Apparently, I was, because for the next couple of weeks I hid guns all around my house, and after work I went through the routine of checking and clearing my own house like police do when clearing a high-risk dwelling that might have potential suspects.
I met with the federal agents in a restaurant near Montgomery and Juan Tabo streets in the northeast of Albuquerque. It was an Italian restaurant and the owner had opened it just for our meeting. There was no one else inside.
Three people showed up, all three had newspapers folded under their arms. I assumed all were agents, either CIA or FBI, or perhaps both. One agent opened a brief case and inside were copies of all the documents I had surrendered. A lot were pictures of people I didn't know and pictures of license plates. They went through each picture and asked me if I knew anything about the subjects. I thought I recognized a few people who were possibly politicians, or Mexican actors and actresses, but I could not say for certain.
One of the agents started to ask me about Pedro, if I knew who he was. I said I did not know and he asked if I wanted to know who he was.
I said yes.
He told me that he could tell me a little bit because they were going to ask me not to post any other document on Borderland Beat for the public to see. He said that Pedro was a person in the witness protection program. They said they were very confused about why Pedro—apparently is not his real name—was sending this type of information to media outlets. The agent went on to say that he did not know why Pedro had such information in his possession. The agents did not give me any other information other than to say that they appreciated all the work I did on Borderland Beat and that many people in law enforcement relied on Borderland Beat for a lot of information related to organized crime in Mexico. They also requested that, for security reasons, I not share any of the documents I received with anyone else.
That day I went home and started to rethink my involvement with Borderland Beat. I was still interested in reporting on Mexican drug cartels, but I did not want it to get this close to home.
I started to piece together the events surrounding “Pedro.” Perhaps he had been a high-ranking member of the Mexican naval intelligence (SEMAR) and had been collaborating with the FBI, an informant if you will. Perhaps he was providing them with classified information related to organized crime. Something happened that prompted the FBI to pull him out of Mexico. Perhaps his cover was blown, who knows? They brought him to the U.S. with his immediate family. He was probably in the witness protection program, perhaps somewhere in Florida. His phone number when he had called me had a Florida area code. He was not happy, especially if he still had most of his family and friends in Mexico, and he was not allowed to have any contact with anyone there. He did not know many people in Florida, he felt isolated in a country he was not familiar with. Perhaps he had a meager job in Florida, but all his expertise and education from Mexico did not mean shit in the U.S. Perhaps he did keep contact with some of his work associates from Mexico, and perhaps he was not the only informant in SEMAR providing sensitive information to the U.S. government. Perhaps this associate that was providing information to the U.S. government was also providing the same information to Pedro, as a safeguard in case anything happened to him. Maybe Pedro, being disgruntled with his situation, decided to disrupt things by reaching out to the media so he could be taken seriously. Maybe he felt the government was neglecting him and forgetting about him.
At one point, months later, while a whole bunch of us police officers were riding back from Santa Fe after attending a police workshop I got a call from an FBI agent. He wanted to know if I would be willing to testify against Pedro, as they were thinking of bringing legal proceedings against him in federal court. I told him I had no interest in testifying for security reasons, and that, quite honestly, I had nothing to bring to the table that they could not bring up themselves. The agent said he understood my predicament and thanked me for everything.
It was an interesting time. Every once in a while, I would get calls, mostly from the FBI, requesting to talk to me about things, but I really had nothing more to share, as I had stopped collaborating with Borderland Beat all together. I retained ownership of the project, but I no longer collaborated directly.
My police department really never made an issue with me about the Borderland Beat Project. In fact, they even asked if I could brief some of the officers on the Mexican cartel activities in Mexico. I did. I put together a PowerPoint presentation that included the most recent events in cartel activity in Mexico, a short history of the Mexican cartels, how they evolved, the principal players and al lot of media material. A lot of the media material were pictures we had received, or material we got from online sources, but it also included cellular videos of executions we had received from unknown sources through email. These videos were extremely graphic and violent. I would start my presentation by giving a disclaimer and cautioning officers to be prepared for what was to come:
“Because crime in Mexico is extremely violent, this presentation depicts large amount of very graphic media material. If this material is offensive to you, it is advised that discretion be used when participating in all aspects of this program. The need to present graphic source material is vital in showing a true representation of the extent of violence generated by the Mexican drug cartels upon the people of Mexico and the US.”
