Baroque Vega person
also: Vega, Broke Vega, Mayan Vega, Mayan Jaguar
Explore in graph → Export claims (CSV) ↓
Related entities (most co-mentioned)
Colombiacountry · 15Columbiaplace · 15DEAintelligence service · 14David Tensleyperson · 14United Statescountry · 9Miamiplace · 9Greg Smithperson · 8Bogotáplace · 7Vega Lawsuitevent · 6Colombian National Policeorganization · 5Gulfstream II Crashevent · 5Devil's Carteloperation · 5North Valley Cartelorganization · 5Leo Aragonperson · 5U.S. Customs Serviceorganization · 5Kent Memoevent · 5Jose Nelson Urega Cardenasperson · 5Lawrence Castilloperson · 4Operation Mayan Jaguaroperation · 4Sandalio Sandy Gonzalezperson · 4Panama Canalplace · 4Unknown Book (referenced as 'the book' or 'the author')book · 4Mexicocountry · 3Panamacountry · 3
Claims (10)
Leo Aragon exposed
Baroque Vega book_quoted
“It is the final report of an investigation prompted by a memo written in 2000 by the chief of Bogota's DEA office, Leo Aragon. Aragon's memo and the related documents that the author found addressed to DEA chief of international operations …”
▶ The Colonel's Corner The Great Pretense Part 5 @ 50:49
Leo Aragon exposed
Baroque Vega book_quoted
“Handler. According to the Kent memo, the sources and other sources that spoke with the author, Erdogan wrote his accusatory memo targeting Vega not long after Tinsley had reported that DEA agents in Bogota were suspected of working with nar…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner The Great Pretense Part 5 @ 51:50
Baroque Vega spied_on
Sinaloa Cartel guest_asserted
“So it does appear that the Greg Smith with the millions of dollars of cocaine in the crashed aircraft is the CIA associated Smith pilot that had been used repeatedly by the CIA. Weird. It was during his work for the FBI and DEA in Latin Ame…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner The Great Pretense Part 8 @ 12:32
Baroque Vega recruited
North Valley Cartel book_quoted
“The planned program was extremely successful. Who wouldn't want to do it? It gives you carte blanche to be a narco-trafficker. All in all, Vega convinced and successfully recruited 114 to enter this plea deal program. At least 25 of them we…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner The Great Pretense Part 7 @ 11:10
Baroque Vega framed
Oscar Naranjo book_quoted
“Smear campaign against Naranjo. General Oscar Naranjo, director of the Colombian National Police, said Baroque Vega, a drug trafficker who had served time in the U.S. and now resided in Miami, was conspiring with Don Mario and other extradi…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner The Great Pretense Part 7 @ 17:29
Greg Smith member_of
Baroque Vega book_quoted
“grow very well in Mexico. According to Vega, he had traveled between South Florida and South America via a private jet on at least 30 different recruiting trips with different FBI agents and DEA agents, as well as CIA. Vega claims the main …”
▶ The Colonel's Corner The Great Pretense Part 7 @ 33:09
Baroque Vega member_of
DEA guest_asserted
“As a result, Vega contends that he had intimate knowledge of all of the corruption that was mentioned in the Kent memo. Vega told the author that between 1997 and 2000, the FBI and DEA each employed him as an informant in separate investiga…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner The Great Pretense Part 6 @ 11:24
Baroque Vega laundered_money_for
AUC book_quoted
“was extorting money from Colombian narco-traffickers by promising them that with the help of supposedly corrupt DEA agents and prosecutors, he could fix their cases. Erdogan also attempted to inoculate the Bogota DEA office against charges …”
▶ The Colonel's Corner The Great Pretense Part 5 @ 52:14
Baroque Vega recruited
Greg Smith guest_asserted
“So it does appear that the Greg Smith with the millions of dollars of cocaine in the crashed aircraft is the CIA associated Smith pilot that had been used repeatedly by the CIA. Weird. It was during his work for the FBI and DEA in Latin Ame…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner The Great Pretense Part 8 @ 12:32
Baroque Vega member_of
AUC host_asserted
“Smear campaign against Naranjo. General Oscar Naranjo, director of the Colombian National Police, said Baroque Vega, a drug trafficker who had served time in the U.S. and now resided in Miami, was conspiring with Don Mario and other extradi…”
