Tag Archives: corruption

El Paso Times Censors Own Article into FBI Probe of DA Jaime Esparza

Posted by Martín Paredes on May 3, 2012 3 comments

Screen capture of mobile version of the article

Yesterday at about four in the afternoon the El Paso Times published an article titled; “El Paso lawyer in DA primary wants inquiry into allegations against Jaime Esparza”. Within half an hour the article by Times’ reporter Diana Washington Valdez had been pulled from the Internet. This action by the El Paso Times raises many questions regarding El Paso Corruption, journalistic integrity, manipulation of the electorate and possible criminal wrongdoing.

The published article, that was later removed, states that District Attorney candidate James D. Lucas “asked the FBI and two state agencies to investigate his allegations against District Attorney Jaime Esparza which he had posted on a website this week”. The article that was removed by the Times, quotes Lucas as stating that the reason he asked for the investigation “is that I wanted people to know about the expenditures in the district attorney’s office”. Lucas added, according to the retracted article that; “(t)he expenditures are all a form of taxpayer money”.

Google results for the article

The removed article adds that Lucas had sent letters asking for an investigation of Jaime Esparza to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Texas Attorney General Office and the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. The article quotes FBI Special Agent Martha Terrazas, a spokeswoman for the FBI office in El Paso as stating that “agents are looking at the website”, adding that they have nothing further to say”.

Times search results for the article

The article further adds that the State Attorney General’s Office has the letter from Lucas and the “matter is under review”. According to the now removed article, no one from the comptroller’s office was available to comment.

The article, before it was removed by the El Paso Times quotes Jaime Esparza as stating that he saw the website on Tuesday, May 1, 2012 and denies the allegations. Esparza is quoted by the article as stating that the allegations levied against him by Lucas are “not true” and that they are “political” in nature.

The now removed article seems to comply with the basics of journalism integrity as it presented both sides of the issue, the topic is relevant as it involves a political race about to be decided in the next few weeks, it quotes sources that have confirmed the accuracy of an initial probe of the allegations against a sitting district attorney by at least two investigative agencies, the FBI and the State Attorney General and most important it involves allegations of public corruption in a city involved in a far-reaching corruption investigation.

El Paso Times removes the article

The censoring of the article by the El Paso Times begs the question, why was it removed?

All elements of a public need to know are present in the article that is written by a well-respected journalist and it is current and relevant information important to the community. Who benefits from the censoring of the article and more importantly who caused the Times to censor its own article?

The El Paso Times is a private corporation that, in my opinion, has the right to choose what they report and how they do that. The problem is that the action of self-censoring raises questions about whether the El Paso Times is an unbiased reporter of information for the citizens of El Paso or is it an editorial vehicle for vested interests in the community. Not only does the censoring of the article raise the question of whether the El Paso Times has the integrity to be the newspaper of record for the city but also whether the censoring of the article is, in itself, a corporate donation to a political activity, a violation of Texas law?

On August 13, 2011, the El Paso Times reported that District Attorney Jaime Esparza disclosed that he had launched an investigation into allegations that Pastor Tom Brown may have violated a Texas State law during the attempted recall of Mayor Cook. The Texas Election Code referenced in the allegation states that corporations are prohibited from making a political contribution or political expenditure in connection with an election. The El Paso Times is a corporation.

The article, which has now been removed by the El Paso Times, involves two candidates involved in a political race about to be decided by voters of the community. It appears that someone within the El Paso Times, a corporation, decided to censor an article that would have an impact on the upcoming election results. The article itself meets all the requirements of fairness in that it reports information relevant to the community, it expresses facts about the status of an investigation and it gives both sides an opportunity to state their relevant positions, yet it was removed, for no apparent reason other than because it seemed to hurt one candidate directly.

As a corporation, has the El Paso Times not influenced the outcome of an election by first choosing to publish an article and then remove it? Would this action not be a violation of the Texas Election code relevant to corporations contributing to political causes in Texas?

Who is tasked with investigating a violation of the Texas law in question? Who makes the determination of whether an action warrants an investigation for this law?

