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Archive: "Death is better than life in ADX Supermax" Says Warden

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Chivis Martinez Borderland Beat  a republish of my previous post.  



It is the home of the Unibomber, Green River Killer, Boston Bomber, The 9/11 conspirator, Atlanta Olympics Bomber and many other of the most notorious convicts. And consensus is that it is the probable upcoming home of Joquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera, should he be convicted.

It is the U.S. Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility in Florence Colorado.  Built as the “Alcatraz of the Rockies”, escape proof with the highest security in the United States.  Built to house the worse of criminals.



Mexican narcos incarcerated in ADX:

Francisco Javier Arellano Felix (AFO) The life in prison sentence for former drug cartel leader Francisco Javier Arellano Félix has been reduced to 23 1/2 years because he’s provided crucial information to the government that has led to prosecutions in the U.S. and Mexico, according to federal court records.

Juan Garcia Abrego (CDG) serving 11 consecutive life  sentences

Osiel Cardenad Guillen (CDG) serving 25 year sentence pleading guilty, release date 2025



The Concrete Cell

Cells are a 12X7 foot structure. On the wall is a concrete platform for a black and white TV, which broadcasts closed circuit programming of classes and religious programming. It also has a built in radio.
  • There is a Stainless steel toilet/sink/water source combination.
  • A stationary concrete desk and stool sits in the cell
  • A slim 4” wide 40" high window has a view of the courtyard
  • Inside cell shower with a timer
  • A concrete slab bed

An enclosure within the cell with bars, used for added isolation and security Solid walls prevent prisoners from seeing other cells or having direct contact with other inmates.

Routine

The prison has 8 housing units that can accommodate up to 500 inmates. All food is presented though a slot through the door.  Inmates remain in cells for visits with clergy or physicians.  They are inside the cell in solitary confinement for 23 hours per day, with 10 hours a week for exercise inside a "cage".

Inmates have access to books and some magazines.

They have almost no human contact and can go days without speaking to anyone.

Former Warden Says Death Is Better Than Life In Supermax" in this video about the Boston Marathon Bomber, he was subsequently transferred to ADX.


A Look ahead:   

I will be posting an article by the weekend also about ADX---but from the perspective of an inmate.  Through 100s of letters he wrote to a reporter we are able to get a different view of “life” in ADX

Grupo Sombra of the Gulf Cartel disseminates brutal executions in Veracruz

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Sol Prendido Borderland Beat--source




Grupo Sombra, the criminal cell of the Gulf Cartel, broadcast a video in which the brutal executions of four hit men and a strong threat to their rivals in Veracruz are appreciated.

Because it is located in the coastal strip of the Gulf of Mexico, Veracruz is an area used by bands dedicated to the transfer of drugs and human trafficking; in addition, it has three ports of height and an extensive network of pipelines of Pemex that are milked by the huachicoleros of the entity

In the middle of the first semester of 2017, the Grupo Sombra broke into the municipalities of Tuxpan, Poza Rica, Coatzintla and Tihuatlán with narcomantas in which they threatened criminals, police and members of other criminal organizations such as Los Zetas or the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG).

At the beginning of 2019, Cuitláhuac García Jiménez, governor of Veracruz, accepted that the state is contested by six criminal groups, including CJNG, Cartel del Golfo and Los Zetas, while Grupo Sombra, 35Z and La Venda Avenger terrorize sites such as Coatzacoalcos and Minatitlan.




This Saturday, a video was broadcast in which one observes hitmen of the Shadow Group, hooded and armed with machine guns and machetes, together with four men who are on their knees, tied hand and foot, and blindfolded.

In the images, the members of the Shadow Group send a message to all the grasshoppers [ people flipping sides] of La Huasteca, extortionists and rivals.

They also launch a final warning to characters such as El Potro Fernández Martínez; Yahir Arévalo, El Canelo; Ariel Arévalo, El Árabe; Argenis; Eduardo Guzmán, El Topo; Pandora and Pocholo, to those who remember that the territory is commanded by them and by nobody else:
STOP ALIGNING YOURSELVES FOR PROTECTION WITH OTHER COMPANIES, UNDERSTAND THAT HERE ONLY WE EXIST, THE SHADOW GROUP AND NOBODY ELSE"
 
At the end of the statement, which lasts about two minutes, the hooded men throw their victims to the ground and cut them to death.

The video of the brutal execution was shared through social networks; however, so far the bodies of the victims have not been located.

 GRAPHIC EXECUTION VIDEO




: Acatepec, Gro - Armed group kills 7 men and 1 woman while they were praying

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Chava for Borderland Beat from RioDoce

 Killed while they prayed for rain.........


At least eight people were killed - seven men and one woman - and two more were injured after an attack by an armed group in the municipality of Acatepec, in the region of Montaña de Guerrero.

Proceso reported that the crime was recorded yesterday afternoon at the point known as "Ojo de Agua", outside the town of Plan de Ayala where indigenous people live Me paá (Tlapanecos), indicate official reports.

Reports say that the victims, all inhabitants of Plan de Ayala, were praying at the scene when they were attacked from the hills and the aggressor group escaped due to the fact that the closest barracks of the Public Security Secretariat (SSP) is located in the town of Lucerito in the municipality of Acatepec and only has two policemen who lack patrols to mobilize.

So far the ministerial authorities have not determined the origin of the attack in this poppy-producing area that is disputed by criminal groups.


The victims were identified as: Rufino Licho Victorio, 46; José Sánchez Eligio, 49; Roberto Remigio García, 30; Clemencia Licho García, 18; Espinoza Sánchez García, 26; Anselmo Sánchez García, 34; Fernando Eligio de la Cruz, 42 and Gregorio Eligio de la Cruz 38.

The two injured are Octavio Licho García and Leonardo, according to official reports.

Violence in the municipalities of Acatepec and Zapotitlán is old, derived from agrarian conflicts and political confrontations in the presence of social organizations such as the Peasant Torch and the Larzes.

In 1994, the residents of that area lynched 24 men accused of various crimes in the area of Ayotoxtla. The alleged criminals were hanged in a leafy tree and the fact showed the absence of government that prevails to date in the Guerrero Mountains.

Threaten to execute 13 alleged criminals linked to the mayor of Chiapas or pay 4M pesos

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Sol Prendido For Borderland Beat




TUXTLA GUTIÉRREZ, Chi .- A group of armed men threatens to execute 13 people allegedly linked to the mayor of Pueblo Nuevo Solistahuacán if they do not give him 4 million pesos.

The alleged kidnappers argue that the detained people assaulted and wounded a fruit vendor in the neighboring municipality of Rincon Chamula.

The attack occurred in the center of the municipal seat of Pueblo Nuevo Solistahuacán. According to his version, the man pretended to be a dead man and, once he was stripped of his money, he walked to a clinic to seek medical attention.

The man was able to identify his assailants and a group of armed civilians who arrived at the home of Humberto Ruiz Sánchez, originally from the community of Sonora, and they moved him to Rincón Chamula.



According to the armed group, Ruiz confessed the aggression against the fruit vendor and accused a group of people in the service of the municipal president, José Luis Flores Gómez, emanating from the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) and member of the Independent Central of Agricultural and Peasant Workers (CIOAC).

Thus the alleged aggressors were detained, who were taken to a safe house in the San José neighborhood, in Rincón Chamula.

The first to be arrested were seven people allegedly close to the mayor who tried to rescue Humberto Ruiz, but were disarmed.

Forced to confess

The armed group claims that 13 people are being held and that all of them were relieved of their firearms. His captors recorded a video in which they confess to assaults, car thefts, murders, rapes and other crimes in the region of Pueblo Nuevo Solistahuacán and Rincón Chamula.