▶ The Colonel's Corner The Great Pretense Part 7 @ 17:29
Mentions (87)
▶ 49:50
These remarkable revelations surfaced in a document that the author obtained from public court filings. The document also included evidence that the DEA, FBI, and CIA were cooperating covertly in Colombian's narco underworld, all using the …
▶ 50:49
It is the final report of an investigation prompted by a memo written in 2000 by the chief of Bogota's DEA office, Leo Aragon. Aragon's memo and the related documents that the author found addressed to DEA chief of international operations …
▶ 51:19
was overseen by the same DEA supervisor in Miami who counted Suarez as an informant. The DEA group supervisor, David Tensley, one of the whistleblowers in Kent's memo. The Araguan memo prompted an internal investigation targeting Tensley, T…
▶ 51:50
Handler. According to the Kent memo, the sources and other sources that spoke with the author, Erdogan wrote his accusatory memo targeting Vega not long after Tinsley had reported that DEA agents in Bogota were suspected of working with nar…
▶ 52:14
was extorting money from Colombian narco-traffickers by promising them that with the help of supposedly corrupt DEA agents and prosecutors, he could fix their cases. Erdogan also attempted to inoculate the Bogota DEA office against charges …
▶ 1:02:11
1999, he received a complaint from an unknown CIA personnel concerning DEA group supervisor Tinsley. According to this CIA agent, Vasquez, the DEA guy Vasquez, the information he received was vague and pertained to Tinsley's unexpected arri…
▶ 1:03:40
who had previously been assigned as a CIA agent in Colombia, that group supervisor Tinsley and special agent Castillo traveled to Cologne, Panama during June of 1999 without obtaining proper clearance. In other words, you didn't tell the CI…
▶ 1:04:10
according to court documents. An administrative law judge who ordered in 2004 that Tinsley be reinstated at DEA in the wake of his firing, related to the investigation prompted by the Araguan memo, alludes to Vega's CIA connections in his A…
▶ 1:04:38
and Roman Suarez were actively involved in negotiations of the surrender and cooperation of the highest level Colombian drug traffickers and fugitives in both Panama and Miami. Vega was a confidential informant of the CIA. As the appellate …
▶ 1:05:04
cut him, Vega, out every chance they can. I don't want him documented. I don't want him in our case files any more than we have to. So there it is. Definitely the CIA. Vega, working for the CIA, was inserted into the legitimate DEA operatio…
▶ 1:05:37
in Miami, was finding out about the DEA and CIA in Bogota, Colombia. That's the nuts and bolts of what we just read. We'll finish this tomorrow. They never worked for us since the very beginning. They only protect their own interests. And a…
▶ 3:16
All are included as exhibits in the litigation file. And it was in a court case in Miami with Sadalio Gonzalez, which was a former high-ranking supervisor in the DEA Miami office. He happened to be Tensley's supervisor. After Bogota, DEA Ch…
▶ 6:10
Or don't. The criminal investigation launched in the wake of Aragorn's memo targeting Gonzalez, Perez, Tensley, and Casillo went nowhere. That's because Vega's extortion scheme was not a criminal plot, but actually turned out to be part of …
▶ 9:19
played in allowing a dozen people to be tortured and murdered in a Mexican border town of Cuenadad, Juarez. The drug war tragedy has since become known as the House of Death. Chapter 17, The Devil's Cartel. Baroque Vega had been working as …
▶ 9:53
the FBI, the DEA, and the CIA in Colombia, as well as elsewhere, for many, many years. Vega was very involved in several U.S. law enforcement operations during the timeframe of 1999 to 2000. Supposedly, they were looking for narco-trafficke…
▶ 10:20
Vega claims that corrupt U.S. agents that were part of what was called the Bogota connection revealed in the Kent memo seriously compromised his role as an asset, adding that a number of his informants and cooperating sources in Colombia we…
▶ 10:52
When Vega reached out to him for the first time in March of 2006 to provide his assessment of what the author had been collecting on the Bogota connection. That was in the immediate aftermath of him writing about the Kent memo. Vega claims …
