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 veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 6,529
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 In Mexico, a police victory against smuggling brings deadly revenge
#8888498 - 09/06/08 09:16 PM (2 months, 27 days ago) |
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In Mexico, a police victory against smuggling brings deadly revenge
September 6, 2008 - Los Angeles Times
Juan Jose Soriano, deputy commander of the Tecate Police Department, helped U.S. authorities find a drug-smuggling tunnel. The next morning, gunmen shot him 45 times in his bedroom.
A drug-sniffing dog pulled the U.S. Border Patrol agent to a rusty cargo container in the storage yard just north of the Mexican border. Peeking inside, he saw stacks of bundled marijuana and a man with a gun tucked in his waistband.
The officer and the man locked eyes for a moment before the smuggler scrambled down a hole and disappeared. By the time backup agents cast their flashlights into the opening, he was long gone, through a winding tunnel to Mexico.
U.S. authorities called a trusted friend on the other side, Juan Jose Soriano.
The deputy commander of the Tecate Police Department gathered the entire shift of 30 officers at the decrepit police headquarters on Avenida Benito Juarez. Soriano knew any of them might leak information to the tunnel's gangster operators. So he took their cellphones and sent them away on a ruse about a car chase near the border.
The veteran officer told only a few trusted aides about the tunnel. Later that day, the officers went into the U.S. and traversed the length of the passageway to an empty building, where they found computers, ledgers and other key evidence.
For U.S. authorities, it was an encouraging example of cross-border cooperation in the drug war. For Mexico's crime bosses, it was a police victory that could not go unpunished.
That night last December, while Soriano slept with his wife and baby daughter, two heavily armed men broke into his house and shot him 45 times. The 35-year-old father of three young daughters died in his bedroom. He had lasted two days as the second-in-command of the department.
The death of a police officer is generally greeted in Mexico with a knowing smirk. All too often, it is assumed the cop in question was playing for both sides in the raging drug war that has claimed at least 2,000 lives in Mexico this year.
But all indications, from U.S. and Mexican sources, suggestthat Soriano was among the good ones, poorly paid but somehow immune to the lure of big money and the threat of deadly firepower from Mexico's violent drug gangs.
Cooperation with U.S. law enforcement ranges from secretive intelligence sharing to high-profile raids and arrests. It is aggressive police work that runs the risk of death for honest cops.
An intense, soft-spoken man, Soriano struggled for years to clean up the troubled department. But his corruption-busting ways earned him only contempt from many cops. At the small shrine to fallen officers in the courtyard at police headquarters, Soriano's image is conspicuously absent.
"It's a shame," said Donald McDermott, a former Border Patrol assistant chief who worked with Soriano. "He was one of the good guys . . . His untimely demise was a blow to border enforcement on both sides of the border."
A city of 120,000 tucked in the rugged mountains 40 miles east of Tijuana, Tecate is best known for its tree-lined plaza and beer brewery. But its tranquil veneer masks its reputation as a hub of organized crime groups that use the surrounding area of boulder-strewn peaks and remote valleys as a launching pad for smuggling drugs and humans.
The 200-member police department has long been suspected of functioning as an arm of the drug cartels, providing protection and ensuring that smuggling routes remain open along the 75 miles of border for which the department is responsible.
Soriano stood apart: an aggressive, disciplined and incorruptible lawman who aspired to become police chief, according to law enforcement sources on both sides of the border. Unlike most Mexican cops, he had a degree in police science. And he spent three years working for Grupo Beta, a federal immigrant-safety force with whom he once saved 65 immigrants in a snowstorm.
In 2003, Soriano took charge of Tecate's SWAT-like special response team. In a break from past practices, he reached out to U.S. agencies for training opportunities and cross-border crime fighting.
Soriano's officers arrested border bandits, disrupted smuggling operations and went where cops hadn't gone in years, say U.S. and Mexican sources who spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing retaliation.
Soriano was a go-to source for the U.S. Border Patrol and other agencies and was a regular at binational meetings, where he shared information with his U.S. counterparts. "He wanted to do things the right way," said one Mexican law enforcement source. "But that was a problem for many people."
Police brass reassigned Soriano to a desk job in 2005. "They took away his wings. They weren't ready for where he was going," said one U.S. law enforcement source.
Late last year, Tecate's new mayor salvaged Soriano's career, asking him to take the No. 2 job at the department. Law enforcement contacts across the border applauded the move and didn't wait long to restore ties.
This time, though, the stakes were higher.
A well-concealed tunnel can generate tens of millions of dollars in drug profits for traffickers, who pay huge amounts of protection money to keep them open and threaten anyone who talks about their location.