Jaime Esparza makes the determination on whether an investigation is launched against a corporation for violations of the Texas election laws. Notwithstanding the recent Supreme Court ruling in regards to corporate political participation the Texas law has recently been employed to launch an investigation on at least one occasion. It stands to reason that Jaime Esparza was most likely to be hurt by the publication of the article that has now been removed.

Is there likely to be an investigation launched against the El Paso Times for a possible violation of the law? Probably not, as the likely investigator would be the very same person that may have benefited by the activity that allegedly would be a violation of the law in the first place.

Regardless of whether an investigation is ever launched what is more important to El Paso is whether the El Paso Times can be trusted to inform the community ethically and without outside undue influence.

How many articles has the El Paso Times chosen to censor? What reasons are used to make the determination of whether the community should be informed about current and relevant information? Who makes that determination? Who instigated the removal of the article? Does this mean that the El Paso Times allows itself to be influenced by outside forces as to what issues it covers or not?

Is this the type of news coverage the citizens of El Paso deserve? Can you trust the El Paso Times to report unbiased news free of outside influences important to the community, especially in light of the multiple corruption probes going on in the city today? Likely not as the El Paso Times self-censors articles whenever it likes.


The El Paso Nexus; Corruption and Drugs, No boxing for UTEP

Posted by Martín Paredes on April 27, 2012 Comments Off

El Paso just doesn’t get it. It is simple but the El Paso hierarchy wants you to stay placated. It is actually very sad, hardworking El Pasoans are decimated by the corrupt elite.

El Paso does not deserve a boxing match! That’s it. Forget the indignant attitude and the allegations of collusion. It comes down to a simple truth; El Paso officials are not to be trusted to safeguard the taxpayers of the community.

I know many of you are rallying around the cry of “it’s not fair” and “it’s about the money another city will make off this event”, but stop for a moment and think about the facts surrounding the city and the event.

Not only are El Paso’s public officials embroiled in an ever growing public corruption scandal but El Paso is also in the middle, and I argue complicit in the ongoing drug cartel wars. The ongoing corruption scandal did not start with the investigation of NCED in 2005 and will not end with the pending court cases.

I’ve been doing research on the current scandal and the very same people being implicated and whispered about are the very same people who were involved in corruption scandals in the 80’s and the 90’s. Remember Maury Kemp, El Paso Electric’s Evern Wall and Tad Smith who were indicted in 1991? Former El Paso Mayor Raymond Telles, Jr. was also indicted, in 1990, based on the Kemp investigations that had started in 1987. The same law firms and people were also quietly whispered about back then as they are today.

In doing my research for my upcoming book; Narco War; The Rise and Fall of the Mexican Drug Cartels – a pattern is starting to develop that puts El Paso squarely in the middle of the ongoing cartel wars. Do you remember Jimmy Chagra?

The Juarez Cartel, coincidently, or maybe not so coincidently, began to assert itself at about the same time the Chagra case became public knowledge. The rise of the Juarez Cartel correlates closely to El Paso’s economy.

Remember George De Angelis who alleged cartel influence in Carlos Leon’s police department in the 90’s?

The city’s political establishment quietly whispered but no one stood up and demanded accountability. In the end, George De Angelis was exonerated even though the city’s political machine tried to marginalize him and Carlos Leon was reprimanded by then Carlos Ramirez, the city’s mayor. But no investigation was ever conducted publically or transparently into the drug cartel influence alleged by De Angelis.

The same department involved in the fiasco with the same figure heads is the same department that gets its drug lab decertified. Who benefits from a decertified drug lab? This is also the same police department embroiled in the ticket fixing scandal that is seeing, rank-and-file police officers prosecuted for offenses that could not possibly have been conducted in a vacuum without upper echelon involvement. It is a continued pattern of feeding the populace something to chew on while the management continues to be insulated.

Meanwhile, all indications suggest that El Paso continues to be a major transit point for drugs, as it was back in the days of the cartel rise to challenge the Mexican state.