In the video, released on Monday, a hooded man orders the detainees to confess their participation in crimes and “security personnel “ of the mayor of Pueblo Nuevo Solistahuacán, José Luis Flores Gómez.

Then they make a request to Governor Rutilio Escandón Cadenas: "Here we need your presence, we urgently need you to take action on the matter. You see all the equipment that they bring, they are gangsters. They are those who intimidate the people, those who are killing the people. The truth is I want you to take the matter. We have many people who no longer want violence. Here we want peace in our town. "



In the video it is heard that they ask the detained: "Are you security personnel of Jose Luis Flowers?", To which they answer "yes” in unison.

Officials from the General Secretariat of the Government of Chiapas mobilized to negotiate the release of the detainees.

View video by using this link to Proceso

Union of Tepito: 'El Pozoles' arrested, alleged killer of a Venezuelan escort

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Sol Prendido for Borderland Beat

She knew that her life was at risk and four months before her murder she recorded some videos in which she revealed the name of her killer.




The subject arrested by agents of the Federal Police in the municipality of Nezahualcóyotl would be leader of 'La Unión de Tepito'

Brayan Mauricio Gonzalez alias el pozole or 'El Brayan' was arrested in Nezahualcóyotl, State of Mexico by elements of the Investigation Division of the Federal Police designated as one of the alleged leaders of the criminal group ' The Union of Tepito 'and who allegedly murdered Kenny Finol, a Venezuelan woman last year.

The investigation and cabinet work managed to identify the 26-year-old. Who was stopped during an operation implemented in which no shot was fired, said the Secretariat of Citizen Security (SSC).

 The arrest resulted from lines of investigation related to drug dealing, extortion, land collection and sexual exploitation of foreign women, mainly of Venezuelan nationality committed by members of 'La Unión de Tepito'.


It will be the ministerial authorities who will define the legal status of Brayan Mauricio 'N'.

It should be remembered that Kenny Mireya Finol, 26, a Venezuelan woman who was allegedly murdered by this man in Ecatepec, had reported violence and even death threats.

Through social networks videos recorded by the woman who came to Mexico to work as an escort on the page of Zona Divas, were seen with blows to her face and extremities. Kenny explained that these would have been caused by his ex-boyfriend (Brian Mauricio 'N') when she asked him to leave the country.



On Sunday, February 25, 2018, the body of the escort was found in the neighborhood of Jardines de Santa Clara, Ecatepec with traces of torture and her face completely disfigured after being sprayed with acid on her face.

Brayan Mauricio "N", was handed over to SEIDO to continue with the corresponding investigations for being involved in various federal crimes.

The family of Kenny Mireya provided the data of 'El Pozoles' who from the beginning was responsible for the death of the woman.

Guaymas Sonora:Francisco Javier Fourcade, narcocorridos singer executed

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Chivis Martinez Borderland Beat thank you BB follower


The Mexican Francisco Javier Fourcade Romo was found dead in a Guaymas (Sonora) Mexico canal.

Fourcade Romo, 24, was popular as a singer and songwriter of narcocorridos.

According to Mexican media such as Vanguardia and El Universal, the events occurred after a vehicle-to-vehicle attack was reported on the night of February 4.

In the car Diego "N" also traveled,  who was driving the blue vehicle and who was also a fatal victim. Fourcade Romo was a passenger, but he did not die during the initial attack.

Hours later his body was located in a canal.

Below is a video of 2 years ago with the singer and the late Pirata from Fourcade's IG



Wanted for money Laundering by U.S. Former Coahuila interim governor captured in Puerto Vallarta

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Sol Prendido For Borderland Beat



Former Coahuila interim governor captured in Puerto Vallarta.

It is presumed that he could be extradited to the United States, when he is claimed by the justice of that country

Jorge Juan Torres López, who was interim governor of Coahuila, was arrested in the municipality of Puerto Vallarta, by a delegation of agents of the Federal Ministerial Police (PFM) assigned to the General Prosecutor's Office of the Republic and the International Police (Interpol) , which arrived in Jalisco in order to carry out the capture of the official named for alleged money laundering by the United States government.


The agents carried out the arrest on Tuesday afternoon, in said tourist destination, in compliance with an arrest warrant, issued by a Federal Judge. After the capture, the former leader was taken to the facilities of the FGR in the capital of the country.

It has not yet been revealed where Jorge Juan Torres was in Puerto Vallarta at the time the injunction was executed, which could be disseminated in the next few hours.

It is presumed that he could be extradited to the United States, upon being claimed by the justice of that country, for the aforementioned crime, for which the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) issued a search form.

Torres López was appointed interim governor of Coahuila, by the State Congress for the period from January 4, 2011 to December 1 of that same year, after Humberto Moreira Valdés or license to assume the national leadership of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

Tamaulipas: Coordination with Mexico and Border Patrol stops drug shipment

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Sol Prendido from El Tarde



The Gendarmerie intercepts the delivery of almost 130 kilograms of marijuana by the Playita neighborhood in close proximity to the United States

In a coordinated action between elements of the Federal Police (Gendarmerie division) on the Mexican side and personnel of the Border Patrol, in North American territory, they frustrated the shipment of 129 kilos 880 grams of marijuana.

The drug traffickers who operated on the banks of the Rio Grande, near La Playita, had to escape through the bushes, when they heard that boats being patrolled from Border Patrol were approaching, leaving them abandoned in the undergrowth. large packages that contained a green and dry weed, with the characteristics of marijuana, whose weight almost reached 130 kilograms.




They searched on the dirt roads in the surroundings, but were unable to find the narcos who managed to escape taking advantage of the cover of darkness.

Immediately after the seizure of the drug, the federal authorities put it at the disposition of the General Prosecutor's Office of the Republic (FGR) where an investigation case was opened, which will be followed up by elements of that dependency.

This is the third drug seizure registered in recent weeks, based on the coordinated task that was carried out at the international level.


Hell on Earth: Disappeared and alive

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Translated by El Profe for Borderland Beat from adondevanlosdesaparecidos.org

                     

The cartel offered them a deceptive job,  enslaved them and forcibly retained them. Today they make up part of the armies of organized crime: they tend drug crops or train as hit men. They are alive, but they are missing. "Luis" is one of the survivors and recounts his days in hell.

By Alejandra Guillén and Diego Petersen

Report by Adóndevanlosdesaparecidos/Quinto Elemento Lab* 

- When I ran away I went far because I knew that if they found me they would kill me.I thought that if I went directly to the government they would hand me over to the cartel, and after some time it came to light in the news that someone was in the same situation as me and was encouraged to speak out and then I said that my goal in escaping up there was to try to give peace and tranquility to those people who lost track of their loved ones.Many of them are the people that I saw set on fire and that none of their relatives realized how they died and how they disappeared unless I speak, then I will risk talking my story and bring some peace to their families and not remain hopeful that they will find them. So I contacted the Jalisco Prosecutor's Office and told them that I was also deprived of my freedom in the Sierra de Navajas by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and that I could identify 17 disappeared people that I saw with my own eyes die in the hands of our captors.
 
Luis (the names are false for security reasons) is a survivor of camps where the cartel forced young people to train as hit men. At the beginning of 2017, he worked in a rehabilitation center. They didn't give him a raise and he wanted to get away from the environment of addiction. He searched for a new job using social media. In April of that year he joined the Facebook page GDL Job Bank and Jobs Guadalajara.Through his inbox he was a connected with a new job offer: 4 thousand pesos a week as a security guard. He contacted the woman who sent him the message and she asked him to contact Mario, the company's current supervisor. A week later they added him to a WhatsApp group along with 15 other people interested in the job. They asked them to go to a training to the municipality of Tala and they would give them 4 thousand pesos in advance.