▶ 11:24
As a result, Vega contends that he had intimate knowledge of all of the corruption that was mentioned in the Kent memo. Vega told the author that between 1997 and 2000, the FBI and DEA each employed him as an informant in separate investiga…
▶ 11:55
He also claimed that he discovered the operations were being compromised by current players in the DEA and U.S. Customs. U.S. Customs was involved in targeting Colombian narco traffickers during the same period that Vega was working for the…
▶ 12:27
area vega alleges that agents in the dea office in bogota as well as someone within u.s customs was leaking information about ongoing law enforcement investigations to key players of the colombian national police vega says that the colombia…
▶ 13:28
The author uses the word bloodbath. Massive amounts of assassinations as a result of the narco traffickers finding out through U.S. officials who were their informants. Vega told the author that he had at least three contracts on his life t…
▶ 13:59
that were cooperating sources and informants are now dead, unquote. He says also that if they are lined up in the right way, it becomes easy to understand. It's a matter of putting the right players in the right place. So what he was porten…
▶ 15:06
corrupt national police officer as Colonel Danielo Gonzalez. That also included alleged alliance with the paramilitary forces ran by Carlos Castano under the AUC, which was working hand in hand with the CIA. The intelligence arm of the devi…
▶ 15:37
U.S. federal agents with U.S. Customs and DEA. Notice he leaves the CIA out, but we're talking intelligence. The goal of the Devil's Cartel Alliance was to protect the narco-trafficking business. And this basically is the business that they…
▶ 16:15
That happens to be a CIA asset, so he's very leery about listening to Vega's story. Law enforcement sources had told the author that Vega was in a position to know a lot of things, which is precisely why so many U.S. agencies were relying o…
▶ 16:48
Vega claims the U.S. government has failed to act on any of it. He also went on to say that as a result of an April 2003 meeting that he had with this corrupt National Police Colonel Gonzalez in Aruba, and that the meeting was sanctioned by…
▶ 17:18
activities and was willing to discuss cooperating with U.S. officials. Vega claims that during that meeting, Gonzalez laid out the entire backbone of the Devil's Cartel, naming names. He also, supposedly according to Vega, told him the name…
▶ 17:46
Vega says all of the information from that meeting with Gonzalez was turned over to the FBI. He suspects no action was taken on the corrupt charges because it involved naming DEA and Customs Authority. Vega says one of those cases was broug…
▶ 18:16
If the alleged corrupt DEA and custom law enforcement officers were now exposed, Vega contends, the cases they helped make against the narco-traffickers could be threatened because defense attorneys would say the evidence was tainted. But w…
▶ 18:48
The agency is basically a black box, according to Vega. Yeah, so we'll leave them out. One possible explanation for the alleged Bogota connection corruption is that U.S. law enforcement and intel agencies, such as the CIA, were part of a sa…
▶ 23:20
At the same time, the information provided by the Sinaloa cartel to the U.S. agencies against their rivals assured a steady flow of drug busts for headlines in U.S. media. It was Bengon Zoli who initially told Vega that his DEA handlers wer…
▶ 23:49
He claims Tensley wanted evidence of the leak. So Vega says that Borgonzoli, in 1999, arranged to purchase information from the U.S. Embassy. He was supposedly getting it on behalf of that Colonel Gonzalez. He says that Gonzalez was able to…
▶ 24:22
That file obtained by Borgonzoli was a record of the intelligence gathered by the CIA in Colombia of some 200 narco traffickers. Vega said it was the original file. I think it was a record of all of the investigations the CIA had done over …
▶ 24:46
Vega says the file contained detailed information of the narco traffickers, including phone numbers, addresses, family trees, and photographs. The Kent memo, if you remember, also alleges that corrupt DEA agents in Bogota were leaking class…
▶ 25:38