As if that wasn’t enough, look at the names of the people implicated, jailed or awaiting trial in the latest scandal. LKG Enterprises was incorporated in 1991. Robert Jones takes control of NCED in 1995 and begins manufacturing chemical suits for the military in 1997, under the Javits-Wagner-O’Day Act. Cirilio Madrid forms New Beginnings of Texas in 1996. In 1999, Carlos Leon is appointed Police Chief and almost immediately it is alleged that there is drug cartel influence within his immediate hierarchy while NISH has serious concerns about NCED.

In 2003, EPISD started to unload the Blue Flame building, a taxpayer debacle. Look at the names involved in that transaction. Does Access Administrators, Mena, Roark and Tafoya sound familiar? How about Robert Jones?

Bob Jones didn’t just appear on the El Paso scene out of the blue in the early 90’s. He had been chased out of Houston for malfeasance, but the El Paso elite was so eager for money to be doled out to them that they either didn’t care or kept it quiet. They even named Robert Jones, the “Entrepreneur of the Year” in 2005. Is the timeline starting to make sense now?

That’s just ten percent of the timeline I’ve developed so far!

El Paso’s modus operandi has and continues to be to marginalize or outright threaten people when they dare question the obvious. El Paso’s elite even goes so far as to embrace the crooks as long as the monies continue to flow into their pockets.

Remember Hector Villa and Villafam? Convicted right across the border in New Mexico and immediately embraced in El Paso. The El Paso Housing Authority is involved in scandal after scandal with the State threatening to step in. Yet, not one serious local investigation is initiated. The local school districts spend the local taxpayer’s money in one scam after another and the only thing that goes up, are the taxes.

I haven’t even mentioned the debacle of Shrode, the former medical examiner, and the numerous payouts of taxpayer monies to settle citizen demands for a better police force and the cases of drug trafficking levied against political and security forces. Does former police officer Alberto Madrid and former County Commissioner Willie Gandara ring a bell?

Madrid is hired to provide security for a wedding party and then allegedly steals the wedding gifts? What kind of police department employs someone willing to steal wedding gifts? Gandara, on the other hand, is alleged to be dealing drugs while a sitting county commissioner. What kind of community elects someone to office that is alleged to be a drug dealer? Is it the same community that elects Susie Byrd and Beto O’Rourke, whose own mother pleads guilty on behalf of her company to money laundering, to office while they publicly condone drug legalization?

And now the city, the very same people involved in protecting those dolling out money to them, are the same people once again floating the idea of a taxpayer funded sports arena? Guess who gets to fund that? And guess who stands to make millions from it?

It’s a revolving door; the taxpayers fund the playgrounds of the elite.

Now ask yourself, do you trust your city officials to safeguard and secure your home while the fight is on? Allowing the fight to happen at UTEP is putting the citizens of the community in the hands of the same people who can’t keep their own house in order and also have a history of looking out only for themselves instead of the community.

Anything that happens at the event will ultimately be paid for by the taxpayers of El Paso.

Remember the One-percent Doctrine? If there is even a one percent chance that something may go wrong then it is incumbent upon those who are tasked to protect the community against the danger.

The truth is, if something were to happen, the very same people demanding that UTEP hold the fight will be the very same people asking for someone’s head on a platter, not from among the elite, but from the everyday grunts that work in the community. The power elite have conditioned El Paso to blame everyone else except themselves. And that is exactly what is happening today. So stop the whining already and do something for yourselves.

The economic nexus for El Paso is clear; corruption and drugs. A boxing match is only a publicity stunt to placate the masses and give the elites something else to play with.

You want change El Paso? Rise up and demand accountability, not from Austin, but from your own official’s malfeasance. Until then, El Paso will just remain the same, a transit point for drugs heading north and guns heading south. That’s the simple truth of why El Paso does not deserve the boxing match.


Political Shenanigans: Bordering on Corruption

Posted by Martín Paredes on March 30, 2012 Comments Off

As the political season gets fully underway the political shenanigans are starting to make their appearance. I call them shenanigans because although not illegal, they nonetheless border on unethical behavior, if not outright corruption.