Luis was excited. He never thought that when they arrived for their first day of work that they would be put in safe houses and then taken to camps in the Sierra de Ahuisculco, not to kill them, but to train them and force them to work for the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
Antonio Blancas disappeared after coming to Tala on his first day of work as a security guard.He was a student at ITSZ. His family still does not know where he is.
                     
Some of their families reported them as missing, without knowing they were alive in the hands of organized crime. The Jalisco Prosecutor's Office carried out operations in July 2017 and found training camps. In one of them, 15 men were detained, of whom three were reported as disappeared and were able to prove that they were being held against their freedom. The three of them were released and their testimony was recorded in the research file 1611/2017, as was Luis's. Thanks to his story and anonymous testimonies we now know that the Ahuisculco mountain range took dozens of men from the valleys of the Tequila region, the Metropolitan Area of ​​Guadalajara, other states, and even Central American migrants, and that slavery and forced labor has been a modus operandi of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel to ensure the operation of their business. Among the recruits of those who were registered were day laborers, unemployed people, car washers, construction workers, Supply Market loaders, deportees, former police officers, ex-soldiers, and young people fresh out of addiction rehabilitation centers. Even one of the survivors recounts in his ministerial statement that he was walking at night in downtown Guadalajara, felt a blow to the head, lost consciousness and when he woke up he was in a safe house.


Through social media announcements, the CJNG deceitfully recruited men of different ages to incorporate them into the ranks of their armies. Many of their families reported them as missing, not knowing they were alive in forced labor.  Photo: Especial
When the Prosecutor's Office carried out the operation, Luis was no longer there. He had escaped, but later decided to speak out despite the risk that may involve doing so.
 
- When they contacted me for work I asked if everything was legal."Look, if it was illegal, we wouldn't send you to training so you can carry a gun.Do not worry, everything will be legal."I said "Hey, but is everything going to be fine?I have a sick mom and I need communication with her."That's when Mario told me that everything's cool, that I would come recommended by him.I grabbed a taxi to the Periférico.After 10 minutes a car arrived.They asked me if my name was Luis.I told them yes.I got in and we went for another guy to a messed up place.A light-skinned guy with a beard came out, little curly hair, chubby, with green eyes, now I know his name is Ignacio.Two women came out to say goodbye, they did not leave the entrance until we left.I saw the driver was nervous, smoking one cigarette after another.I talked to him and he told me that he had barely worked for a week, but that he had not been paid for previous trips.It was the first of May.They left us on the road and a pick-up truck arrived there with three other guys who came from the State of Mexico.One had a false eye, another was thin with a false leg and the third was chubby with a lock of hair that came out of his forehead.The driver was a dirty fat guy who ordered us to get into the bed of the pick-up.On the way we learned that the five of us had been on WhatsAppthe previous day and had been contacted through job boards to which we registered on Facebook for the work of body guard or security guard for 4 thousand a week.It was very attractive for my needs.
 
They moved us to another car.We turned towards Tala, we were put into an opening and arrived at an abandoned farm, with barbed wire, wooden sticks, there was a man with a cuerno de chivo telling us to keep going inside.I noticed that there was no furniture, only people on the floor, 38 piled on the floor.It was then that I realized that I had got into a problem because that was not normal.Upon entering the room they ordered us to remain silent and sit down, telling us that we could not even go to the bathroom unless we asked permission.We were purely humble and poor people, there were people who had the face of troublemakers and others who had the face that they had nothing to lose in life.I realized that I had crossed the line of no return and that maybe something bad would happen, in fact there was a strange smell, you could see the look of sadness and misery in people.

A well connected mountain range

Tala, Ahuisculco, Las Navajas, Cuisillos, are villages that are less than an hour from Guadalajara, just behind the forest of La Primavera. It is reached by the free highway to Puerto Vallarta. Passing the forest you have to turn left to enter the valley of the Ameca River, where there are fertile lands full of reed beds and old haciendas. After Tala, the next delegation is Ahuisculco, an ancient indigenous community that still protects the forest and protects its watering holes. The village is in the foothills of the mountain range of the same name, a volcanic formation that is actually the continuation of the La Primavera forest. On the other side of the hills is the town of Las Navajas, where -as the Ahuisculco people say- "crime penetrated, people accepted things that ended up endangering them."
 
The town of Las Navajas is named for the large amount of obsidian that exists in its soils and that for centuries the indigenous communities of the region made into knives and sold. Crossing the town there is a gap that goes into the hill. On this road is one of the safe houses mentioned by the survivors and which was seized by the Jalisco Prosecutor's Office. Above is the place known as La Reserva, the ranch that the inhabitants of the sierra say belongs to a certain Don Pedro, someone who knew Rafael Caro Quintero. They say that Don Pedro arrived at the end of the seventies, planted marijuana, fattened cattle, controlled the region. Even after the operations of the Jalisco Prosecutor's Office, in July 2017, the road was still guarded by truck drivers and young motorcyclists: halcones. This is the gap that all the survivors mention in their testimonies as the route up the mountain.

This mountain range, with no names on maps, is strategic because of its connectivity. On the one side it has roads leading to the road to Colima and Manzanillo, and on the other to the Sierra Madre Occidental that leads to the Pacific Coast and Puerto Vallarta. Through the port of Manzanillo comes chemical precursors for synthetic drugs that move along the road to Colima and before arriving in Guadalajara takes the Circuito Sur or Macrolibramiento, which leaves them a few meters from Las Navajas, where they enter the mountains which serves as a hiding place for camps, pits, and narco-laboratories.Through Cuisillos they can go to the road that takes them to the north of the country or to Mascota and Puerto Vallarta.

On July 29, 2017, the Jalisco Prosecutor's Office informed that between June 6 and 13, they received six complaints regarding the disappearance of persons. All of them were told in their homes that they were moving to the municipality of Tala because they had obtained work as pollsters, guards, or municipal police.

Mothers' Testimony 
 
Laura denounced the disappearance of her son Ignacio on July 22, 2017. She was asked if she noticed anything strange about him the last few days she saw him.
 
"He was desperate because he didn't have a job,"Laura said. He was 22 years old, weighed more than 100 kilos, light brown hair, green eyes, forearm tattoo, high school cut short. He told his mother that he had found a job as a private security guard where he would be paid 4,000 pesos a week. He would go to Tala for two weeks for training. On May 1, 2017, they came for him at his home in a working class neighborhood south of Zapopan.
 
Ignacio came out with a black and grey canvas backpack with a strap holding three changes of clothes: boxers, socks, a wooden tooth brush, plastic sandals, white tennis shoes for sports. He did not have a cell phone and they were not allowed to bring one either. His mother and sister went out to say goodbye. He climbed into a light brown car with two other men in it: the driver and another guy who had just been picked up;it was Luis. They did not have contact with him again. Two months later, the sister saw on the news that they had found enslaved people in Tala. It was then that they reported the disappearance of Ignacio.
 
Ernesto was also reported missing. Robust, 1.78 tall, 96 kilos, round face, light brown eyes, no tattoos, scars from bites on the chest and left arm, wearing black denim trousers, light blue polo shirt. At 26 years old he was urged to find work. At the beginning of 2017 he had a son and did not have a fixed income. He was desperate when he found an offer on the internet. On April 30 they contacted him. The next day he left early, shortly before seven in the morning; they were going to pick him up at Periférico and Mariano Otero to go to a training at Tala. He told his mother and his wife that he would communicate with them in a few days.Karla, his wife, called him at ten in the morning to find out how everything was going. He told him that they had not yet arrived, but that as soon as he could he would send him the telephone number of the place where the training would be. He did not send it. They had promised that every week he could return to see his family. He never came back.Rosa, his mother, reported him on May 8, 2017.
 