Most of these videos we did not publish on the BB blog, as they were all starting to look the same, unless of course they had news value. The videos were so brutal that when I started showing them, some police officers simply walked out of the room. I remember some of our tactical units standing up and walking around grimacing in disgust and shock. That is how I felt in the early stages of Borderland Beat while reviewing these videos, but with time I had learned to accept it, which is totally wrong. It is not healthy and it leaves a horrific long-lasting impression that is hard to escape from. I thought about all the contributors of BB. I think in a way we all wanted to escape, but I also knew that burying our heads in the sand would not make things go away, but it would keep our sanity.
US Impact
In my involvement with reporting about the crime and violence in Mexico perpetuated by the cartels, I knew that all of it had a direct impact here in the US. The US was definitely involved in some form or another, we like to admit it or not. Mexico expected assistance from the US to help them slow down the flow of drugs pouring into the US. The State Department plays a huge role and has a huge interest in what happens in Mexico. It could be the manufacture and trafficking of illicit drugs, the cartel violence, the large amount of revenue generated from drug trafficking and the constant flow of weapons making their way into Mexico.
An overwhelming majority of confiscated guns in Mexico (90%) that are traced actually originated from the United States. The ATF has reportedly traced 22,848 guns smuggled into Mexico from the United States since 2005, and it showed that between 2005 and 2008, Texas, Arizona and California are the three most prolific source states, respectively, for firearms illegally trafficked to Mexico. Mexican officials only submitted 32% of the guns they seized to the ATF for tracing, overall, 83% of the guns found at crime scenes in Mexico could not be traced.
"Project Gunrunner" deployed new teams of agents to the southwest border. The idea: to stop the flow of weapons from the US to Mexico's drug cartels. But in practice, ATF's actions had the opposite result. Starting in February 2008 under Project Gunrunner, Operations "Fast and Furious", "Too Hot to Handle", "Wide Receiver" and others (all together satirically dubbed "Operation Gunwalker"), have done the opposite by ATF permitting and facilitating 'straw purchase' of firearm sales to traffickers, and allowing the guns to 'walk' and be transported to Mexico.
Statements of ATF agents obtained by Senator Grassley show that the ATF Phoenix Field Division allowed and facilitated the sale of over 2,500 firearms (AK-47 rifles, FN 5.7mm pistols, AK-47 pistols, and .50 caliber rifles) in 'straw man purchases' destined for Mexico. Many of these sam
e guns have now been recovered throughout Mexico, which is artificially inflating ATF's eTrace statistics of U.S. origin guns seized in Mexico.
There were plenty of cases that some of these firearms that were ultimately recovered and traced to the ATF’s operations were used in homicides in Mexico and at times, they did spill over to the US. One specific gun, recovered at a scene on the US side of the border, is alleged to be the weapon used to murder Customs and Border Protection Agent Brian Terry on December 14, 2010.
A commando of five illegal immigrants armed with at least two ak-47s were on the Arizona-Mexico border. Two of the Mexcian carried their rifle at the "ready position" showing intent and willingness to engage anyone who dared to confront them.
The Mexicans had crossed into US territory at night fall and were patrolling the area in "single-file formation" on the border just north of Nogales. Border patrol agents observed the Mexicans through thermal binoculars approaching and were able to see that two of them were armed with long guns.
The agents challenged the Mexicans, identifying themselves as US border agents and ordered the Mexicans to drop their weapons. When the Mexicans refused to drop their weapons, the agents engaged them with shotguns loaded with less than lethal beanbag projectiles.
