow of drugs from Hezbollah:

“In Venezuela, President Hugo Chavez was personally working with the then-Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and Hezbollah on drug trafficking and other activities."

19) On Dec. 4, 2018, U.S. prosecutors announced criminal charges against four people, including a former lawyer for Mossack Fonseca, the firm highlighted by the leak of the Panama Papers.

This followed news that German authorities had raided the offices of Deutsche Bank.

20) We'd previously discussed the Deutsche Bank (& Danske Bank) investigation in an earlier article:
theepochtimes.com/the-common-thr…

21) On Dec. 5, 2018, The AP reported that prosecutors were ramping up their investigation of the Podesta Group and Mercury Public Affairs.

The same day, it was announced that the CFO of Chinese telecomm giant Huawei has been arrested in Canada on request of U.S. authorities.

22) On Jan. 4, the DOJ handed down a significant indictment on the former Attorney General for the state of Nayarit, Mexico, Edgar Veytia

Veytia pleaded guilty to one count of international conspiracy to manufacture and distribute heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, and marijuana

23) Meanwhile, the trial of infamous drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán continues—and as it does, the level of complicity throughout the entirety of the Mexican government, as well as elements within the U.S. government, is gradually being revealed.

24) Jan. 3, the son of Chapo’s old partner, Vicente Zambada Niebla, testified:

“He told the jurors stories not only about the drug lord’s operations in Mexico, Honduras, and Belize, but also about his suppliers, distributors, bodyguards, assassins, cousins, brothers, and sons."

25) “He also said that his father routinely bribed a military officer who once served as a personal guard to Mexico’s former president, Vicente Fox.”

In 2007, Zambada asked his father and El Chapo for permission to retire from the cartel.

26) What happened next surprised even him:

“Mr. Guzmán made an astonishing proposal: He offered to reach out to his ‘contacts’ in the Drug Enforcement Administration and see if they would meet with the young man.

27) “American authorities have acknowledged that...Mr. Zambada sat down with agents from the D.E.A. at a clandestine meeting in Mexico.”

Zambada’s lawyer noted:

“The United States government entered into a conspiracy with one of the largest drug cartels in the world.”

28) These streams of indictments, although seemingly unrelated, are linked through commonalities in the borderless drug trade and money-laundering operations.

29) Hopefully, someone's asking Bruce Ohr some hard questions concerning Project Cassandra, the international drug trade, and U.S. government involvement during the Obama administration.

30) Note: This post owes a debt of gratitude to @wakeywakey16 who brought the Jan 4, 2019 indictment to my attention and pushed me to do an article.

One of a group of great detail researchers out there who definitely deserves a follow.

31) All great detail research accounts:

@2xwide_dreaming
@actual_chaos
@CarrollQuigley1
@codyave
@DawsonSField
@GTS_Watch
@JarradKushner
@Joestradamus91
@Knowita47918362
@nick_weil
@RadGeekpartduex
@SeekerOTL
@sethjlevy
@smc12256
@ThunderB
@wakeywakey16
@walkafyre

/End

Inevitably I leave off some I meant to include.

Add to the detail research list:

@langdaleca
@Larry_Beech
@MonsieurAmerica
@oldmanluvsmineo

There are others. Following these will lead you to them.

No disrespect intended to those I've inadvertently missed.