![]() Attorney Raul Loya, who represented them, said the federal agents handling Lalo were a joke. Jordan was an expert witness in a civil suit filed against ICE by relatives of people killed by the Mexican drug cartel. Jordan says on top of all that, ICE knew who was doing the killing and where the bodies were buried, but didn't share any of that information with Mexican authorities. In my mind, he was given a license to kill. And Lalo was with them.Įven if the man was John Gotti in his prime, you do not allow an informant to run the investigation you do not let the informant commit felonies, to commit murder. In the fall of 2003, Santillan and a band of crooked Mexican police officers went on an eight-month crime spree - killing, kidnapping and torturing drug rivals in Juarez. He was climbing the ranks of the drug cartel and was becoming a trusted ally to Juarez's third in command. "That was the first incident that I ever came across that he was working both sides," Bencomo says.ĭrug smuggling turned out to be the least of Lalo's exploits. In hindsight, Bencomo says, the pot in the pickup should have been a warning sign. ICE kept Lalo on its payroll, and even worked with a federal prosecutor to get his drug charges dropped. ![]() ![]() The Drug Enforcement Administration blacklisted him. At a Border Patrol checkpoint, Lalo got caught smuggling more than 100 pounds of marijuana stuffed into the wheels of his pickup. 3 man in the Juarez cartel.īut as that investigation started, ICE's prized snitch came under suspicion. Now, with Lalo on board, agents set their sights on a Juarez kingpin known as the Engineer: Heriberto Santillan Tabares.īencomo says the agents were told that Santillan was the No. The El Paso Customs office (Customs later became Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE) had never gotten much recognition. I took the recording and I told my supervisor that I didn't wish to be part of the case.įormer ICE Agent Raul Bencomo, recalling listening to a tape recording that Lalo made of a murder I had to go to the restroom and throw up.
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