El Paso has been dealing with numerous criminal investigations around the notion of public corruption for the last seven to ten years, and by my most recent research even longer. The phrase “public corruption” is in everyone’s vocabulary yet the political gamesmanship continues unchallenged.

Case in point, yesterday I received my El Paso water bill. Besides the fact that an empty house in El Paso, with no winter grass watering actually costs me more than a fully occupied house with grass watering in Florida, there was an insert from our illustrious El Paso County Tax Assessor-Collector, Victor Flores.

Flores’ does not break any rules or laws as the brochure provides information about the “vehicle registration program”, one of the services provided by the County agency. But the timing and the design clearly serves an ulterior motive.

The brochure’s cover is a glossy, full color picture of Victor A. Flores, the current incumbent, along with his full name, the seal of the County of El Paso and other contact information. In politics there is one primary goal that needs to be accomplished to get elected. Create positive name recognition.

This is especially true for political offices that are overshadowed by other more glamorous offices or controversy. Most voters are too overwhelmed to pay attention to all of the political races so for the smaller competitions the voter just goes down the ballot and picks the name they recognize over the one that they don’t.

This is why elections are so expensive and why the “pay-to-play” mentality came into being.

I have two significant problems with Flores’ glossy insert. First is the fact that it was paid for by public funds, money that the taxpayers of the community paid through registration and other fees. Second, and more important, is the fact that it is a thinly disguised politically motivated, self-serving shenanigan that serves only one person; Victor A. Flores. Contrary to what Flores may claim, the fact is that the information contained therein is of little interest that most water utility customers will, at most, open the brochure to peek inside and then discard of it. That is after being bombarded with the image of Flores and his name, in the midst of an election campaign.

In other words, the taxpayers of the community paid twice to help Victor Flores get elected. First they pay taxes, or fees, to Flores’ entity which then takes a portion of that as an administrative fee to run his office. This money was used to design, prepare and print the insert. To add further insult to the taxpayer, the brochure is inserted into the water bills of the very same taxpayers that already paid for its production so that the taxpayer can once again pay for its deliver to their mail box. The postage and envelope were paid by the water utility, another taxpayer funded entity.

As with all political shenanigans, follow the money. In this case who stands to benefit the most from this insert?

The taxpayer?

Stop laughing as that is what Flores is arguing. How about Victor Flores? Does he stand to gain from the name recognition he has just reinforced with the insert?

Of course he did!

It is no wonder the general public is apathetic and uninvolved in the political process. Too many games are played with the public’s money they are forced to pay for that they have become disenchanted with the system.

This is an issue that is played by most, if not all political stakeholders one way or another and by all political parties. Not one is immune. The political system is a self-perpetuating corrupt machine that skirts the intent of the law, sometimes crossing it, all in the name of election results.

And for what? To get a pay check from the taxpayers of the community.

It’s disheartening and destructive for the taxpayers but unfortunately as disinterested, un-participating spectators each election cycle, we only have ourselves to blame because we know better yet we are not willing to demand accountability. We keep electing them either by not participating or voting based on a specific issue important to us rather than for the betterment of the community. We see the corruption, and the corruption is us.


The trouble with politicians is their actions: Beto O’Rourke exemplifies

Posted by Martín Paredes on September 8, 2011 Comments Off

Former city representative Beto O’Rourke recently confirmed that he will be challenging US Representative Silvestre Reyes in the March Democratic Primary. Although recently confirmed, there have been months of speculation on his intent to seek the 16th Congressional seat. Both the incumbent and the challenger have plenty of actions to create the necessary record for the electorate to make a decision on Election Day.

Local bloggers have fallen over themselves trying to garner attention of the upcoming bruising battle by focusing on the controversy of O’Rourke’s use of a nickname rather than his given name. Funny how politics can be, the use of a nickname becomes the central issue rather than the policy decisions and the actions of the politicians.

In the case of Beto O’Rourke, although portrayed as a newcomer looking to unseat the incumbent, the fact is that Beto O’Rourke has cemented a record that will be hard to overcome for the typical El Paso voter, regardless of the nickname he runs under.

