House of Death, DEA Agent Leonhart and an Obama nomination

1. February 2010 by admin.

It’s been more than a year since Obama took office and his administration has been slow to fill top cabinet posts throughout the government. Many of Obama’s nominees failed the routine vetting process for a variety of reasons including; non-payment of taxes, communist leanings, illegally eavesdropping and now covering-up a 12-murder spree along the U.S./Mexico border.
Michele M. Leonhart is the acting administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration within the Department of Justice and the president is looking to make her post permanent.
“The skill and dedication of these individuals will make them valued additions to my administration, and I look forward to working with them in the coming months and years,” said Obama in a press release.
Special Agent Leonhart has served in senior management roles in DEA headquarters as well as many Field Divisions across the U.S. Leonhart was also DEA’s first female Special Agent in Charge (“SAC”) and later became the SAC for the third largest field division, the DEA office in Los Angeles. She first joined the DEA in 1980 as a Special Agent in Minneapolis and St. Louis until moving up the DEA’s supervisory ranks in 1988.
It all looks good on paper, but when the vetting process begins to unravel, Leonhart’s competency comes apart at the seams.

The House of Death in Juarez Mexico
The House of Death is synonymous with torture, murder, cover-up and corruption in the highest order. The single most concerning aspect of this isn’t the murder itself, but rather the fact that the U.S. government not only knew about the dozen murders, but it directed an ICE informant to continue to collect information regarding a big Juarez cartel player, Heriberto Santillan-Tabares.
It is worth pointing out that there was already a pending drug case on Santillan (a top lieutenant of the drug cartel in Juarez) before the murders happened at the House of Death. In the end, he would be sent to prison for more than 25 years on the original drug charges, not for the murders he authorized and was charged with in the superseding indictment of February 18, 2004.
The House of Death case was spiraling out of control in El Paso. In testimony at former DEA El Paso SAC Sandalio Gonzalez’ discrimination trial in federal court, current Acting Administrator Leonhart acknowledged under oath that she notified Attorney General Ashcroft about the House of Death, and then DEA Administrator Karen Tandy did so as well. Tandy also testified to the fact the House of Death case was being handled at the highest levels of the Department of Justice.

In the end it would be the SAC from the DEA office in El Paso who would blow the whistle on this little shop of horrors after fellow DEA agents, residing in Juarez, were put in harm’s way. This led to the complete evacuation of DEA personnel in Juarez. Keep reading

Posted in House of Death, 2010 elections, Blogroll | Print | No Comments »