Mexican cartels asked Russian arms dealers to help shoot down US helicopters & Hungary let them go!

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

Mexican drug cartels asked Russian arms dealers for help shooting down U.S. helicopters

newsweek.com
Mexican drug cartels asked Russian arms dealers for help shooting down U.S. helicopters
By Cristina Maza On 11/27/18 at 5:30 PM EST
4-5 minutes
Washington's request to extradite two Russian arms dealers who allegedly attempted to sell weapons to Mexican drug cartels so they could shoot down U.S. helicopters was denied by U.S. ally Hungary, officials revealed Tuesday.

Hungary, a member of the European Union and a U.S. ally, opted to extradite the accused arms dealers, Vladimir Lyubishin Sr. and his son Vladimir Lyubishin Jr., to their home country of Russia instead. It is unclear whether the men will face trial in Russia.

“The United States is disappointed in the Hungarian government’s decision to extradite the Lyubishins to Russia. The United States had a strong case, built in cooperation with members of Hungarian law enforcement,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement Tuesday. “Hungary is a partner and friend of the United States, but this decision raises questions about Hungary’s commitment to law enforcement cooperation.”

The story of the Lyubishins was described in detail on Friday when Hungarian reporters revealed the findings of a three-month investigation into the case. The two Russian arms dealers had been residing in Hungary for years and entered into a relationship with representatives for Mexican cocaine dealers, according to the report and court documents reviewed by Newsweek.

The Mexican cartels wanted the weapons to defend themselves from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Russians were told. The men had planned to sell Kalashnikov rifles, machine guns, anti-tank and air-to-surface missiles to the cartels, among other arsenal. The deals were allegedly facilitated by a Turkish middleman who met the Russians in Cyprus and Hungary.

Lawyers representing the two Russians told reporters that the men were unaware that the purchase was being made for drug cartels.

In reality, the entire deal was a setup planned by the DEA. The two Russians were arrested around a year and a half ago in a secret operation codenamed Perseus, which was led by the DEA and Hungarian counterterrorism forces. The suspects were also accused of smuggling cocaine into the U.S.

Court documents filed in the Southern District of New York in 2016 demonstrate that U.S. officials believed at least one of the Russians would soon be extradited. But reporters investigating the case in Hungary said that Moscow successfully pressured Budapest so the men would be released.

“The story of the Lyubishin affair has two parts involving different actors. The first part was the secret investigation and DEA sting operation, which involved the DEA, the FBI and Hungarian authorities—police and counter-terror units. The cooperation was very good, as usual. Hungarians were helping with surveillance, for example, then with the raid and the house searches,” Szabolcs Panyi, an investigative reporter with the publication Direkt 36 in Hungary, explained to Newsweek.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Russian President Vladimir Putin (from left) give a joint press conference following their meeting at the Kremlin, in Moscow, on September 18. Alexey Druzhinin/AFP/Getty Images

“The second part is when the story reached a political level. It became political when Hungary’s government realized they have to explain to the Kremlin why they extradited two Russians to the U.S. Russia is very aggressive in similar cases exerting pressure to secure their citizens involved in arms trafficking,” Panyi added.

Hungary’s controversial Prime Minister Viktor Orban has deepened his country’s ties to Russia at the same time he ran afoul of the European Union over his tough stance on migration and crackdown on the free press and judiciary.

This is not the first time this month that Hungary has helped an accused criminal escape justice, either. Earlier this month, Nikola Gruevski, the former prime minister of Macedonia who was convicted on corruption charges, vanished the day before his jail sentence was to begin and suddenly reappeared in Hungary. Investigators claim he was smuggled across the Balkans in a vehicle belonging to the Hungarian embassy.

The Hungarian government is now considering Gruevski’s asylum request, a fact many analysts found ironic given Orban’s hard-line anti-migrant and anti-asylum views.





















@88m3 @ADevilYouKhow @wire28 @dtownreppin214
@DonKnock @dza @wire28 @BigMoneyGrip @Dameon Farrow @re'up @Blackfyre @Cali_livin @NY's #1 Draft Pick



yall see the bigger picture?

Russia is really trying to do EVERYTHING to F us over

 

[Paper Boi]

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

US loses to Russia in case of 2 arms trafficking suspects

apnews.com
US loses to Russia in case of 2 arms trafficking suspects
By MARIA DANILOVA
6-7 minutes
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Russian father and son were in a Hungarian jail, charged in an elaborate plot to ship weapons to Mexican drug cartels and cocaine to the U.S. They found an American lawyer anticipating an inevitable extradition and trial in New York. But then the case took an unexpected turn.

Instead of being extradited to the U.S., Vladimir Lyubishin Jr. and Sr. were sent back to Russia, where, the State Department says, it’s not clear if they will face trial.

“The United States believes that all the relevant factors favored extradition to the United States,” the Justice Department told The Associated Press in a written response to questions. “And it appears that Russia sought the Lyubishins in order to protect them, not to prosecute them.”

Last week, the State Department issued a rare public rebuke of Hungary, a NATO ally and member of the European Union, which has extradited people to the United States in the past.

“Hungary is a partner and friend of the United States, but this decision raises questions about Hungary’s commitment to law enforcement cooperation,” said spokeswoman Heather Nauert.

