Alternative New Media for the Gulf South
What I can do is this and that is to give everyone a steer. First you must read the following including the comments:
DHECC – Comment Bump, April 7, 2015 – Another snapshot of the Louisiana Good Ole’ Boy network ~ Jason Berry, American Zombie
Then for those of you that have a bit of time, read Slabbed’s cumulative reporting on the now deceased Louisiana class action attorney Hugh Sibley.
The ground being plowed was fertile then and it remains so IMHO. It is absolutely dangerous territory.
I noticed recently an uptick in search traffic related to Slabbed’s work on the Mexican drug cartels and a Greensburg lawyer that laundered millions of dollars for them, William “Hugh” Sibley, a name that goes back to 2009 on these pages.
When you report a story as a citizen journalist involving a United States prosecution involving the Mexican drug cartels and you start seeing site traffic from Mexico City, it involves a bit of a gut check. Debriefing Sibley after his arrest certainly involved a Louisiana history lesson of the kind that rarely sees the light of day. The snippets of what is publicly sourced on its own have made interesting books in their own right. In short, Hugh Sibley has lead an extraordinary life.
All hell has been breaking loose here at Slabbed central so I did not spend any time tracking down the reason for the uptick in traffic but today I took a short break and found this. Continue reading “For you lifers: Site traffic explained (Plus something for the newbies)”
I know some of you folks likely speculate whether or not Slabbed has limits on the topics we cover or if we’re 100% No Fear. That exact subject has been the topic of reader feedback since my second post that re-examined the money laundering prosecution of Greensburg area lawyer Hugh Sibley. The international drug trade is one of those tension raising subjects and for good reason IMHO.
Last week I mentioned Slabbed had received a media inquiry and it was not an ordinary one. Before I get to that and let’s go back to that No Fear thing as it is true the drug trade has no mainstream trade journal, though I am familiar with one Spanish language blog that would be considered the Slabbed of that genre. Amazingly it is tolerated by the drug cartels but rest assured I have no desire to raise the stakes of what Slabbed New Media does any further than the high bar we’ve already set.
So last week investigative journalist Daniel Hopsicker sent me an email inquiring about Hugh Sibley as he was connected to Jorge Arévalo Kessler, one of the people that was indicted along with Sibley. Hopsicker’s body of work includes the Barry Seal murder (Slabbed’s profile here) which in turns leads us to Seal’s Baton Rouge Defense Attorney Louis Unglesby, rumored to be one of the combatants engaged in Sal Perricone’s online rants at NOLA.com. It just gets more complicated from there folks but the bottom line is there has been some serious perversions of our drug laws by the intelligence community and it seems as most of the smuggling routes are here across the deep south.
Some of what Hopsicker reports has multiple, credible media sources such as the US Banking connection to the money train. Just this past Sunday 60 minutes profiled the take down of a “Super Drug Cartel” operating out of Columbia illustrating the huge expanse of the topic. I mention this because I’m skeptical on Romney connection cited in this post’s headline, which is taken from the following story by Hopsicker that focuses mainly on Ecuador’s role in the drug trade, which leads us to Jorge Arévalo Kessler, which in turn leads us to Hugh Sibley. I highly recommend it as a companion to last week’s post on Slabbed re-examining the Sibley prosecution. Stay tuned for part three of that series.
Last month Slabbed reintroduced William “Hugh” Sibley to the reading public and the response that post received has been fantastic. In fact it was a media inquiry that I received today that serves as the catalyst for this post. To get started though I want to make sure everyone is on the same page so here is an except from my Sibley reintroduction:
So why do I bring up news Slabbed covered in 2009? Sweet serendipity that’s why. Sources familiar with the Sibley’s law practice indicate to Slabbed that while Sibley was Fayard’s political go to guy, Nipun “Nick” Desai was Sibley’s right hand man. Desai, a one time college exchange student from East India that graduated from LSU in 1996, reportedly parlayed the association with Sibley into a real estate empire that stretches across Louisiana and includes the now fabled Super 8 Motel on Clearview Parkway.
This is important because Desai is a bit of a mystery man. You see folks multiple sources have indicated to Slabbed that Desai was arrested on a cocaine distribution charge somewhere between 2008 and 2010 yet we’ve been unable to uncover anything on the arrest or the case itself as it does not show in the Federal Court Database PACER nor is there a Louisiana state record that we can find. Desai is a big mystery but we solved some of it here.
Tackling this topic entails a bit of a gut check folks, given the people and organizations involved in the Sibley affair. For instance, the lead defendant in the Sibley prosecution was Gustavo Jorge Arévalo Kessler. Here is a snippet from the Hispanic News Network Blog that mentions Kessler:
Last Wednesday, Jorge Gustavo Arévalo Kessler, 43, was extradited to the U.S. from Mexico to face money laundering, and cocaine trafficing federal charges in Texas. Kessler originally from Heidelberg, Germany, but living in Mexico transported tons of cocaine from Venezuela, Colombia, Mexico and eventually ending up in the U.S.
The indictment states, Kessler between Dec. 2002 to June 2003 transported tons of cocaine by private plane and a Boeing 727, transported cash abroad, and as a high ranking member of a Mexican drug cartel, he directed where the money would be deposited to various bank accounts.
Kessler was arrested by Mexican federal authorities on April 7, 2008 in Mexico City. He worked for the criminal organization headed by Antonio Aguilar (real name Pedro Antonio Bermúdez Suazo), aka “El Arquitecto,” or “El Jefe” in Mexico.