'Templarse' is doing things with intelligence

The time that Luis was trapped in the first safe house, in May of 2017, he began to observe those who watched them; he discovered that some had been captured like him, but had already been able to go on vacation.
 
- I know because I saw who had command, that they had left and returned, that there were hierarchies.It did not matter that they trusted you, the trial by fire was to return to work with them.
 
From that house, they began to take us out in groups to fill trucks.From the road through Cuisillos, we were taken to Navajas, to another large farm, with an iron cattle type gate, one meter high, unfinished.There was a man with a hat like a peasant who shouted at us: "Let's see you son's of ... get in line ... Let's go, in the heat!Does anyone know why the fuck you're here?" I could not say anything, they could kill me.He grabbed the cuerno and shot at all of us: "I'm going to give everyone a fucking vacation, if you come back here there's going to be a job and if not, you can go fuck your mother!Who wants to go right now?" Nobody said anything.
 
One kept me in check, he shouted at me "¡ándale moreno, témplate!” Templarse means to be agile, to act, to do things with intelligence.We got to the top, we arrived at the camp that seemed to me to look like forests in the United States. It was a private property that a lady rented to the one in the sombrero.






 
This safe house is located across the village of Las Navajas
(Tala, Jalisco), on the side of a breach that leads to the top of
the mountain range, where the camps were located with young
people who were forced to train as hitmen
Photo: Raúl Torres
Stand out and survive

The abuse and threats began in the safe houses. In addition to Luis, there were three other survivors rescued by the Prosecutor's Office. In their ministerial statements they told how they went in search of work and the enganchadores took them to safe houses. In one of these houses there were about 50 men lying on the ground, beaten, threatened; that if they escaped they would be killed.
 
- All day we exercised and they said that those who obeyed went on vacation or rest.We were classified by new, semi-new and old.The new ones hit us all the time, there were always armed men watching. After a week they came back for me and four other companions in a van;other armed men left me in a safe house where I could bathe. We had already realized that it was another lie. I heard voices that said we would work for their cartel. That's when I got scared.Those in charge used drugs but I've never used: work, I have family, children.On the 23rd they returned me to the mountain, to a new camp, they took us to build it with sticks, nylon, branches, to carry water, food. They beat me all over my body, they told me "you're worth shit, come on fucking idiots, dogs."We could not sleep until 12 o'clock at night, whoever did was shot with paintballs or killed.Those in charge shot two people because they went to Oxxo without permission.The others were asked to lower their bodies into a ravine where a stream passes, they had me cut firewood, branches, burned them there ... I knew that everyone was taken in with deceit, 20 people just like me.
 
- They left us in a camp an hour from the village Cuisillos (...) where they made us sleep outdoors, as well as telling us that we had to ask for permission to urinate and if not, they would hit us (...) so I remember one day we were loading things, we went to a stream and El Momia told Checo, who had tattoos of the dates of birth of his daughter and on the neck the name of his children: "take this so you don't disobey my orders."He was shot and fell dead.Then he shot another guy (...) They took them down to the stream, took off their clothes and followed instructions.They put them in a bed of sticks with leaves and wood, set them on fire, we waited until they were completely burned.
 
- We walked 30 minutes, we arrived at a camp built with sticks and black plastic bags, lined with tree branches and trash.I noticed that three people were outside with weapons.We got inside and there were more people lying down, some 20 people, so we went to the camp, so we could go to bed and fall asleep, but as early as dawn they woke us all up and formed us in a line and they began to tell us that we were going to train to work as sicarios for the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and that if we resisted they would kill us.They made us train, forcing us to exercise and they hadpaintball guns for us to train with, they used paintball bullets to shoot us with.
 
On July 24, 2017, I remember it was Monday, they picked us up and they made us carry plastic and groceries (...) The attendant received a call to be ready because black and white trucks came to comb the hill.Three started firing, all I could do was run towards the bottom of the hill to cover myself  from the bullets.Police surrounded us, shouted "chest to the ground, hands up," and it was the moment that they arrested us all.
 
The three young people who speak include in their account the operation of the Jalisco Prosecutor's Office through which they were able to free themselves. Days later, on July 29, 2017, the former Jalisco prosecutor, Eduardo Almaguer, reported that they had rescued a young man and thanks to that they were able to locate the camps. The Prosecutor's Office estimated that between 50 and 60 people were guarding 40 recruits. Of the latter, their fate was not known.
 
It was not the only training and extermination camp found in Jalisco. In 2016 another cell of the same cartel operating in Tlaquepaque and in Puerto Vallarta was detected, which distributed flyers offering work for a non-existent security company, Segmex. The recruits were forced to sell drugs or become hit men.
 
In October of 2017, the Office of the Prosecutor rescued four other people involved in deception in the municipality of Puerto Vallarta. They were employed as sales managers or guards; the CJNG took them to train in the Sierra de Talpa (150 kilometers from Tala, towards the west) and disappeared them. At that time, then prosecutor Almaguer said it was the same criminal cell that operated in Tala, with members from Veracruz, Michoacán, the State of Mexico, and Jalisco.
 

They take those who have pants

The disappearance of young people in Tala began long before the Public Prosecutor's Office discovered these camps. There has been a registry for missing persons since 2012. One of them is Javier Cisneros Torres. His family had the courage to be the only one who made his search public. Javier lived with his mother, in the municipal capital of Tala. His sister, Alma, remembers the day of his capture:
 
- At that time my brother lived with my mom, my dad had already died.My brother was already lying down watching TV.He left because his neighbors came looking for him.He went to their house and they took him from there.We managed to see his sweater, his glasses, his keys, the blood that ran from the entrance.My brother liked to defend people, everyone in the neighborhood, he was not a bad person, we know from the kind of life he led, we are a humble family.He worked at Tala's sugar mill. It was a long time that he didn't have work,  jobs in Tala are temporary.He left to paint trees white.They said that Los Talibanes took him, a CJNG criminal group in Navajas.






 
Javier Cisneros has been looking for his family since 2013. He 
was taken from a neighbor's house in the municipal capital of Tala. 
 Photo taken from the site Laalameda.mx
 
We know of at least 60 families with missing persons in Tala.My sister and I have written them name by name.I have a friend from high school who contacted me one day, he said "my brother was taken away, we do not know what happened, my brother used marijuana".I said "ok, consume or not consume they don't have to take him, he is missing and we have to find him.If we do not look for them, nobody will find them."I asked him for a picture of his brother in case they find his body in a common grave, because otherwise you'll never know if he's alive or dead.Here there are many missing and nobody says anything.
    
They take the young people who have enough pants to do things, because they don't take just anyone (...) only those who would dare do terrible things, that if they say "we kill you or you work for us", I think they answer "work."I'll be honest, I don't think my brother says "kill me," I think everyone wants to live, but that's what I tell my mom, it would hurt to know that he's doing that kind of thing.I'm afraid he's working for them.
 
In the region what happens is an open secret. The CJNG controls Tala and the surrounding areas, so those who speak have to do so under anonymity. Like Eleazar, who prefers not to speak in public but at home, telling how they took many of the young people from his town:
 
--In 2013 we began to know about disappeared young people in the region.They were children of peasants, strong, gutsy people who know the countryside and therefore know how to use weapons.They were cocky showoffs who liked (the music of)El Komander, peleoneros, who went to parties or consumed drugs.We knew of many cases where they were going to a party and we did not hear about them again.Apparently some are alive, they call their families, but they can not look for them or say anything because they are forced to work for them. 

They were not guys who wanted to get into the narco stuff, no, although they liked all that music and all the narcoculture that has permeated a lot, because in Tala there is a lot of work for the sugar mills, that is why they had to be forced.I think they took them to marijuana and poppy fields in the same region or to other places in the country, because the cell is strong here, you wouldn't think that.From here they stock up on guys for other regions.I think that all the young people have a certain profile and that is why they are now putting job advertisements to deceive young people from other places.
 