Issue: Conflict of Interest

In early 2006, the Paso del Norte Group comprised of Beto O’Rourke, his father-in-law – William Sanders, and various other powerful businessmen secretly crafted a plan to modernize downtown El Paso. The plan called for relocating people out of their homes under the auspice of rebuilding a historical part of downtown to a more palatable format for economic revitalization. As the plan trickled into the community’s consciousness an unmistakable truth materialized: eminent domain had to be used in order to accomplish the goals of the project.

The issue of eminent domain comes down to one simple truth; the government targets a house and determines that it will take it regardless of the owner’s wishes. It does not matter that the home has been in the family for generations nor does it matter that the owner does not want to move. Under eminent domain the government has a right to take your home for a price determined by the government and supported by the court systems, whether you want to sell it or not.

Coincidently the El Paso downtown, both commercial and residential, is comprised mostly of Mexican and Korean residents and shop owners. Its culture is thus something they have developed and honed over generations to fit their needs and not the needs of others.  Therefore you are more likely to find a panaderia selling Mexican sweet bread rather than a Starubucks, selling coffee.

Generally I refrain from commenting on racial divides because, frankly, racial divides exist all over the world and are not unique to Americans. In this case, the racial divide must be pointed out because the Paso del Norte Group made it so with a study commissioned by them that made racial comments about the area. The GlassBeach study, a city rebranding study, was funded by El Paso City Council of which Beto O’Roruke is a member.

GlassBeach Study

The GlassBeach study purported to study how downtown El Paso is perceived in order to develop a branding campaign to make it more palatable for redevelopment. In complete ignorance of the makeup of the existing demographic of the target area, or perhaps based on the assumption that the demographic does not vote, the study proceeded to denigrate the community that makes up downtown El Paso through culturally insensitive imagery and perpetuating racist stereotypes of the population. Beto O’Rourke supported the study financially through his vote at City Council and vocally in public commentary.

The conflict of interest

As a city representative Beto O’Rourke voted and participated in multiple actions of City Council in regards to downtown redevelopment. Although O’Roruke has continuously taken the position that he does not have a conflict of interest in the downtown redevelopment effort, he finally submitted a signed affidavit that he does, in fact, have a conflict of interest, but not before participating in multiple votes, that in at least one case, was instrumental in moving the plan forward as the vote was affirmed by one vote over the others.

As a matter of fact, according to O’Rourke’s conflict of interest affidavit, the conflict did not come about from his relationship with his father-in-law, William Sanders but rather his wife, who is employed by someone who owns property in the area. This goes against those who have consistently pointed out that the guiding force behind the downtown redevelopment plan is, William Sanders, O’Roruke’s father-in-law.

According to Tanny Berg, a well-respected businessman with significant ties to El Paso downtown, William Sanders, Beto O’Rourke’s father-in-law is the driving force behind the downtown redevelopment effort. Not only that, but Sanders is a founding member of the Paso del Norte Group who developed the downtown redevelopment plan and is the founder of the Borderplex Community Trust, a REIT designed to acquire investment property in downtown El Paso.

Although Sanders, at first, stated that in order to avoid a potential conflict of interest for O’Rourke that any monies he made from his participation in the project would be donated to charity. Sanders backtracked from that promise a short time later.

In the meantime, O’Rourke continued to participate on votes directly related to the downtown redevelopment effort.

Ethics Complaints Filed

Because of the apparent ethical conflicts, opponents of the downtown redevelopment effort filed ethics complaints against Beto O’Rourke in 2006.

According to the complaint, O’Rourke’s conflict stems from two issues in relation to the downtown redevelopment efforts. The first one was his company’s alleged financial benefit from providing services to the Paso del Norte Group.

Although, no longer a member of the Paso del Norte Group, O’Rourke’s mother and wife were members of the group spearheading the revitalization efforts while O’Rourke was voting on the plan’s requests before City Council. William Sanders “is a highly influential member” of the group, according to the complaint.