It was crucial to quickly find the opening of the tunnel discovered that December morning. U.S. authorities didn't want the operators to have time to clear out the drugs and other evidence. In other tunnel cases, Mexican authorities had been slow to respond, allowing crime bosses to abscond with drugs.
Soriano took immediate action. After confiscating the cops' cellphones, he dispatched them to the four-lane border crossing and told them to look out for a fugitive trying to flee from California authorities. Then he and several trusted officers started searching for the tunnel in homes and businesses near the border. He kept a close watch on crooked cops, who he feared would slip away to warn the tunnel operators.
The search failed. Someone would have to traverse the length of the passageway to find the opening.
Soriano volunteered seven officers. They crossed into the U.S. and descended into the tunnel while U.S. and Mexican authorities waited for them to surface in Mexico. About 45 minutes later, the Mexican team climbed up the 80-foot-deep shaft into a vacant two-story building a block south of the border.
A Virgin of Guadalupe picture hung near the opening. Nearby were computer monitors and scribbled ledgers. Soriano, alerted by a radio call from his team, arrived at the building just ahead of the crush of reporters and other police. Mexican federal agents took over the crime scene.
At about 2 a.m. the next morning, a convoy of vehicles drove down the deeply rutted dirt road leading to Soriano's modest house, which was decorated with a string of Christmas lights. Two men armed with AK-47s broke in. Soriano jumped out of bed, but the men stopped him before he could grab his weapons in the hallway.
Soriano seemed to recognize his attackers and begged them not to shoot, a source said. But the men opened fire, the spray of bullets coming within inches of Soriano's year-old daughter sleeping in the crib by his bed.
Since Soriano's death, relations between the Tecate Police Department and U.S. agencies are almost nonexistent. The force doesn't have a liaison officer, and the border lands are more lawless than ever, Mexican sources say.
Soriano's slaying sent a message to other cops who would dare cooperate with U.S. authorities. That was clear at Soriano's funeral, where many cops seemed to be celebrating his death, said one person who attended. Some laughed, while others chatted loudly in gestures of disrespect.
Mexican authorities suspect police were involved in the slaying, either as the triggermen or the lookouts for hit men. Nobody has been arrested in the case.
Meanwhile, the tunnel investigation has stalled. There have been no arrests, and it is unknown who was behind the construction and financing of the passageway.
On the day of the tunnel discovery, Soriano turned over a largely intact crime scene. But soon, dozens of soldiers, police, federal agents and reporters gathered to marvel at the sophisticated lighting and water pumping system. Other unidentified people seemed to linger for no apparent reason, said U.S. and Mexican sources.
The computers and other valuable evidence had vanished.
Soriano once wrote on an employment evaluation that he wanted to be a police commander and lead a team of loyal, aggressive cops whom he would treat as friends. "I want to be surrounded by honest police who would never betray anyone."
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 ExplosiveMango
HallucinogenusDigitallus
 
Registered: 07/12/05
Posts: 2,962
Last seen: 1 day, 11 hours
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Re: In Mexico, a police victory against smuggling brings deadly revenge [Re: veggie]
#8888973 - 09/06/08 11:22 PM (2 months, 27 days ago) |
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A police victory?
Right.
We need a mission accomplished banner.
--------------------
Know your self.
Know your substance.
Know your source.
Stop knowing what you are and realize what you could be.
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magicgreenbeans
Stranger
Registered: 08/07/08
Posts: 45
Last seen: 19 days, 13 hours
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Re: In Mexico, a police victory against smuggling brings deadly revenge [Re: ExplosiveMango]
#8889133 - 09/07/08 12:09 AM (2 months, 27 days ago) |
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i dont feel that the death of cops are the answer to the drug wars unfortunately. I too have wished death upon many a cop just because he was in my vision or had come up in conversation. but it was all empty rage. i feel sorry that the drug war has come to killing people that were really only doing their job. Maybe he had to do things that he didnt agree with, maybe he thinks drugs are legal, but he still had to make drug busts to be a good cop, and provide for his family. And just because he worked with cops from both sides of the border doesnt mean anything, cross border relations are very important, not because of the drug war, but kidnappings, and other illegal crimes, such as immigration issues, better communication is key, and this officer was integral in that respect, though maybe for the wrong causes at times. Maybe he was trying to get high enough in the pyramid of power that he could actually influence things that happened around him, and in order to do so he had to play the whole game by the rules just to get by. I guess what im trying to say is that, this cop died, and while i do feel that the war on drugs is a gross waste of human thought and capital, but its not so much the cops fault as it is the voters, maybe you feel that drugs should be legal, but a majority may feel otherwise, thus is the way laws are made. that is what happened in the days when drug use was widely outlawed. This cop was just upholding what the public wanted as the law, doing his job as he was supposed to, in a way that overall bettered his community and those of others, and was killed for it. How would you like it if someone killed you for doing what you thought was right? You would think it was wrong, and would fight even harder for the causes that were believed in by you. Thats all i gotta say.