At least one of the Mexican returned fire with an ak-47 rifle fatally wounding Terry, a former US Marine. Terry died at the scene.
The agents opened fire with their side arms and the Mexicans fled into the night. Later during testimony, it was learned that all of the five Mexican were armed.
Two Romanian-built AK-47 assault rifles found at the scene were identified as having been purchased in a Glendale, Ariz., gun shop as part of the ATF's failed Fast and Furious investigation.
After around the year 2009 these guns that were allowed to walk by ATF, were being recovered in crime scenes all over Mexico.
On January 30, 2010, a commando of at least 20 sicarios parked themselves outside a birthday party of high school and college students in Villas de Salvarcar, Ciudad Juarez. Near midnight, the sicarios, later identified as hired guns for the Mexican cartel La Linea, broke into a one-story house and opened fire on a gathering of nearly 60 teenagers. Outside, lookouts gunned down a screaming neighbor and several students who had managed to escape. Fourteen young men and women were killed, and 12 more were wounded before the hit men finally fled.
Three of the high caliber weapons fired that night in Villas de Salvarcar were linked to a gun tracing operation run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). There were at least 57 more previously unreported firearms that were bought by straw purchasers monitored by ATF during Operation Fast and Furious, and then recovered in Mexico in sites related to murders, kidnappings, and at least one other massacre.
In Mexico, the timing of the operation “Fast and Furious” coincided with an upsurge of violence in the war among the country's strongest cartels. In 2009, the northern Mexican states served as a battlefield for the Sinaloa and Juarez drug trafficking organizations, and as expansion territory for the increasingly powerful Zetas.
The murder of Special Agent Jaime Zapata and the shooting of his partner, another ICE agent on February 2011 provides a sad reminder of the dangers American law enforcement officers face every day while embedded in Mexico. The attack on Zapata occurred in the north-central state of San Luis Potosi, as the U.S. agents were driving between Mexico City and Monterrey. The agents were traveling on a well-traveled highway in an armored car with diplomatic plates on a well-traveled highway.
Jaime Jorge Zapata and Victor Avila were ICE Special Agents assigned to the attaché office in Mexico City. Zapata and Avila were consultants working with the Mexican government and traveling between Mexico City and Monterrey. Zapata was behind the wheel of black armored Chevrolet Suburban with U.S. diplomatic plates on Panamerican Highway 57 in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. His partner, Avila Jr. was in the passenger seat. Both agents were not armed, as it’s not permitted in Mexican law for foreign law enforcement to be armed while operating in Mexican soil.
They had just stopped to eat at a Subway in san Luis Potosi. Both men noticed an SUV tailing them. Zapta tried to speed up but the vehicle from behind kept up with him. The SUV pulled beside him and four men in the SUV flashed long guns, while speeding up in front of him. At that point another SUV came up from behind him and they had him boxed in. While boxing him in from the front and behind, they slowed Zapata to a stop.
A group of armed men surrounded the US agents. They started screaming at them to get out. Zapata showed them his US diplomatic credentials, telling them they were federal agents. The gunmen refused to relent and kept trying to get the agents to come out of their vehicle. Zapata put his vehicle on park that automatically unlocked the doors. They tried to drag Zapata out, but he managed to close the door. Zapata cracked his window open and continued to try to negotiate with the aggressors at one point yelling, "We are Americans, we are diplomats."
One of the men stuck his AK-47 through the crack and began to shoot indiscriminately, striking Zapata several times in the abdomen and Avila twice in the leg. Mexican investigators would later recover 83 spent casings.
Zapata managed to put the vehicle in gear and accelerated ahead of the gunmen, stepping on the gas pedal. Not long after pulling away of the armed men, Zapata slumped on the steering wheel, and their SUV came to a stop. His partner Agent Avila was not able to physically remove the mortally wounded Zapata from the drivers seat in order to be able to speed off, so he began calling for assistance. The gunmen caught up to the agents and started shooting at passenger side of the armored SUV. The bullet proof glass held, saving Avila's life. The armored vehicle had withstood the attack and the barrage of rounds.