The complaint was amended later to add the following allegation against O’Rourke. According to the amended complaint, O’Rourke received favors from his father-in-law that according to the complaint rise above “normal familial benefits”. The complaint alleges that Beto O’Rourke took his financial records to be analyzed by Verde’s company accountant “three days before the public unveiling of PDNG’s Revitalization Plan”. Verde Group, LLC. is owned by Sanders. According to the complaint, this points to a “troubling impression that Sanders unduly enjoys his favor in the performance of his official duties”.

Unfortunately for the community, but seemingly fortunate for Beto O’Rourke, the ethics complaints never got the opportunity to be reviewed and acted upon by the city’s Ethics Commission because the City Attorney, Charles McNabb, decided that the complaint could not move forward to the Ethics Commission. Charles McNabb, the city attorney under Ray Caballero, one of O’Rourke’s allies in the divided Democratic Party of El Paso, left the position after Caballero’s loss to the new mayor, Joe Wardy. McNabb was brought back from Chicago by the current mayor, John Cook. O’Rourke is on the record stating that McNabb advised him on whether he had a conflict or not before an actual complaint was filed.

Under the city’s municipal code, it is the city attorney that determines whether a complaint is forwarded to the ethics commission, or not. It is a classic case of the wolf guarding the hen-house. In this case, McNabb counsels O’Rourke on whether there is potential for an ethical violation while at the same time being the gatekeeper of the commission that is tasked with hearing evidence of possible ethical violations.

The city’s ethics commission never got the opportunity to hear the evidence levied against O’Rourke.

Issue: The Drug War

There is no doubt that the drug war in Mexico has been center stage for years now with El Paso and Cd. Juárez being the nexus to the death and destruction of its affects upon society. Plain and simple, people are dying in the ongoing battle for control of the lucrative drug trade.

As an elected official, Beto O’Rourke is tasked with making policy for the community. Although outside of the purview of his elected office, Beto O’Rourke nonetheless has taken the controversial stance that legalizing drugs will somehow placate the drug dealers. Regardless of one’s stance on the issue, the problem is that the community has sacrificed, continues to sacrifice to control drug proliferation and has made it clear it is not interested in drug legalization.

Drug Legalization

In 2009, Beto O’Rourke on the other hand has publically and nationally called for an “honest open national debate on ending the prohibition of drugs”. He made his position clear on the issue as a city representative when he added those specific words to a City Council resolution in support of Cd. Juárez, El Paso’s sister city on the Mexican side of the border and arguable the citizens that have suffered the most in the going struggle against the drug cartels. O’Rourke’s amendment was killed by Mayor Cook who vetoed it.

Beto O’Rourke had nonetheless made his position clear, both personally and under the auspice of his official capacity as a city councilman. Clearly and from a policy perspective, O’Rourke wants to explore the legalization of drugs.

Is this really representative of the will of the people of El Paso?

Money laundering

Money laundering has been identified by governments as one of the major tools drug dealers use to fund their murders and continue to traffic in their drugs. This is the reason why the governments of both Mexico and the United States have setup rules related to dealing in cash. The laws are designed to allow government agencies to monitor and identify money laundering by criminals.

In May, 2010, Charlotte’s, Inc., owned by Beto O’Rourke’s mother, pled guilty to “structuring transactions to evade reporting requirements”. In other words, the company handled cash in a way that allowed it to avoid reporting where the large cash transactions were coming from, as required by federal law. The company was sentenced to five years’ probation and ordered to pay a fine of $500,000 with $250,000 probated and the remaining $250,000 to be paid in annual installments of $50,000.

According to the plea agreement, “Charlotte’s employees structured approximately $630,745.28 in cash payments in excess of $10,000 received from the ‘particular customer’”.  The plea agreement shows that Charlotte’s also accepted additional cash payments totaling an additional $1,071,934.00. Charlotte’s plead guilty to “structuring” the cash payments in order to avoid reporting them to the government as required.

There are two very troubling aspects to this issue. The first is that the mount, over $1.5 million came from a small group of individuals with a majority being attributed to a “particular customer”. Even more troubling is the fact that although over one million dollars in cash was handled by the company, not one individual, much less the owner, was ever charged, much less convicted of a crime. Since when does a company commit a crime without the help of an individual?

