Quickie Borderline Psychosis Upate- Caracas Connection? Fugitive Venezuelan Judge Talking to DEA; Cartels Blamed for Michoacan Arson Attacks

VENEZUELA- A fugitive judge who was dismissed from Venezuela's Supreme Court on charges of corruption and ties to Colombian drug cartels has fled the country and is reportedly talking to the DEA while in hiding.

Eladio Aponte, a former justice on Venezuela's supreme court, has been accused of giving lenient sentences to drug traffickers and ties to Venezuelan drug kingpin Walid Makled [aka 'The Turk']. Makled was arrested in Colombia and in 2011 was extradited to stand trial in Venezuela. The reputed kingpin claimed before his trial that he could provide conclusive evidence that members of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez's inner circle were involved in drug smuggling, but would only talk to American prosecutors.

In recent years, the United States has accused the Chavez regime of turning a blind eye to the drug smuggling that takes place in Venezuela. However, detailed testimony from Aponte could pave the way for a number of indictments against Hugo Chavez's domestic allies.

Aponte is one of six special witnesses cooperating with the DEA in its investigation of Venezuelan government ties to trafficking, said a former U.S. government official familiar with the situation.

The case is being handled by Group 959, a unit of DEA's Special Operations Division, according to sources with direct knowledge of the case including a former law enforcement source.

Group 959, known as the Bilateral Investigations Unit, was set up to target traffickers overseas plotting to import cocaine to the United States, even if no shipments actually arrive.

David Tinsley, a retired DEA veteran who now runs his own private intelligence agency, said Group 959 would only be involved in the Aponte case if the government felt he could deliver strong evidence.

"In the hands of 959, he would become a very effective tool," he said. "They must have wanted Aponte bad. (The division) doesn't go on fishing expeditions, they are very surgical. They know who they are going after and why."

Although Aponte has reportedly been tied to Makled, another judge who left Venezuela after a dispute with Chavez's allies in 2006 backed Aponte's claims of a judicial system pressured to give lenient sentences to criminals portected by the regime. Aponte reportedly fled to Costa Rica where he met with DEA agents before arriving in the USA on a chartered government flight in April.

Cocaine grown in Colombia is often refined and smuggled to Venezuela en route to Europe and West Africa. A number of airstrips used by drug smuggling flights in Venezuela are reportedly under military protection.

There are reports of a new cartel, dubbed the "Cartel of the Suns", after the stars worn by the Venezuelan generals who are thought to be complicit in the trade.

Colombian intelligence learned of the cartel from Feris Farid Dominguez, who was deported from Venezuela in January to face charges of drug trafficking. He told how he met senior figures in President Hugo Chavez's security forces to arrange drug shipments through Venezuela.

"The reason that some military men have become involved in drugs trafficking is because they have not succeeded in getting into Chavez's close circle so as to rob the state," read extracts from Feris's statement. "They have found their extra money in drugs trafficking."

The most senior Colombian drugs baron now in custody, awaiting extradition to America, has told investigators that Venezuela offers smugglers relative immunity.

"Venezuela is a temple of drugs smuggling," said Hernando Gomez Bustamante, alias "Scratch", who had a $5 million bounty on his head.

British officials believe that Venezuelan air force bases are being used by aircraft carrying drugs. Small planes are typically used to carry consignments on the relatively short journey from Colombia.

If they weren't Flaming Hot Cheetos before, they sure are now!

MICHOACAN- An underboss for the Caballeros Templar [i.e. Knights Templar] cartel is in custody after a number of warehouses belonging to PepsiCo's [NYSE- PEP] Mexican subsidiary were torched in central Mexico last week.

Five Sabritas warehouses and vehicle lots were attacked Friday and Saturday in the Mexican states of Michoacan and Guanajuato. Witnesses in one case described armed, masked men who tossed firebombs and torched dozens of the company's distribution trucks and some warehouses.

According to the president of Mexico's Business Coordinating Council, the firebombings represent a step up for the cartels who normally target much smaller local businesses throughout Mexico for extortion. Although some business leaders in Mexico claim that Friday's arson attacks are the first such attacks directed at a multinational corporation by the cartels since President Felipe Calderon deployed the Mexican military to crack down on the drug cartels.

Alejandro Hope, a security analyst and former official in Mexico's CISEN intelligence agency, said it was the first attack he could recall against a transnational company in Mexico. Even in Mexico's most violent city, Ciudad Juarez, the warring drug gangs have largely left alone the many foreign-operated assembly plants known as maquiladoras.

"In Ciudad Juarez, they practically never tried to blackmail the maquiladoras," Hope said. "They focused more on small businesses ... they are easier targets, and with an industrial firm, one doesn't know exactly who to blackmail. It's not as clear who signed the checks or controls the checkbook."

In a statement issued Sunday, PepsiCo said five distribution centers were damaged, but no one was injured in the attacks and the amount of the damages had not been calculated.

The company appeared to respond to emails that circulated in Michoacan, home of the Knights Templar drug cartel, suggesting the attacks were revenge for the unproven allegation that prosecutors used Sabritas' extensive fleet of delivery trucks to gather intelligence.

"We repeat that in accordance with our code of conduct, all of our operations are carried out in the current regulatory framework and our vehicles and facilities are used exclusively to carry our products to our customer and clients," the company said. The company would not say whether that statement responded to the spying allegations.

Hope said such a spying scenario sounded unlikely, if not impossible. Sabritas employs more than 70,000 people and has a nationwide delivery fleet of about 14,500 trucks that are a common sight even in the most dangerous and remote parts of Mexico.

Hope said the attacks may not represent a new stage in drug gang extortions, but rather stem from the peculiar characteristics of the Knights Templar, a pseudo-religious cartel that split from Michoacan's La Familia cartel in 2011.

Started in 1943, Sabritas distributes soda, juice and snacks throughout Mexico. By the late 1960s, the company was brought out by PepsiCo. An April 2011 Reuters article highlighted the difficulties that some mining companies have had operating south of the border in cartel-held territory, with gunmen raiding remote mining sites for equipment and ore. In recent years, well organized criminal gangs have also taken to raiding tractor trailers and freight trains. However, in those instances the theives appeared to be more interested in helping themselves to the goods from the mines, railways and tractor trailers than extorting money from the companies involved.

The Caballeros Templar was formed in late 2011 after the senior leadership of the La Familia Michoacana cartel were killed or arrested by the Mexican government after a series of raids on La Familia strongholds. Within weeks, some of the remaining members of a now fragmented La Familia reconstituted themselves as the Knights Templar and moved into territory that had been previously operated by La Familia.