Bob Owens of Pajamas Media, who was out in front of the Gunwalker scandal well in advance of the rest of us, brings to light yet another story this week which might make the last one look tame by comparison. If the allegations are true, informants with ties to the CIA are now chatting up another deal where we may have been running military grade weaponry to the violent Zetas cartel in Mexico.

Phil Jordan, a former CIA operative and one-time leader of U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s El Paso Intelligence Center, claims that the Obama administration is running guns to the violent Zetas cartel through the direct commercial sale of military grade weapons…

The U.S. Direct Commercial Sales program is run from the U.S. State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls. It regulates and licenses private U.S. companies’ overseas sales of weapons and other defense materials, defense services, and military training. This does not include the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program, which authorized sales to foreign governments.

The list of contraband here goes well beyond assault rifles, including “anti-aircraft weapons and hand grenades from the Vietnam War era” as well as, “grenade launchers… and military gear including night-vision goggles and body armor.”

The CIA connection comes via one of their contractors.

Robert “Tosh” Plumlee, a former CIA contract pilot, told the Times he supported Jordan’s allegations, adding that the Zetas have reportedly bought property in the Columbus, N.M., border region to stash weapons and other contraband.

“From the intel, it appears that a company was set up in Mexico to purchase weapons through the U.S. Direct Commercial Sales Program, and that the company may have had a direct link to the Zetas.”

Bob has all the details at the link provided, so check it out. If this pans out, there are far bigger problems bubbling up from the bowls of the agencies involved than we even suspected before. This type of pattern rises far above mere incompetence and a very thorough housecleaning is going to be required to set things back anywhere near ship shape.

Not very long ago I would have looked at this story with a jaundiced eye and wondered if there were some agents engaging in the settling of old scores. But this many rotten apples continue to make it appear as if the entire barrel could be rotten.