Even more troubling is that the only reason someone “structures” cash transactions is to avoid reporting them to the government, something that only benefits people engaged in criminal behavior.

On one hand, O’Rourke advocates drug legalization while at the same time his mother’s company pleads guilty to structuring large cash transactions to avoid reporting requirements.

Issue: The will of the voter; trustee versus delegate

Beto O’Rourke is not shy about taking the position that he is elected as a “trustee” whose job is to make a decision on what he thinks is better for the community, rather than what the constituency demands.

The domestic partners issue is the first example of O’Rourke’s stance that he is better suited to make decisions for the community rather than to express the will of the community. Although Beto O’Rourke has vainly tried to wrap this issue under the cloak of a civil rights issue right out of the 60’s, the reality is that it has nothing to do with civil rights, but rather about how the community wants its money spent. The community is clear that it is against extending benefits coverage, at the expense of the taxpayer, to unmarried couples. Beto O’Rourke, on the other hand feels that his position, although contrary to the will of the people, should be the official policy of the community.

Eminent domain

During the debacle and the continued threat to people’s homes under the city’s power of eminent domain, Beto O’Rourke has consistently supported the use of eminent domain, as supported by the Paso del Norte Group, while his father-in-law leads the endeavour, notwithstanding what his constituency, those under threat of losing their homes, have demanded of him.

In other words, Beto O’Rourke has taken the position, through words and actions, that he represents the interests of what he believes is better for the community, even though it might benefit his family and friends while being detrimental to those that he represents. He votes for his needs, rather than the needs of those he purports to represent.


The Drug Capital of the World can’t even test the drugs!

Posted by Martín Paredes on July 9, 2011 3 comments

The El Paso Times broke a story a few days ago detailing how the El Paso Texas Police Department’s drug lab has been decertified to test for certain drugs in criminal cases. That’s right; it is El Paso, Texas and not Cd. Juárez! For at least the last four years, Cd. Juárez has been embroiled in a life and death battle for its very survival against drug traffickers. Nationally and internationally, Cd. Juárez has been labeled the deadliest city in the world, while El Paso has been labeled the third-safest city in the nation.

And now it turns out that the El Paso Police Department can’t even keep its drug lab certified. The drug lab is crucial to prosecuting drug cases. According to the newspaper report, the city’s drug crime lab has been suspended from analyzing certain drugs because its personnel and process have been called into question. The accrediting organization that suspended the El Paso lab has only sanctioned one other lab in its history. And, according to the newspaper, city officials, including the mayor, were made aware of the lab’s deficiency by the newspaper and not by its own staff. The city manager is quoted by the paper as stating that she is “not upset” at only finding out of the serious failures of one of her departments one day before the paper, although the police chief knew of the probation since at least June 27.

The paper reports that one technician took 45 tries to finally confirm that a sample was actually cocaine, only making that determination on the last try. The report adds that the supposedly secure lab wasn’t secure at all. This is important for prosecutions as a chain of custody needs to be kept in order to ensure that the sample by which someone is convicted has not been tampered with.

The seriousness of this problem has been downplayed by the politicians of the city. Drug crime is central to the rampant drug war going on in the region and the city’s politicians seem to care nothing about their ability to determine whether a sample is actually an illegal substance or not?

This is ripe for conspiracy theorists. Why would it matter that a city’s drug lab is unsecure or that a technician can’t determine cocaine is cocaine until the very last try, 45 tries later. Why is this important? Imagine, for a moment, that a drug trafficker wants to manipulate drug tests. The drug trafficker gets to determine who goes to jail with a positive sample and who goes free with a negative one. Are the ingredients there for that scenario? We know that according to the accreditation agency a technician took 45 times to determine a sample is positive for cocaine. So why not test a sample until it gives the desired result? Better yet, since the chain of custody cannot be guaranteed why not just tamper with the samples?

