Drug Traffickers Own Jenni Rivera Death Plane

[Jan Klimkowski]

Typically provocative article from Daniel Hopsicker, who continues to expose the abuses that get journalists "Casolaro-ed":

Eduardo Esquino-Nunez's family ties with major drug traffickers were first exposed when, during his campaign for the Mexican Presidency in 1994, (and before his assassination) PRI candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio used a plane (a Sabreliner SC 80) that had been owned by (the already dead) Amada Carrillo Fuentes.
Still, it was reported by a Mexico City reporter named Juan Ruiz Healy, who exposed the Esquino-Nunez brothers sordid ties in Monterey with various and sundry Mexican gangsters and politicians.
Colosio was provided the drug baron's plane by a "company" called Air Siesta, Inc., located at Meacham Airport in Fort Worth, Texas, owned by Ed Nunez's brother, Salvador Esquino Nunez (also deceased.)
It was a minor scandal, like the one in the U.S. a decade ago after we discovered Texas Governor George W Bush was flying around onof all things!--one of Barry Seal's (also deceased) favorite airplanes, when some people drew a sharp breath, if only for a moment.
And it revealed the interesting fact that the Esquino-Nunez brothers were already well-known in, um, certain quarters.

(snip)

Being fingered for responsibility in the death of a beloved singer…Being charged with conspiring to help the son of a ruthless dictator avoid facing the music in his own country…
Christian Eduardo Esquino-Nunez's current imbroglio's mark him as a member in good standing in a ring of well-connected financial fraudsters and soldiers-of-fortune-turned-private-security-contractors, many of whom have been accusedand convictedfor a variety of high profile crimes, including drug trafficking, securities fraud, and money laundering.
Take Jasper Knabb. Until his conviction earlier this year for a $30 million stock swindle, Knabb was the CEO of publicly-traded Pegasus Wireless Corp.
Esquino-Nunez has extensive business connections with Knabb, including using one of his own shell companies to finance Knabb's Gulfstream II luxury jet.
Jasper Knabb is part of Ed Nunez's American connection.
So, did he own Starwood's 14 planes? Probably not. But we're getting warmer. He may have fronted the money for whoever did.
When Knabb was sentenced in June, something extraordinary happened, which tells us something about Jasper Knabb, Eduardo Esquino-Nunez, and the whole issue of state-sponsored aviation crime (otherwise known as "drug trafficking.")
At Knabb's sentencing, prosecutors were seeking a sentence of seven years and three months, while defense lawyers argued for three years and four months.
But U.S. District Judge Jeffrey S. White smelled a rat, and sentenced Knabb to 21 years in federal prisonnearly three times as long as the term sought by government prosecutors.
"I give very little credit to what the government has done," said Judge White in an extraordinary summation. "I don't think they have adequately, accurately, or aggressively pursued the money this man (Knabb) stole."
From the bench, White told Knabb he had caused "unspeakable … misery" to investors who'd lost their life savings. "His instinct has always been to lie and cheat," the judge said.
And he ordered Knabb jailed immediately after the hearing.