Law enforcement sources who spoke to the author also confirmed that a U.S. embassy file was leaked to Borgonzola. So far, so good. In the wake of carrying out his work for the U.S. government, the same government accused Vega of taking mill…
▶ 26:07
The Kent memo makes essentially the same allegation about corruption within the ranks of the US law enforcement that Vega is bringing forward. The DEA agents, including Tensley, who sought to expose the alleged corruption, were all accused …
▶ 7:25
As representatives of the people, they have to know if this is, in fact, what happened. We are hearing this stuff, that information is being leaked out of the U.S. Embassy from very credible sources, unquote. So why didn't anybody ever look…
▶ 7:51
Key figure in exposing all of this information filed a multimillion dollar lawsuit in early 2007 that promised to be quite embarrassing for the government. Filed in U.S. federal court in Washington, D.C., Baroque Vega, a longtime CIA asset,…
▶ 8:23
From the lawsuit filed September 21st, 2007, in or about 1996-97, Vega became a documented confidential informant for the U.S. government, specifically two federal law enforcement agencies, the FBI and later the DEA. Mr. Vega was not a trad…
▶ 8:53
proved to be innovative and very successful. Mr. Vega would play and later, in fact, did play the role of a broker between Colombian drug traffickers, some then unknown, others unidentified, to U.S. law enforcement, others already identifie…
▶ 9:18
By U.S. law enforcement and others already indicted for drug trafficking or money laundering charges in various federal districts in the United States. So he was like the go between guy. Vega's plan, as explained in his pleadings, described…
▶ 9:48
to negotiate their criminal exposure with the U.S. government rather than waiting to be indicted or arrested and extradited. In other words, make preemptive plea deals and we'll leave you in place. American lawyers to the Colombian targets,…
▶ 10:19
the prosecutors to work out deals with these targets. It allowed them to sell drugs with no possible chance of getting indicted because they had already pled. A particular U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida became the coordi…
▶ 10:42
Vega claims in the litigation that as part of this extortion scheme, FBI and DEA agents would initially meet with the Colombian narcotrafficking targets in Panama for introductions, eventually debriefing, and finally to work out the details…
▶ 11:10
The planned program was extremely successful. Who wouldn't want to do it? It gives you carte blanche to be a narco-trafficker. All in all, Vega convinced and successfully recruited 114 to enter this plea deal program. At least 25 of them we…
▶ 11:45
against a larger context of corruption allegations that were occurring. Vega was very involved in some of the U.S. law enforcement operations mentioned in the Kent memo. Those particular operations between 1997 and 2000 and sought to snare …
▶ 12:14
that had taken over for Medellin and Cali. Vega claims that corrupt U.S. agents are part of the Bogota connection and seriously compromised his role as a government asset in a number of his informants within the Colombian narco network beca…
▶ 12:44
Vega now appears to be forcing both the government and the compliant agenda-setting media to confront this head-on. From Vega's lawsuit, quote,…
▶ 13:14
in other investigations, prosecutions, and it became a domino effect. The varying degrees of these targets had to forfeit cash, real estate, jewelry, which goes to the people that are doing this. And according to Mr. Vega, seeks a $250,000 …
▶ 13:41
For each of the 114 cases, that was basically his cut of making these deals and getting these people in to these plea agreements. Of course, that amounts to almost $30 million if you times it times 114 cases. That would be a lot of money, o…
▶ 14:10
And by engaging Vega in the legal battle, the US government took risk and basically exposed him and all of these other people. Vega, for his part, appears quite ready to play this game of roulette with the US government or he wouldn't have …
▶ 14:34
all of this, the author provides us with a list of some, let's see, 19, 26, 32 names of drug traffickers that was listed in Vega's lawsuit. Carlos Ramon Zapata was one of them. Attorney Roberto Uribe was another.…
▶ 16:04