On August 31, 2014 a mass for the disappeared was held in Tala. The families took photos and names of their loved ones; all were named. A lot of people arrived, on a single bulletin board there were 35 photos posted, mostly men. Following the mass, the priest received threats and had to leave Tala.






 
In 2014 a Mass was held in Tala for the disappeared of the region. The 
families took photos of their loved ones. After this, the priest who 
organized it received threats and had to leave Tala.
Photo: Special
Even though many families prefer not to report, in this municipality there are 56 disappearance reports according to the National Registry Data of Missing or Lost Persons. Between 2006 and 2012 there were two complaints. In 2013 there were 14 and in 2014, 17. For the inhabitants, something happened in those years: the Jalisco New Generation Cartel took force and controlled this region.They needed labor.
 
With the arrest of the Valencia brothers and Ignacio Coronel, the Millennio Cartel (which trafficked drugs in alliance with the Sinaloa Cartel) was divided into two cells. One of them later became the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, which the US Treasury Department described in October 2018 as the most powerful drug trafficking organization in Mexico and one of the five most dangerous in the world. This group has presence in at least half of the national territory and traffics cocaine and methamphetamines in America, Asia and Europe.
 
The soul breaks

The disappearance of young people and then forcing them to work for the cartel is not improvised. An inhabitant of Tala who knows the dynamics in depth says that mistreating them, torturing them, and then forcing them to kill and incinerate their companions is a strategy to break their souls, their inner harmony, so that they can become one more of the cartel.That the person goes from victim to victimizer.  In his story, Luis describes that in order to survive, one must win the trust of the captors. In the end, the cartel decides to kill those who do not give in are not useful for their purposes.

The camps were camouflaged with leaves so they would not see them from the air. 
The Jalisco Prosecutor's Office identified hot spots in the Ahuisculco mountain 
range and that is how it managed to locate them.Photo: Especial
- I saw the opportunity to approach the guy in charge. I was determined not to be mistreated or die up there if something was going to happen.I was willing to survive.I began to talk to them and to stand out, to gain their trust.There were gunmen everywhere.Any person trying to survive will stand out so as not to be attacked.I started to be afraid and to doubt the way I started trying to survive in hell.I thought I had gotten more deeply into these people for not running the risk of being killed, but at the same time I threw a noose around my neck because they saw me with confidence and they would see me as a traitor if I did not come back.
 
That time the worst thing happened to me in all my life: at about two o'clock, the voice of El Sapo (the head of the plaza) came."Come on, you fucking sons of bitches, who wants to leave? I'll give you and your house three thousand and you can go fuck off."At that (some) began to raise their hands, asking if they were sure.There were three from the state of Mexico, the chubby one who arrived with me and now I know his name is Ignacio, the two gauchos from Durango, a 17-year-old from Guadalajara, a former policeman from Zapopan, another who I don't know his name andEl Catracho who had already returned from vacation.In factEl Mojo asked him if he was sure he wanted to raise his hand and he said yes, he wanted to go see his son in Honduras. El Sapo said "that's it, you're going to get there faster".I recognized everyone, there were 14 in total, they were placed in a hut in front of the dormitories and told not to move.The others were seated in another hut.A gray Cheyenne arrived with plates from the United States and two subjects with squad-type pistols.One wasEl Greñas (20 or 21, child's face, right hand man of El Sapo) who shouted at those who wanted to go: "Look you bastards, we're going to fight everyone against everyone," and they began to do it, the one who fell was going to die.The first to fall was namedLa Jaina (short, 1.70, big nose, big face, light skinned, hair everywhere, poor from Guadalajara) fell knocked out on his knees.He was shot.ThenEl Guachito, tall, big nose;when he saw that they were going to shoot him, he shouted "nooo!" raising his hands in self defense.They shot him twice.AfterNopal , Toño , Chucho andEl 18 opened fire against everyone, including a former police officer.The last one was a 17 year old boy with his hands tucked between his legs, head down, swaying.They went to look at him because he was alive. El Pitayotold him : "These fucking guys told you to say you wanted to go." With a wave, he answered "aha", and the boy asked crying "it's that I want to see my little sister and my mom."They shot him.Among the dead wereIgnacio, who arrived with me the first day, andErnesto.The taco maker was also shot in the back, and then 15 dead.They made those who said they didn't want to leave, out of fear, carry the bodies. It took an hour and a half because there were some very heavy bodies, we had to drag them and throw them into "los elotes".

To throw them to "los elotes" is to incinerate them: in a wooded area they took advantage of the ditches in the ground that make water currents that go down between the pines and oaks during the rainy season. There, on the reddish earth, they threw wood, then the bodies, stacked and split, to set them on fire with gasoline, until there were only burned bones and metal objects like buckles and pant buttons. Witnesses who say they have seen other pits like these, but have not been able to report their location, report that they have smelled chemicals that could be used to accelerate the combustion of bodies.

In one of the camps a point was located where there was firewood and burned bone remains. One knows from the testimonies of the survivors, that the CJNG burned those who disobeyed or did not serve for the work of the cartel. 
                                  
 
Fleeing

According to the story that Luis gave to the Jalisco Prosecutor's Office, El Sapo called by radio a few days later and said: "Now yes, you fucking sons of bitches, who is going to go on vacation?"Luis thought "the moment I was waiting for finally arrived, it took me an eternity to degrade myself and be with these people. I'm going to be free."El Cholo ordered that they make two rows and gave them two thousand pesos each. Night fell and they were taken down the hill in groups of 15.
 
- They were going to leave us in Tala but it was very hot, there was a lot of police.We walked to a gas station where the Army was. Many told me they didn't want to take off. The Army neither stopped us nor asked anything. There's a hotel out there. I entered and I registered. I got to bathe was able to trust a taxi driver and escape. When I arrived at the hotel all the rooms were filled, we paid with the money they gave us, I bathed, I cleaned my clothes with a wet rag, they all knocked on the door having a beer in the bar. I had planned to leave when they fell asleep, but they began to take crystal meth that the manager sold them (...) While they were partying, I grabbed my suitcase, I left, I took a taxi, I contacted a relative who lives in another country and I told him everything that happened, that I could not return, that if they saw me they were going to kill me, they had to help me to escape.
 
-After it came out in the news that someone who was like me was encouraged to speak and (I) said, my goal of getting out of there was to try to bring peace and tranquility to those people who have not found their loved ones, they are the ones that I saw burn and none of their relatives realized how they died and how they disappeared. Then I will risk telling my story.

Those who returned from that hell received protection measures for denouncing members of the most powerful cartel in Mexico. Even so, they had to flee. They changed their identity and no more was heard about them. The Jalisco government never reported who the incinerated people whose remains were located in the camps had been. They didn't carry out further operations to search for more clandestine graves in the area nor tried to free more young people in these forced recruitment camps.

Today the cartels are still using forced recruitment and controlling the territory. Both in the south of Jalisco and on the border with Michoacán there are families of missing persons who have anonymously reported signs of having their relatives taken to forced labor in drug laboratories or poppy fields. The inhabitants of the area of ​​Tala know that the hell to which relatives and acquaintances have been condemned is not below, but up there, at the top of the hills; they know it in silence.

From 2006 to date the Mexican government has received complaints about the disappearance of more than 40 thousand people. 

* This report is part of the project Adóndevanlosdesaparecidos / Quintoelab. An initial version of this report was published as a podcast in Así como suena with the title "Los desaparecidos de Jalisco."You can listen to it at: http://asicomosuena.mx/?#/shows/1/play/361

American fugitive arrested, CDG cartel member, deported from Cancun airport

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Stevectpa for Borderland Beat from Riviera Maya News and MVS



Cancun, Q.R. — In a coordinated effort between US and Mexican authorities, an American fugitive has been arrested in Cancun.

