#Tag
“If these people were drug traffickers & deserving of death,” said Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX), a member of the House intelligence & foreign affairs cmtes, “how is it that you would pick them up & just let them go?”
…A WaPo investigation into the Oct 16 strike reveals a gap between the admin’s tough-on-trafficking rhetoric & its actions on the high seas. #Trump has declared a “non-international armed conflict” on drug cartels. The #WhiteHouse & the #Pentagon have likened traffickers to members of al-Qaeda & the Islamic State — terrorists who wield drugs as weapons to kill Americans.
But in transferring him to Ecuadorian custody, 3 officials said, #US forces didn’t provide any #evidence that could be used to detain him — no seized drugs, no phone or GPS records, no videos, none of the “intelligence” that led them to target his vessel.
On landing in Quito, US officials told the Ecuadorians that the transfer was a “humanitarian” repatriation, Ortega said.
Within hours, Tufiño was let go.
Tufiño was already a known trafficker: He had pleaded guilty in #US federal court to cocaine distribution conspiracy in 2021 & served >3 years in a US prison before he was deported home to #Ecuador last year. Now the US #military had picked him up amid the wreckage of a semisubmersible vessel — a “narco sub.”
In his gang-controlled hometown, Tufiño was known as Fresco Solo, a skilled navigator they alleged was recruited by criminals to smuggle drugs north.
In #Ecuador — a govt closely aligned with Trump on #counternarcotics enforcement — the admin had a willing partner, eager to learn what the alleged trafficker could tell them about his employers.
Tufiño, then 41, stepped off the #US #military plane at the Quito airport on the morning of Oct 18 in shackles, cut & bruised from the attack but walking on his own, acc/to Col. Carlos Ortega, then the director of anti-narcotics for Ecuador’s national police.
Andrés Fernando Tufiño Chila was 1 of only 2 people known to have survived a US strike on a vessel that the #Trump admin alleged was smuggling drugs from #SouthAmerica. Trump had described the Ecuadorian & a fellow survivor of the Oct 16 strike in the #Atlantic Ocean as “terrorists” who would be returned to their countries of origin “for detention & prosecution.”
The #US sank the alleged narco-terrorists’ boat — & let them go
In blowing up the vessel, destroying #evidence & repatriating the survivors, the US cut short a process that’s helped bring down traffickers.
Quito, #Ecuador — The police arrived at the airport prepared to arrest a drug trafficker — a mariner whose crewmates the US #military had just killed.
#law #Trump #idiocracy #KeystoneKops
https://wapo.st/4qq5ymS
“If these people were drug traffickers & deserving of death,” said Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX), a member of the House intelligence & foreign affairs cmtes, “how is it that you would pick them up & just let them go?”
…A WaPo investigation into the Oct 16 strike reveals a gap between the admin’s tough-on-trafficking rhetoric & its actions on the high seas. #Trump has declared a “non-international armed conflict” on drug cartels. The #WhiteHouse & the #Pentagon have likened traffickers to members of al-Qaeda & the Islamic State — terrorists who wield drugs as weapons to kill Americans.
But in transferring him to Ecuadorian custody, 3 officials said, #US forces didn’t provide any #evidence that could be used to detain him — no seized drugs, no phone or GPS records, no videos, none of the “intelligence” that led them to target his vessel.
On landing in Quito, US officials told the Ecuadorians that the transfer was a “humanitarian” repatriation, Ortega said.
Within hours, Tufiño was let go.
…A WaPo investigation into the Oct 16 strike reveals a gap between the admin’s tough-on-trafficking rhetoric & its actions on the high seas. #Trump has declared a “non-international armed conflict” on drug cartels. The #WhiteHouse & the #Pentagon have likened traffickers to members of al-Qaeda & the Islamic State — terrorists who wield drugs as weapons to kill Americans.
Tufiño was already a known trafficker: He had pleaded guilty in #US federal court to cocaine distribution conspiracy in 2021 & served >3 years in a US prison before he was deported home to #Ecuador last year. Now the US #military had picked him up amid the wreckage of a semisubmersible vessel — a “narco sub.”
In his gang-controlled hometown, Tufiño was known as Fresco Solo, a skilled navigator they alleged was recruited by criminals to smuggle drugs north.
But in transferring him to Ecuadorian custody, 3 officials said, #US forces didn’t provide any #evidence that could be used to detain him — no seized drugs, no phone or GPS records, no videos, none of the “intelligence” that led them to target his vessel.
On landing in Quito, US officials told the Ecuadorians that the transfer was a “humanitarian” repatriation, Ortega said.
Within hours, Tufiño was let go.
In #Ecuador — a govt closely aligned with Trump on #counternarcotics enforcement — the admin had a willing partner, eager to learn what the alleged trafficker could tell them about his employers.
Tufiño, then 41, stepped off the #US #military plane at the Quito airport on the morning of Oct 18 in shackles, cut & bruised from the attack but walking on his own, acc/to Col. Carlos Ortega, then the director of anti-narcotics for Ecuador’s national police.
Tufiño was already a known trafficker: He had pleaded guilty in #US federal court to cocaine distribution conspiracy in 2021 & served >3 years in a US prison before he was deported home to #Ecuador last year. Now the US #military had picked him up amid the wreckage of a semisubmersible vessel — a “narco sub.”
In his gang-controlled hometown, Tufiño was known as Fresco Solo, a skilled navigator they alleged was recruited by criminals to smuggle drugs north.
Andrés Fernando Tufiño Chila was 1 of only 2 people known to have survived a US strike on a vessel that the #Trump admin alleged was smuggling drugs from #SouthAmerica. Trump had described the Ecuadorian & a fellow survivor of the Oct 16 strike in the #Atlantic Ocean as “terrorists” who would be returned to their countries of origin “for detention & prosecution.”
In #Ecuador — a govt closely aligned with Trump on #counternarcotics enforcement — the admin had a willing partner, eager to learn what the alleged trafficker could tell them about his employers.
Tufiño, then 41, stepped off the #US #military plane at the Quito airport on the morning of Oct 18 in shackles, cut & bruised from the attack but walking on his own, acc/to Col. Carlos Ortega, then the director of anti-narcotics for Ecuador’s national police.
The #US sank the alleged narco-terrorists’ boat — & let them go
In blowing up the vessel, destroying #evidence & repatriating the survivors, the US cut short a process that’s helped bring down traffickers.
Quito, #Ecuador — The police arrived at the airport prepared to arrest a drug trafficker — a mariner whose crewmates the US #military had just killed.
#law #Trump #idiocracy #KeystoneKops
https://wapo.st/4qq5ymS
Andrés Fernando Tufiño Chila was 1 of only 2 people known to have survived a US strike on a vessel that the #Trump admin alleged was smuggling drugs from #SouthAmerica. Trump had described the Ecuadorian & a fellow survivor of the Oct 16 strike in the #Atlantic Ocean as “terrorists” who would be returned to their countries of origin “for detention & prosecution.”
The #US sank the alleged narco-terrorists’ boat — & let them go
In blowing up the vessel, destroying #evidence & repatriating the survivors, the US cut short a process that’s helped bring down traffickers.
Quito, #Ecuador — The police arrived at the airport prepared to arrest a drug trafficker — a mariner whose crewmates the US #military had just killed.
#law #Trump #idiocracy #KeystoneKops
https://wapo.st/4qq5ymS
BT Free is a non-profit organization founded by @ozoned@btfree.social . It's goal is for digital privacy rights, advocacy and consulting. This goal will be attained by hosting open platforms to allow others to seamlessly join the Fediverse on moderated instances or by helping others join the Fediverse.