the paramilitary forces and complicit politicians enlisted with the CIA and the narcotraffickers, all was still going well. They basically had a get out jail free card. Chapter 21, State Department Cable. Baroque Vega kicked a hornet's nest…
▶ 16:33
on a major Colombian radio program in late 2010 and accusing a prominent businessman of being a narco-trafficker and subsequently writing a letter to the businessman that became public in which he also called out the alleged corrupt members…
▶ 17:00
that the author did with him for Narco News, conceded that the radio show is likely a major contributing factor to his name being invoked. In November 25th, 2009, in a State Department cable sent from the U.S. Embassy in Bogota, Colombia to…
▶ 17:29
Smear campaign against Naranjo. General Oscar Naranjo, director of the Colombian National Police, said Baroque Vega, a drug trafficker who had served time in the U.S. and now resided in Miami, was conspiring with Don Mario and other extradi…
▶ 17:56
United Self-Defense Forces, UAC paramilitaries, to build a fake case against him. He said that a number of his officers had reported being approached by these individuals seeking dirt. He thought some smear was inevitable, and he said he wo…
▶ 18:25
Given Vega was employed by multiple U.S. law enforcement agencies, surely we wouldn't hire a known drug trafficker. And Vega serving time in the U.S., that too is misleading. Vega's only conviction in the courts was on a misdemeanor charge …
▶ 18:56
when he got crosswise with a DEA agent. As far as his alleged conspiracy with Don Mario, Vega told me in an interview, meaning the author, I know his name, but he is one of my enemies who wanted to kill me. I never met him. Vega contends th…
▶ 19:27
Well, naturally, because he's in the National Police. You don't survive there unless you are corrupt, especially at this time. All the traffickers that were surrendering and talking to the U.S. government while Vega was working on it spoke …
▶ 32:36
He ran across the trail of at least one Greg Smith who has plenty of experience flying in South Florida and in Latin America. That's where broke Vega comes back in. The FBI, DEA, CIA asset. So he would be in a position to know what's going …
▶ 5:31
in 2007 was flying a huge quantity of drugs towards the U.S. and assured that this incident would attract lots of attention. It was not just a run-of-the-mill drug run. The jet might have been part of a U.S. law enforcement undercover opera…
▶ 6:03
Baroque Vega public records and other sources, the author had confirmed that one of the Gulf Stream 2's owners at the time that it crashed in Mexico has the same name as a pilot who transported U.S. law enforcement with CIA assistance durin…
▶ 7:04
was questioned as to whether that was the same one that Vega had mentioned flying CIA missions. The author's efforts to contact Smith and O'Connor, who was the other name on the bill of sale, proved unsuccessful. But he did manage to track …
▶ 9:37
Smith's name. The emergence of this document, which has been discussed in many media reports, but not made available to the public, creates an opportunity for some comparison because there was a signature on it. Smith, who Vega claims serve…
▶ 12:32
So it does appear that the Greg Smith with the millions of dollars of cocaine in the crashed aircraft is the CIA associated Smith pilot that had been used repeatedly by the CIA. Weird. It was during his work for the FBI and DEA in Latin Ame…
▶ 13:05
brought in by the FBI to pilot some 25 to 30 flights back and forth for him and narco-traffickers. The author already revealed the leaks of classified information from the U.S. Embassy in Bogota that were discovered in 1999 in the course of…
▶ 13:36
He also mentioned the Kent memo, which basically was a whistleblower compilation of all of the truth that was going on. On at least one occasion, Vega said, a CIA agent actually flew in the jet during one of the Latin American missions. Tho…
▶ 14:54
So if Tensley is interfering with a CIA operation, it had to be drug trafficking because that's his job. In addition, one of the files leaked to the narco trafficker in the Bogota, Columbia, out of the Bogota, Columbia embassy by the DEA wa…
▶ 15:48
Given Mr. Smith's connection to the Gulfstream cocaine jet allegedly tied to past CIA operations, Vega now says he cannot rule out that Smith might be a player not only for the DEA and FBI, but the CIA. It's just a matter of time in every o…