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AltonBrown
Friend
Registered: 08/14/08
Posts: 101
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Re: In Mexico, a police victory against smuggling brings deadly revenge [Re: magicgreenbeans]
#8889318 - 09/07/08 01:12 AM (2 months, 27 days ago) |
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fuck cops, kill'em all. the price of WHATEVER rises as WHATEVER's mass decreases.
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Groomies
Ghost
Registered: 08/16/07
Posts: 687
Last seen: 6 hours, 14 minutes
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Re: In Mexico, a police victory against smuggling brings deadly revenge [Re: veggie]
#8890065 - 09/07/08 08:39 AM (2 months, 27 days ago) |
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and if it was legal, then things wouldn't have to be this way.
why buy apples from a farmer when you can buy it at a super market?
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Alan Rockefeller
Mycologist
Registered: 03/10/07
Posts: 6,440
Last seen: 6 hours, 58 minutes
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Re: In Mexico, a police victory against smuggling brings deadly revenge [Re: magicgreenbeans]
#8891051 - 09/07/08 01:54 PM (2 months, 26 days ago) |
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Quote:
i dont feel that the death of cops are the answer to the drug wars unfortunately. I too have wished death upon many a cop just because he was in my vision or had come up in conversation. but it was all empty rage. i feel sorry that the drug war has come to killing people that were really only doing their job. How would you like it if someone killed you for doing what you thought was right? You would think it was wrong, and would fight even harder for the causes that were believed in by you. Thats all i gotta say.
Remember that the Nazis who put jews into the gas chambers were just doing their job.
"Just doing your job" is a lame excuse, soldiers in Iraq use it to justify murder all the time.
Remember in the case of the Nazis, they were punished severely in the nuremburg trials, "Just doing my job" was not an acceptable excuse.
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ExplosiveMango
HallucinogenusDigitallus
Registered: 07/12/05
Posts: 2,962
Last seen: 1 day, 11 hours
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Re: In Mexico, a police victory against smuggling brings deadly revenge [Re: ExplosiveMango]
#8891089 - 09/07/08 02:02 PM (2 months, 26 days ago) |
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Quote:
ExplosiveMango said:
A police victory?
Right.
We need a mission accomplished banner.
I was being satirical, I mean a banner like the one G.W. hung in Iraq.
Quote:
but its not so much the cops fault as it is the voters, maybe you feel that drugs should be legal, but a majority may feel otherwise, thus is the way laws are made.
I love how the authoritarians just pat each other on the back as they talk about this "democracy".
Where was that check-box that I signed that said "drugs should be illegal"?
Oh, I remember;
behind my back.
--------------------
Know your self.
Know your substance.
Know your source.
Stop knowing what you are and realize what you could be.
Edited by ExplosiveMango (09/07/08 02:05 PM)
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aiyobro
moochster
Registered: 06/30/07
Posts: 1,740
Last seen: 9 hours, 40 minutes
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Re: In Mexico, a police victory against smuggling brings deadly revenge [Re: ExplosiveMango]
#8891333 - 09/07/08 03:09 PM (2 months, 26 days ago) |
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man i really hate feds, cops and all that jazz but what gets me really going is a back stabber, thatd put me on some sadist shit i kid you not.
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M'kay- mr. Mackey
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MarioTrip
since84
Registered: 10/21/07
Posts: 2,111
Loc: 69 w/ you
Last seen: 2 months, 12 days
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Re: In Mexico, a police victory against smuggling brings deadly revenge [Re: aiyobro]
#8891843 - 09/07/08 04:43 PM (2 months, 26 days ago) |
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hahahaha!!!
another pig bit the DUST!!!!
for what???
what does his pathetic mexican family have now?????
a dead father
a dead husband
over what?
not protecting the life of his family.
nope!
dead because....of....a .....weed.....
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I'm Livin' It, distribute it
The streets are inhibited
By cut throat niggas just like me
that out there getting dividends
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Alan Rockefeller
Mycologist
Registered: 03/10/07
Posts: 6,440
Last seen: 6 hours, 58 minutes
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Re: In Mexico, a police victory against smuggling brings deadly revenge [Re: ExplosiveMango]
#8892729 - 09/07/08 07:33 PM (2 months, 26 days ago) |
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Quote:
Where was that check-box that I signed that said "drugs should be illegal"?
Oh, I remember;
behind my back.
One day they will learn that violence just makes more violence and that the war on drugs will always fail. Actually they learned that in the 70's and they know exactly what they are doing.
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