Federal agents, in coordination with Agregado Adjunto en México of US Marshals, says they have detained a man of American nationality at the Cancun International Airport.

The man, identified as Omar Antonio Olivares Pérez, was considered an American fugitive, wanted for escaping prison in the US on drug trafficking and money laundering charges.



 Through a statement, federal authorities reported the arrest of Omar Antonio N, adding that with support of Instituto Nacional de Migración (INM), his illegal entry into the country was verified resulting in his arrest and deportation.

Omar Antonio N was transferred to Terminal 3 of the Cancun International Airport and placed on board an American Airlines flight bound for Dallas, Texas where he will be returned to federal prison.

The US citizen Omar Antonio Olivares Pérez, who is designated as operator of the Gulf Cartel . The defendant has an arrest warrant issued on September 17, 2009 by a Texas court for crimes against health, money laundering and escape from a federal prison.

Olivares Pérez also used as alias the following names: Jaime Olivares Pérez, Jaime Villalobos Garza and Domingo Olivares Pérez According to the investigations, this person had two businesses with a business name "Fumigation Olivares" and "Jardines Olivares", which were used to launder money.

Video and translation of Venezuelan escort who knew she was going to be murdered

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Sol Prendido for Borderland Beat




Sol posed the story of “Kenny”Mireya Finol the escort from Valenzuela who predicted her murder.  The leader of 'La Unión de Tepito' Brayan Mauricio Gonzalez alias el pozole or 'El Brayan' was arrested for her murder.  Before her death Kenny was very vocal in outing Gonzales’ criminality including her being forced to watch the murder of Karen, another escort. Both belonging to the cartel operated website Zonas.Divas.Com.

She videotaped herself, shortly before her death.

Narrative translation by Sol Prendido for Borderland Beat


Newscaster: ... we live stories we tell them. Although I have those stories later. Because now we come with the information with violence against women that seems to be not a serious problem for the authorities. This week marks the month of the murder of Kenny Finol Venezuelan model and escort. And little is known about the case. But it was announced this time a video recorded 4 months ago of herself. Before her death, 4 months before her death. In which Kenny reported that she was being threatened. But nobody did anything.

Kenny: He almost killed me, he hit me with a machete. In the mouth with the gun, you opened in me a horrible hole.

Newscaster: This is how the Venezuelan Kenny Mireya Finol, 26 years old, looked like before she was killed in Ecatepec, State of Mexico.

Kenny: Yesterday that man gave me money for a service and I went and he was the one. Almost killed me, he hit me 4 times with a machete across my whole body, the fagot.

Newscaster: She had marks of blows to the face and body. She said she was threatened with death. In social networks these videos recorded by Kenny herself in October of last year were broadcast. 4 months before being killed. In the recordings the young woman shows the marks of the blows her ex-boyfriend left after asking her to leave the country.

When she arrived in Mexico in 2015, Kenny began to advertise as an escort on the ZonaDivas.com page. However, when she was murdered, she was no longer part of this website. On Sunday, February 25, Kenny's body was found in the Jardines de Santa Clara neighborhood in Ecatepec. She had traces of torture. And her face was completely disfigured. And, according to the preliminary investigations, they had sprayed acid on her face.
Kenny: Look at me like this. I mean, how am I going to go to the airport like this? Look, the doctor just came and told me to take a bath, for me to remove everything, so they can stitch me up, he said he I will need 10 stitches in the head. Because I have a very large opening.

Newscaster: According to the prosecution of the State of Mexico until a few days ago the remains of the model were formally identified by means of their fingerprints. The support of a family member of Kenny was needed who identified the woman through photographs. Kenny's body is already in the process of repatriation with support from the Venezuelan embassy in Mexico.

Kenny: Faggot put his gun in my mouth, I cannot open it well, he broke everything back there. In end it was like God intervened, he lets me go but he almost killed me.

ADX Florence: Life in the Supermax--An inmates true life account

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Chivis Martinez Borderland Beat-by Byron Christopher

Here is a true-life account of life in one of the world’s toughest prisons — Florence ADX, Colorado, USA — the Supermax.


The ultra-secure penitentiary is home to the baddest … Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, shoe bomber Richard Reid, Mafia dons, drug cartel bosses … and escape artist Richard Lee McNair.

The Oklahoma born-and-raised McNair — a one-time killer, three-time escapee — was captured by the RCMP in Campbellton, New Brunswick in October 2007.

The former U.S. Air Force Sergeant had been on the run for a year and a half after a spectacular escape from a federal prison in the southern U.S.

Richard McNair’s account of his time in the Supermax forms Chapter 24 of my book, The Man Who Mailed Himself Out of Jail. I suspect few can chronicle life at ADX Florence better than federal inmate #13829.045.

McNair’s quotes — in bold italics — are drawn from his 300-plus letters, all written by hand from his solitary confinement cell in the most secure part of ADX Florence — the Control Unit.

Our correspondence started in 2008.
 
a 4 inch sliver is the only peak to the outside

McNair was confined to his cell 23-hours a day with no physical contact with other inmates.
Through his own words, one gets a glimpse of what life is really like at the ‘Alcatraz of the Rockies.’

[Credit for that cool aerial shot of ADX Florence goes to The New York Times.]

On the 18th of April 2008, the freshly-captured prisoner who had been featured a dozen times on the TV show America’s Most Wanted was on the move again. Handcuffed and shackled, Richard Lee McNair sat on a Bureau of Prisons bus that lumbered out of United States Penitentiary [USP] Pollock, Louisiana.

His destination, a thousand miles distant, was yet another Big House — from which there would be no escape.

The high-profile, high-risk inmate was being transferred to the sleepy Southern Colorado foothills town of Florence, home of the most secure penitentiary in the Bureau of Prisons system: ADX Florence.
The joint is officially known as the Administrative Maximum Facility, unofficially as the Supermax — and ‘Alcatraz of the Rockies.’ An American Gulag, if you will.

No one has ever escaped from ADX Florence. Of the thousands of men who’ve been incarcerated there, only a handful have left before their release date and all the same way — on a gurney, covered by a white sheet.

From Louisiana, McNair was on a prison bus headed to the Federal correctional complex at the southern edge of Florence, just off Highway 67. The sprawling compound — some of it underground — is a collection of several penitentiaries, each with each own level of security.

When McNair stepped off the bus he had with him a 6-page document from USP Pollock outlining where he was headed at ADX Florence: general population. In spite of the paperwork, the prisoner was promptly marched to the Special Handling Unit, known in prison speak simply as the SHU. Segregation.

A sudden change of plans. It was looking like some faceless bureaucrat had quietly pulled off a switcheroo.

Back to the prison document. There was a check mark beside the box that read: “Your conduct creates a risk to institution security and good order, poses a risk to the safety of staff, inmates or others, or to public safety.”

A few months later, McNair was in for a surprise when he was marched to a single-person cell in a dreaded part of the joint known as the Control Unit. That’s high-end solitary confinement.

In just six months, the former Air Force Sergeant went from being as free as a bird to locked up in a living tomb in the most secure part in one of the most secure prisons on this planet.

The prison complex at Florence was opened in 1994 at a cost of 60 million dollars. Cameras, pressure pads, laser beams and attack dogs warn guards if anything or anyone moves between its walls and the 12-foot high fence that surrounds the complex. The fence is crowned with loops of shiny razor wire that glisten in the bright Colorado sun.

The Supermax is home to about 500 prisoners, all considered to be the most dangerous. Those in need of the tightest control are in the ‘Control Unit.’

