In San Antonio, a former Starr County sheriff pleaded guilty last Friday to one drug trafficking charge for assisting the Mexican Gulf Cartel as it smuggled drugs through his border county. Former Sheriff Reymundo "Rey" Guerra was arrested last October after he was one of 29 people indicted by a federal grand jury. He admitted passing information to an informant whom he knew had gone back to work for the cartel in return for payments of $2,000 to $3,000. He also admitted passing information about who tipped off authorities in a raid that resulted in the seizure of 314 kilos of pot and one kilo of cocaine. Guerra pleaded to one count of conspiracy to distribute narcotics as part of a plea deal that saw two other charges dropped. He faces from 10 years to life in prison when sentenced in July. Until then, he remains free on bond.
Friday, May 08, 2009
Guilty plea from corrupt border Sheriff
Updating a story covered here on Grits last fall, StoptheDrugWar.org brings this news from a high-profile South Texas corruption case:
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Rolling Stone,
The Making of a Narco State
As Mexico descends into brutality and lawlessness, the government itself has become a tool of the drug lords
by GUY LAWSON Posted Mar 04, 2009
"Mexico is on the edge of the abyss," retired U.S. general and former drug czar Barry McCaffrey wrote in a strategic assessment at the end of last year. Michael Hayden, the outgoing head of the CIA, said in January that the threat of a narco state in Mexico is one of the gravest dangers to American security, on a par with a nuclear–armed Iran.
A recent report by the U.S. Joint Forces Command likens instability in Mexico to the risk of a failed state in Pakistan, warning that a "rapid and sudden collapse" could occur in the coming years. "Any descent by Mexico into chaos," the report concludes, "would demand an American response based on the serious implications for homeland security alone."
Keep your eye on the border. This kind of corruption doesn't stop at the border and it is a danger to the rule of law in the US. It seems to control a good part of South Texas and these transformations occur in a step by step fashion until it becomes the norm and people loose the will to resist.
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