Kessler was extradited to the U.S. on Feb. 24, 2010 by the law enforcement coordination efforts between the U.S. Marshals Service, the Ministry Federal Police, and Mexican INTERPOL with the Attorney’s General Office (PGR).
Kessler is not just your average drug kingpin though as this translated excerpt from the website Contra Linea indicates:
In his ministerial statement, Gustavo Jorge Arévalo Kessler, 43-year-old native of Heidelberg, Germany, son of Jorge Arevalo Gardoqui, who in turn was the brother of former Secretary of National Defense Juan Arevalo Gardoqui-, confessed to participating in moving drugs from South America to Mexico, and to carry cash abroad.
Or even better as put in an email I received today: Continue reading “Let’s continue to build the case: Slabbed takes a second look back at USA v Sibley as we make more connections”
Sibley was a lawyer in the old Castano Group, the Louisiana based trial lawyer syndicate led by the late Wendell Gauthier that handled some of the tobacco litigation back in the 1990s. Besides Gauthier, Calvin “Calhoun” Fayard was involved as was Fayard’s political operative/lawyer associate Hugh Sibley. Trout Point Lodge owner Danny Abel was also a part of that group, trying his best to inflict his boy Vaughn Perret on the rest. After Gauthier died, time has not been kind to many of the old Castano Group members as I illustrate today with Sibley:
So why do I bring up news Slabbed covered in 2009? Sweet serendipity that’s why. Sources familiar with the Sibley’s law practice indicate to Slabbed that while Sibley was Fayard’s political go to guy, Nipun “Nick” Desai was Sibley’s right hand man. Desai, a one time college exchange student from East India that graduated from LSU in 1996, reportedly parlayed the association with Sibley into a real estate empire that stretches across Louisiana and includes the now fabled Super 8 Motel on Clearview Parkway.
This is important because Desai is a bit of a mystery man. You see folks multiple sources have indicated to Slabbed that Desai Continue reading “Let’s start building the case: Allow me to reintroduce William “Hugh” Sibley to the Slabbed Nation”
Given the circumstances, this may just be the second dumbest campaign commercial Diaper David Vitter has ever run, especially since he tried to carry water for BP after the spill via limiting their liability for the damage they caused.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqD1_DEoexc]
I’ve come to realize the danger of ideology when ordinary folks allow themselves to become unwitting dupes to those with higher personal aspiration that inhabit the political world, especially those that hold elected office. As a young CPA I was privileged to be broke in by a guy who not only held the credential but was also a superlative businessman and of all the lessons he taught me, the why he was in business instead of politics was the one that stuck with me forever.
…..some people like money and some people like power. I like money because money rents power…… Continue reading “Magnum JD goes into syndication. Slabbed repeats “Magnum breaks out the curry for Jindy and others with Naan” but first a word from our sponsors….”
But now we live in debased times,
Sans punishment to fit our crimes
Our moral compass has got lost,
Or on the rubbish heap been tossed.
As in this cautionary tale of bankers,
Who came to look like social cankers.
You will all know the basic story,
In all its venal details, gory.
Of how a bunch of peerless clowns
Despite degrees – from Yale to Brown –
Behaved like schoolboys in the lab,
When teacher’s gone to smoke a fag……..
Their attitudes were so repulsive
The public backlash grew convulsive,
And dimly seeing that their wages
Just might be threatened by these rages,
Self-interest prompted some to say
“We’re sorry” – in a muted way. Continue reading “Thank God for Arizona Part 3: Blaming the surge in drug violence on the Mexicans. God damn the pusher man (and his U.S. banker).”
A comment from reader Not At All Surprised updated the SLABBED post Breaking News Sibley pleads Quilty with a story from the Advocate – and today’s Advocate had more: La. lawyer admits guilt in money-laundering plot.
A Greensburg lawyer pleaded guilty Friday in Houston to laundering $480,000 given to him by an international drug trafficking organization in an effort to buy an aircraft for the ring, federal prosecutors said.
William Hugh Sibley, who faces up to 20 years in prison, is set for sentencing June 4 in U.S. District Court, said Nancy Herrera, executive assistant U.S. attorney in the Houston office.
Sibley, who has a private pilot’s license and owned an aviation business, changed his innocent plea to guilty before U.S. District Judge Gray H. Miller on Friday morning under a plea agreement with prosecutors, online court records show.
The agreement was later filed under seal Friday.
The reason Sibley was given the cash to buy the aircraft, he admitted in court Friday, Continue reading “Advocate has more details on Sibley plea”
Minute Entry for proceedings held before Judge Gray H. Miller: RE-ARRAIGNMENT held on 3/12/2010. William Hugh Sibley (5) waived the reading of the Indictment and pled Guilty to Count 1. Plea agreement executed and entered. Order for presentence investigation entered. Sentencing set 6/4/2010 at 10:00 a.m. Appearances: Claude Daniel Hippard, James Phillip Manasseh.(Court Reporter: B.Slavin) Deft continued on Bond, filed.(rkonieczny) (Entered: 03/12/2010)
I received this breaking news in an email message from Sop. Until he’s back at his computer to follow-up, this is all I’ve got. However, SLABBED has background on the events that led to the plea and plea agreement: News from the Louisiana Class Action Front: Prominent Lawyer arrested and charged in drug conspiracy case; The Advocate lends background on Hugh Sibley’s unshareable need; Get set for new details about the jet set. Emergent details in the Government’s case against Hugh Sibley; and the recent post connecting the dots,Class action lawyer Hugh Sibley scheduled to be re-arraigned March 12.
At this point, in case you’re wondering, The Grill Room reclaims its glory, earns ‘Four Beans’ is the lead story on Times Picayune.
Thanks for the update, NAAS!