Through hundreds of letters written over five years, Richard McNair, federal prisoner #13829.045, provides a rare glimpse into life at the ‘Alcatraz of the Rockies,’ particularly in the Control Unit.

over 300 letters McNair sent

The Control Unit

“The Control Unit has an evil vibe to it. Byron, it is difficult to explain. But just a bad vibe …

“Everything is negative. Not the staff, but the inmates, etc.”

Some things about the ultra high-security penitentiary really get under Richard McNair’s skin, as expected, but surprisingly it’s not all negative. All things considered, there’s no doubt that life in the Control Unit at ADX Florence is a real struggle.

“It is 09:33 and I look out my window on a sunny day. Not a cloud. Guess what? The huge security lights are on again!

“They have cut our air drastically, almost nothing in the way of air flow from 1700 to 0600 [5 p.m. to 6 a.m.] and they say it is to conserve energy. Then, I look outside and see the lights on.

“They sprayed the weeds in the little concrete area outside my window. So the weeds are wilting. How the weeds are blowing is how I know if the wind is blowing hard. Really does not matter in warm weather, but in the winter — important.

“How do I know the temperature outside, you ask? I check the local country music station out of Cañon City [Colorado] and yes, I ask the staff.

“Most of the time they say, ‘Oh hell it is cold out there, you don’t want to go out.’ Of course, they are just joking. The fewer inmates who go out, the sooner they can do their chores.”

A prisoner in the Control Unit is confined to a cinder block cell roughly 7 by 12 feet, about the size of the average bathroom. The cell has a shower, toilet, metal mirror, light and [up until the spring of 2013] a combo radio and a 13-inch black and white television.

The only way to hear any sound from the TV or radio is to use headphones.

Desk, stool, and bed are all poured from concrete. Read: indestructible. There is a bunk — and a mat — but no mattress. Inmates learn not to plop themselves down on the bed because on either side of the mat protrude three steel posts about the height of the mat — tie-downs for the legs, wrist and head region. The posts are used to strap down unruly prisoners.

Unlike other pens, inmates in the Control Unit do not meet in a common dining room. Meals are delivered to their cells three times a day. Room service, if you will.

“It Breaks Your Mind"

Prisoners cannot socialize. That means they can’t wander freely in an exercise yard, as in some joints, and so they’re stuck in a cell nearly 23 hours a day. Long-term lockdown. The solitary confinement has been compared to ‘dying every single day.’

In an interview with CBS, a former prisoner at ADX Florence says the Supermax is unlike any other prison. Garret Linderman describes the segregation as the “brutality of isolation.” “It destroys the human spirit,” he says, “breaks down the human psyche. It breaks your mind.”

It hasn’t broken McNair’s mind, though it would be fair to say it almost did a number of times.

According to McNair, the isolation has sure done a number on some of the cons.

“It is so sad. I have seen and heard one of the guys deteriorate mentally. He went from a somewhat functioning individual to hearing voices. Paranoia. I’ll write about it on a separate sheet in case it is considered a security issue.”

[Turns out, McNair’s letter was not censored by the guards.]

“I’ve seen individuals deteriorate before — but not this drastic. His physical health is bad also. He will scream about people talking about him. No one is. At least they were not until he started spinning out. Sad, but what can one do? He is one of those ‘tuff guy’ white supremacists. I absolutely cannot stand him.”

Like other joints, ADX Florence has daily, stand-up counts — at any hour.
Typical letter click to enlarge

A Very Limited View

Cells in the Supermax do not have windows, at least not as we know them. A 4-inch slit in the thick concrete wall allows a small amount of natural light to enter. If the sky is clear and it’s the right time of day, prisoners are able to feel the warm rays of the sun for a few minutes.

One item not stocked in the prison canteen is suntan lotion.

“I’m sitting here looking out the window at a very deceiving scene: sun shining, bright day — but bitter cold. Have not gone outside for recreation for two days.

“The wind was blowing good yesterday and the temperature was seven degrees; no idea what the windchill was. Did some exercising in the cell.”

Clean---Not Quiet

In an interview with CBS, Robert Hood, former Warden at ADX Florence, described the Supermax as a “clean version of hell.”

Clean, yes. But quiet? Hell no! At the Supermax, cons can’t get together and talk, and so communication amongst themselves is reduced to shouting down air vents and into sink drains. The yelling is muffled, sure, but it’s still a human voice.

For prisoners not part of the banter, the stifled conversation is an annoyance that digresses to a maddening racket which can drag on for hours. There is little they can do except either politely ask their neighbors to keep the noise down, or reach for the ear plugs and headphones and pray they’ll shut up.

The first option doesn’t always work.

The second option doesn’t work either. The ear plugs and headphones are next to worthless.

“The young ones are screaming. There be football on. If the other ones don’t acknowledge one of them the one wanting to holler will start screaming, “Hey! Hey!” over and over until he gets his turn to holler. Just crazy. They have been going at it for two days now.

Two hollering their chess moves for hour after hour. Another is whistling.

“Another is hollering non-stop about getting out. I can’t stand the guy, but he is going home from here. No chance to decompress.

“This is a train wreck waiting to happen.”

McNair wrote about two prisoners in particular who got under his skin …

“Just one punk can make many miserable. With most guys, you can ask to hold it down and they comply. These two only get louder. In spite of the earplugs and headphones, I couldn’t hold a thought. The past two days have been real bad.

“Don’t know what is in the water, but these idiots have been screaming at one another and it broke down into race. Some nasty, nasty stuff. There is a reason for a Supermax.

“Dear Lord. These two punks have been hollering to one another since 07:30 and it is now 13:27. Today is canteen day and I think they get excited. I keep waiting for them to yell, ‘I loves you!’ ‘No, I loves you more!’ ‘No, I …’

“There is no way two men can have anything to holler about for five or six hours straight. Okay, I don’t know if they are in love, but I never talked to a woman as much as these two yell back and forth.

“Lord help us if a rap song they like comes on …”.


Mystery Neighbors

McNair often has no idea who his neighbors might be. Are they Mafia bosses? Killers of correctional officers? Bombers, drug lords or rogue F.B.I. agents?

Internet sites publish lists of the more infamous prisoners at the Supermax, but the inmates there aren’t allowed to see those lists.

ADX Florence is a Who’s Who of Really Bad Dudes. Richard Lee McNair could be living next door to terrorist bombers Theodore Kaczynski [the Unabomber], Eric Rudolph [Olympic Park Bomber] or Abu Esa Abdul-Raheem, better known as Richard Reid [the Shoe Bomber].

The man described as the ‘mastermind’ of the September 11th attacks, French-citizen Zacarias Moussaoui, could be in a cell one range over. Former F.B.I. agent Robert Hanssen — aka Graysuit and Jim Baker — the man who spied for the Russians for two decades — could be in the cell above Richard McNair, or two cells down. Who knows?

Terry Nichols remains locked up in the bowels of ADX Florence. Nichols was convicted for his part in the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995. The explosion killed 168 people and injured more than 800.

Timothy McVeigh, the former Bronze Star soldier who parked his explosives-laden rental van on a busy street in downtown Oklahoma City, is a former resident of the Supermax. In 2001, McVeigh was put to death by lethal injection.

Knuckleheads

“Really don’t care for about 90 percent of the people here. Thank God for prisons. There are some very sick people in here — and prison in general. By ‘sick’ am not referring to a severe mental illness. Am speaking of sexual predators, gladiators — animals you would never want living near your family.

“Ninety percent of the guys think they are the baddest dudes walking the earth. They seem to forget their pop gun got taken away at the front door. I would like to see them try to survive in Afghanistan. Though I have to admit, some of these guys probably did come from nasty neighborhoods.

“Many inmates’ names are Motherfucker. Must have had the same daddy.”