▶ 16:11
Vega also says by the events that played out after he was released from his 52-day jail stint stemming from the tax case related to his work with Tensley's DEA group, Vega claims that prior to his arrest on the tax charge, as part of a leas…
▶ 16:40
Vega said that in addition to the missions for the U.S. government, he also used the jet for traveling on his personal business, which was as a fashion photographer, which was his official cover. He said my operations use fashion as a cover…
▶ 1:14
Wonder what he was doing with that. Wonder where he got it. It was a clue as to what Yorago was doing and his connection to the CIA-linked Gulfstream 2 that we talked about yesterday. Communication equipment, island off the coast of Panama,…
▶ 1:50
The Colombian citizen, who we've talked about throughout this book, that has a long association with the CIA, confirmed during an interview with the author that the Gulfstream II was part of an operation led by ICE. DEA sources told the aut…
▶ 2:20
Vega, in early 2008, offered a key revelation about the aircraft that connects it to cocaine on board and the U.S. government via an informant, Eurego. In addition, press reports in Latin America actually validated some of what Vega had sai…
▶ 7:33
Big fish in the narco-trafficking. According to Vega, it's because the US government recruited Urega as an informant in exchange for the promise of a better deal related to narco-trafficking charges he was facing at the time in the United S…
▶ 8:04
And now he's protected. For years, he was in charge of negotiating deals with dozens of Colombian traffickers. Vega was the guy that his next tier down had approached those guys to get them deals with the United States. That's how Vega know…
▶ 18:11
Vega contends that his arrest by Panamanian authorities compromised Mayan Jaguar operations, leading to circumstances that caused the crash. Vega also said that it was even possible that Urega's arrest led the narco-traffickers involved in …
▶ 19:47
Vega points out that the ISIS Mayan Jaguar was being carried out unilaterally in Latin America absent formal approval. In other words, the government and police officers in Panama, Colombia, and Mexico had no idea the operation was even hap…
▶ 20:21
involvement. Vega says the secrecy was necessary because U.S. officials were concerned that corrupt elements within those governments, political and law enforcement, would compromise the operation. If that's the case, Eureka and Ice Mayon J…
▶ 20:56
I mean, we verified the fact that he's an informant, says that Eureka was a highly valued asset to the CIA, DEA, and FBI, and that each of them might have used Eureka on various missions. Eureka essentially became a narco-trafficker and mon…
▶ 21:31
with the knowledge of the U.S. government. Because again, in that system where they code these people, they code whether or not they're an informant. Vega says that in the case of the Gulfstream, Eureka played a key role in organizing a syn…
▶ 22:00
He claims Urega's share of the deal involved contributing part of the cocaine with the rest of the cocaine coming from paramilitaries in Colombia. The game plan, Vega said, was to track the cocaine after it was delivered in the U.S. That's …
▶ 22:31
Yeah, that's always going to be the story, by the way. Just like we put those Fast and Furious guns into the hands of cartels so we could quote unquote track them. But we didn't track them, nor do we track the cocaine. Vega goes on to say t…
▶ 23:01
Vega says that once the drug shipment arrived in the U.S., Eureka was to be notified by his partners, and he in turn, unbeknownst to them, according to authorities in the United States, would then tell the agencies that he supposedly was an…
▶ 24:05
unaccountable. Gonzalez, the DEA guy, the retired guy, says what sense does it make for the government to smuggle drugs into the country itself to try to make a case? It literally makes no sense at all. The U.S. market is flooded with cocai…
▶ 33:02
Similar questions was raised about the planned destination of the nearly four tons of cocaine on the Gulf Stream. CIA asset Baroque Vega claims the Gulf Stream was part of a U.S. government operation that utilized a well-known Colombian nar…