A Federal Police helicopter arrived shortly after the attack as did several federal units from nearby San Luis Potosi.
The attackers gravely wounded agent Zapata while agent Victor Avila Jr. was wounded but survived the attack.
Mexican and U.S. officials said the ambush was carried out by Los Zetas, one of the major criminal drug cartels operating in Mexico. San Luis Potosi is at the center of a power struggle between two rival drug gangs, the Zetas and the Gulf cartel. It is also on the route north used by migrants seeking to reach the United States, and officials say cartels have begun recruiting some migrants to work for the gangs.
Although it is illegal for U.S. law enforcement officials in Mexico to carry weapons, U.S. officials have not commented on any protection the two special agents might have had, or why they would be travelling in the area seemingly unprotected.
Federal investigators say the gun used to kill Zapata in Mexico had been traced to a Dallas-area man. Agents of the U.S. Bureau of ATF arrested the man and two other suspected gun smugglers in Lancaster, Texas, a southern Dallas suburb
The Mexican government would eventually detain a suspect in the killing of ICE Special Agent Jaime Jorge Zapata. Julian Zapata Espinoza, known as “El Piolin,” was detained along with five other suspected members of a local cell of the Zetas organization.
The other members arrested of the Zetas were Armando Álvarez Saldaña, Mario Domínguez Realeo o Domingo Díaz Rosas, Jesús Iván Quezada Peña, Martin Bárcenas Tapia and Rubén Darío Venegas, who was said to be from Honduras.
The suspect told authorities that Zapata’s SUV was attacked because it was mistaken for that of a rival drug organization. Some U.S. officials maintained the attack was an intentional ambush of the agents and said the gunmen made comments before they fired indicating they knew who their targets were.
Zapata Espinoza admitted that he and other “estacas” or “hit squads” armed with AK-47s, AR-15s and handguns, surrounded the armored vehicle in which Zapata and Avila were aboard. El Piolin stated he fired several shots in the air trying to get the agents to exit the vehicle. When they refused to do so, the “estacas” fired weapons at the vehicle, Espinoza Zapata said.
The purpose of “stopping the armored vehicle was to steal it,�
�� Espinoza Zapata said. In an initial statement to Mexican authorities, Zapata Espinoza said that agent Zapata’s death was a case of mistaken identity. He and others believed the Suburban in which Zapata and Avila were riding belonged to a rival drug cartel. Zapata Espinoza said Zeta members had a “standing order from the Zetas leadership to steal vehicles deemed valuable to the cartel.”
The death of Zapata and the attempted killing of Avila became an international incident that was discussed between President Barack Obama and Mexican President Felipe Calderón during a state visit.
Zapata’s murder was the first slaying of a U.S. law enforcement agent since 1985, when Drug Enforcement Administration agent Enrique “Kike” Camarena was kidnapped, tortured and murdered.
In 2011, while speaking near the Juarez border wall, then President Obama remarked that “El Paso and other cities and towns along the border are consistently rated among the safest in the nation.”
“Over the past two-and-a-half years, we’ve seized 31 percent more drugs, 75 percent more currency, and 64 percent more weapons than before,” Obama said. “Even as we’ve stepped up patrols, apprehensions along the border have been cut by nearly 40 percent from two years ago – that means far fewer people are attempting to cross the border illegally.”
The Obama administration sent National Guard troops to the border on Sept. 1, 2010. The 1,200 guardsmen were scheduled to leave on June 30 the following year. The National Guard troops assisted in seizing more than 14,000 pounds of drugs and apprehending 7,000 illegal aliens, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Does illegal immigration facilitate drug trafficking to the US from Mexico? Are drug cartels members embedded in the millions of illegal Mexican immigrants in Mexico?
Borderland Beat Page 32