The case, first reported by the Hungarian investigative group Direkt36, is murky, involving a shadowy world of confidential informants and meetings in different countries. U.S. court documents allege that Vladimir Lyubishin Sr., who is in his mid-60s, and his son, who is in his mid-30s, entered negotiations in 2015 to sell machine guns, grenades and anti-aircraft missiles to three men they believed were representing Mexican drug cartels. The men said they wanted the armaments to protect their merchandise from American law enforcement. The Russian men were working with a Turkish business partner, Hamit Nasirlioglu.

Over more than a year of meetings, the men eventually agreed to provide the weapons and to ship at least 5 kilograms of cocaine to the U.S. as part of the deal. The representatives of the cartel turned out to be confidential sources working with the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the three men were charged in federal court in New York with drug and weapons offenses that carry lengthy prison terms. The Lyubishins could face 25 years in jail or more.

Nasirlioglu was arrested on Nov. 9, 2016, in Montenegro, and the Russian father and son were nabbed the same day in Hungary.

The Turkish defendant was extradited to the U.S. in in March 2017, and at a hearing a few days later, a federal prosecutor told a judge she was “optimistic” the Lyubishins would follow within the next couple of months. But she also cautioned that Moscow’s involvement could complicate matters.

Two months later, Russia filed its own request for extradition.

Robert Fridman, a Hungarian-based lawyer for the Lyubishins, said his clients, who had lived in Hungary since the 1990s, believed they were legitimately selling decommissioned Hungarian military equipment weapons to buyers from Nicaragua who had the necessary import permits.

“They fell victim to a provocation by the agents of the DEA,” Fridman said. “They were taking part in a legitimate business. They weren’t offering anything illegal.”

In August 2018, the Lyubishins were flown to Moscow and jailed pending investigation and trial, Fridman said.

Russian authorities did not respond to requests from the AP for comment.

Hungarian government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs defended the extradition decision, saying it was based on a court ruling and international agreements and stressed that the Lyubishins were arrested with the help of Hungary’s law enforcement agents.

He did not explain why the Russian claim trumped the U.S. extradition request.

“The laws of Hungary apply to everyone in Hungary,” he said on Twitter. Kovacs noted that Hungary filed nine extradition requests with U.S. authorities in recent years, and eight have been rejected.

Nasirlioglu pleaded guilty and was sentenced in November to just over three years in prison, with credit for time served in Montenegro awaiting extradition. Although the State Department said it’s unclear if the Lyubishins would be tried at all in Russia, Fridman says his clients face seven years in prison, but are satisfied.

“It was a victory,” he said. “They got the lesser of the two evils.”


Some experts say geopolitics may have played a role. Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has been in power since 2010, has championed a nationalist, anti-immigration agenda and has sought to cultivate closer ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Orban has also faced strong criticism from other EU member states for a variety of actions, including the recent closure of Central European University, which was founded by Hungarian-born philanthropist George Soros, an Orban opponent, and for sheltering former Macedonia Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, who fled his country last month to evade a two-year prison term for corruption.

Orban was all but shunned under Barack Obama’s presidency. The Trump administration has set out to re-engage Hungary and improve relations, but some critics question that approach.

“This is just an accumulating and mounting list of really big bilateral concerns,” said Heather Conley, head of the Europe program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “The weight of this growing list is going to become something that will require Washington to reassess its current policy approach to Hungary.”

___

Associated Press writers Mike Balsamo and Jim Mustian contributed to this report.

___

This story has been corrected to show the surname is Nasirlioglu, not Nasirilioglu, and the investigative group is Direkt36, not Direct36.

 

[GnauzBookOfRhymes]

Russia pissing in the US face.

 

[re'up]

This is DEA 960 Group for special ops in international crime, but the whole thing was a ruse, there was no Mexican cartels reps, they were DEA UC's or CI's.

That unit specializes in sophisticated long terms undercover operations for major international targets, like Russian arms dealer and Paul Le Roux.

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

This is DEA 960 Group for special ops in international crime, but the whole thing was a ruse, there was no Mexican cartels reps, they were DEA UC's or CI's.

That unit specializes in sophisticated long terms undercover operations for major international targets, like Russian arms dealer and Paul Le Roux.

so?

same with Viktor Bout.

Its never the crime they know you did, but the one they can catch you on.

 

[re'up]

It's a pretty misleading title from Newsweek.

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

It's a pretty misleading title from Newsweek.

how?

This is literally the same as the shyt Russia always does. using proxies to do fukkery.

 

[88m3]

Hopefully our next president is responsible and sends Russia back to the dark ages permanently.

 

[Strapped]

Isn't this the free markets society y'all like

 

[Pressure]

Maybe the President and his administration should have lobbied better.

Don't ask me how

 

[Smoking With Cigarettes]

Maybe the President and his administration should have lobbied better.

Don't ask me how

We need a wall around the helicopters

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

Maybe the President and his administration should have lobbied better.

Don't ask me how

 

[the cac mamba]

how?

This is literally the same as the shyt Russia always does. using proxies to do fukkery.

if mexico sent helicopters over america, would you be ok with america shooting them down?

of course im fairly confident you dont even live here, after you refused to name the state you live in

 

[Secure Da Bag]

if mexico sent helicopters over america, would you be ok with america shooting them down?

Is this real question?

Of course he would.