A January 25, 2011 Congressional Report titled; “Southwest Border Violence: Issues in Identifying and Measuring Spillover Violence”, quoted The National Drug Threat Assessment, 2008 as summarizing that the “Southwest Border Region is the most significant national-level storage, transportation, and transshipment area for illicit drug shipments that are destined for drug markets throughout the United States”. El Paso is geographically at the center of the southwest border corridor and is directly across the border from Cd. Juárez. The report adds that “as much as 90% of the cocaine consumed in the United States” comes through the Mexican border.

On one-hand, El Paso is proclaimed the third-safest city in the nation, while its sister city; a walking distance from El Paso’s downtown, is labeled the deadliest in the world. Also, the US government has classified the southwest border as the most significant player of drug trafficking. Drugs are the nexus to both. What could El Paso have that Juárez doesn’t that keeps drug violence at bay?

It is easy to assume that corruption in Mexico is what keeps them apart. Hmmm, let’s look at that for a moment.

On August 30, 1999, then Assistant Chief of Police, George DeAngelis alleged that El Paso Police officer Luis Cortinas, a personal assistant to then El Paso Police Chief Carlos Leon, was involved with drug traffickers. The subsequent internal investigation by the department resulted in the re-assignment of Cortinas, without charges being filed and with DeAngelis calling the investigation a “whitewash“. Subsequently, DeAngelis settled with the city for $250,000, after DeAngelis had been accused of leaking confidential police information to the media.

According to court records, DeAngelis and another officer were setup in a police sting where then city attorney Stephanie Osburn passed along false information about another police investigation to both officers in the hope that it would appear in the media. DeAngelis sued and won his case. On one hand, DeAngelis alleges drug trafficking ties against one of the closest advisers to the police chief and DeAngelis is then setup in a sting trying to determine who leaked the information to the public resulting in the city having to pay DeAngelis $250,000. Although serious drug trafficking accusations were made, the only result was that the accuser was targeted for leaking police information while it appears that no serious investigation was ever made about the initial allegation.

Of course one incident does not make a case. So let’s look at two other recent incidents. In 2010, city council members; Beto O’Rourke, Steve Ortega and Susie Byrd attempted to pass a city resolution asking for a debate in legalizing drugs. The measure failed only because of pressure from the national leadership. Subsequent to that, in May 2010, Charlotte’s Furniture, an upscale El Paso furniture store owned by O’Rourke’s mother, plead guilty to not properly documenting over $630,000 in cash transactions to the government. Interestingly, in a plea agreement, the store pleads guilty and no individual is held accountable for the failure to report cash transactions.

Since when does a store handle large cash transactions without any human intervention? More importantly, the court documents show that the cash in question was kept in the store safe and that it came from a single family. Again, who keeps over half a million dollars in cash and why pay for furniture in cash to begin with? A plea agreement basically ends any serious investigation into the events surrounding the money.

The city, like any other city, is rampant with rumors of drug trafficking ties to locals and corruption at the highest levels. Whether true or exaggerations or somewhere in between what we are left to deal with are the facts.

1. The US/Mexico border is the focal point of illicit drugs entering the US.
2. El Paso is at the center of the southwest corridor.
3. El Paso is directly across Cd. Juárez, arguably one of the deadliest cities in the world.
4. El Paso City Government, led by Susie Byrd, Steve Ortega and Beto O’Rourke attempted to pass a resolution to study the legalization of drugs.
5. A member of two prominent local families with influential political ties, O’Rourke’s furniture business pleads guilty to not properly documenting over half a million dollars in cash.
6. Rampant rumors of drug trafficking infiltration of local police forces is alleged over years with a former assistant police chief publically demanding an investigation into the higher echelons only to be targeted and ultimately cleared of releasing information to the public alleging police corruption.
7. The El Paso Police Department’s drug lab is accused of incompetence and is only one of two labs that have ever been put on probation.
8. The city’s political leadership wasn’t even aware of the police department’s serious problems until it was brought to their attention by the media.

So the question that begs, no demands to be asked is why is El Paso exempt from the violence across the border? Is it really because the drug traffickers are truly afraid of the American justice system, or could it be, that they have a friendly city for their illicit trade?