In spite of having the worst criminals as neighbors, Richard McNair maintains he’s in a safe place. Save for the times when they work out in the recreation cage or go for medical care, prisoners don’t see each other. When prisoners do leave their cells, they’re shackled and surrounded by guards, so there’s little chance of physical contact with other cons.

“No stupid undercover bombers to deal with; no vehicle traffic to get run over by. Being in prison I am also protected from many of the problems people in the real world have to deal with.”

McNair elaborates on the near-constant noise at the Supermax. It adds a whole new meaning to ‘venting.’

“I am now having to listen to a ‘cool guy’ screaming — on another range. He sounds like Michael Jackson. He even laughs like him. I have earplugs and headphones with plenty of volume and this piece of shit is still bleeding through. Six freaking hours.

“Every few hours I pour water down the drains in my cell to muffle his crappy ass voice. It helps — for a few minutes.

“Oh, there is the knucklehead on the lower floor, three cells down. That means six concrete walls, four doors — and I can still hear his sorry ass.

“Yesterday was crazy. We got a new individual on the tier. A couple of ‘bros’ knew him. I put in new ear plugs, put on my headphones, turned up the volume and wrote to you. This new guy and one of the guys who should know better yapped to one another all evening. I fell asleep around 9 with earplugs and headphones. Woke up at 3.45 a.m. to peace and silence. Am taking full advantage of it. Had a cup of coffee, ate some bread with peanut butter and some salad.

“Had an idiot beat on his cage all night long while another asshole screamed about B-Ball [basketball]. Right now they are screaming ‘bout who be dribbling the ball best.’

“We are in the middle of an amazing lightning storm. I mean, bolts of lightning are striking one right after another. Never seen anything like it here. Being 5,400 feet up has a lot to do with it. Okay, now everything has stopped. Perfect tornado weather.

“Oh man, water is running down my wall. That is unreal. You can only imagine how thick the glass is. I was like, Holy crap, the rain is hitting so hard, the window can’t hold it back. Not much water, but for water to penetrate this fortress is amazing. Not even going to talk about the construction of this place, but if water can find its way into a missile silo, it can get anywhere. The rain went from pounding to nothing in the blink of an eye. The inmates have gone ape shit. Just stupid. It sounds like feeding time at the zoo.

“Now the power has gone. I mean — zip! Everything is out. Way eerie silence. Even dumb ass downstairs has shut up. He might be pissing his pants. Nope. There he goes again. He just hollered to his neighbor, ‘You light off too?’ No dumb ass, you be the only one.

“The knuckleheads are crazy tonight, trying to out-scream one another. I don’t understand how three can ruin it for the rest of us. They won’t put them together — the idiots all on one tier — since the tiers have to be racially diverse. These are the knuckleheads who walk around in the pens with their pants hanging off their arse.

“A punk on the other tier was screaming at 2 a.m. Why the ‘F’ do we have to be subjected to this? Move his ass to the unit where they keep the hard core terrorists. Give them something to pray to Allah about.

“I think one of the knuckleheads got his shampoo bottle stuck up his ass. He is screaming like someone is raping him. What an idiot. He is the guy who yawns so loud you could hear him down the hall. You have to make yourself yawn LOUD to be heard outside the cell.

McNair
“One of the guys who is old like me and does not do the stupid crap shared that when they took him from his cell, he passed one of the loudest knuckleheads. ‘Look at me, I be working out.’ And the idiot was laying in his bunk watching TV and hollering out a count.

“Of the 12 on this tier, only five go to rec regularly.

“The idiots were off the cuff Sunday and Monday. My downstairs neighbor kicked the walls, bars and screamed from around noon Sunday until about midnight. The next day my neighbors on either side of me hollered back and forth for most of the day. The earbuds drown that out but when they beat on the bars or wall, notta is going to drown that out.

“Byron, I hate this place with all my heart. Six years for a non-violent infraction. Some of these guys only get 10 years for killing someone. I was supposed to go to ‘general population’ at Florence but when I got here, someone got a hair up their ass and had me designated to the Control Unit. That is some vindictive shit.

“Well, I’ve whined enough. Later …”

Constant Noise

An annoyance to all prisoners is the noisy timer that stops the flow of water every few minutes. Installed to prevent flooding, the timers create a loud BANG when the water shuts off, the racket amplified by the stainless steel shower stall and sink.

Because the plumbing is connected, the clangs set off a chain reaction, not unlike the shunting of rail cars.

“When I say BANG, take a rubber hose, swing it against a wall of sheet metal and you get the idea of what it is like.”

Things are even noisier during Ramadan, the Muslim religious festival. Cell guests get to hear Muslim prisoners reciting early morning prayers. For all but the deaf, the pre dawn devotions are an early wake-up call.

Worshipers wail on and on while the non-worshipers pray for Ramadan to end. It’s one month of pure hell.

“One of the Muslim wannabes is in a cell beneath me. He showers before each of his daily prayers — showers for 30 minutes! Normally, who would be bothered by someone showering? Remember these showers are stainless steel and the water only runs for 90 seconds before it shuts off — with a BANG.

“The wannabes have been screaming at one another for two days. The gist of it is, who ‘be’ the best Muslim. They have called one another bitches and faggots. Such good loving people. I kid you not — this has gone on for two days. Like any religion, Islam attracts the not so bright.

“Many of the terrorists who came to the U.S. — the 9-11 attackers included — visited strip-joints, had porn on their computers, etc. Many of the Arab Princes that were educated in the U.K. and U.S. went off the reservation drinking, ‘whoring’ as they call it. Yet they condemn us.

“Check into what they do on business trips.

“We are not going to appease these punks, so we should quit trying. They remind me of the angry Bible-thumping Baptist women when I was growing up in the ‘Bible Belt.’ Okay, none of these women hijacked a truck and plowed into Billy Bob’s — the largest dance hall in Texas, or it was when I was drinking and whoring.

“It is almost comical when they talk in their code — a bunch of numbers that I believe correlate to words. They holler a string of numbers, then they are repeated so the ‘sender’ can verify the ‘receiver’ got it correct. About to pull my hair out. At least they are not talking in Arabic. That is really annoying.

“Rant over. For now.”


Mailed himself:

McNair: In his last escape from a federal prison in April 2006, he mailed himself out of prison in a crate. This resulted in his mugshot being featured a dozen times on the TV show America's Most Wanted, and made him one of the top fifteen fugitives wanted by US Marshals

Meals -----and More Noise

Breakfast meals arrive around 6:00. McNair makes his first cup of coffee at 5:45. There’s no hot water in the Control Unit, and to get warm water, prisoners turn on the faucet and let it run for a while. However, if the tap is open too long, the timer kicks in with a loud bang. Another wake-up call.

Prisoners at the Supermax sometimes lose it — go bonkers — kicking nonstop on their steel showers. Neighbors must endure the maddening noise, an extra punishment above and beyond what the judges have meted out.

“I have an idea: take one of them ‘clappers‘ — you remember, ‘clap on, clap off’ — reprogram it for any noise and put a timer on it for 24 hours. Prisons can attach it to the TVs and when the knuckleheads want to holler and clap, they lose their TV as punishment.

“I asked about having a tier of guys who don’t want to yell or act stupid, but it didn’t go anywhere. That is my albatross, having to be around disrespect.

“Thing is, we are trapped. I am starting to dwell on this, and that is not good. Got to take a break and do some meditation.

“Great. Some knucklehead must have busted his sprinkler head. The fire alarm is blaring. When it is close by, the stench of that treated water is just nasty. A sweet odor like antifreeze. Was moved into a cell months after the sprinkler head has been busted off and the cell flooded. The floor will still have a slickness to it, no matter how much you scrub it. And sometimes the wall has streaks on it like acid has been thrown on it. Just nasty.

“The worst is the tear gas. That never leaves the cell. It gets real mild, but it still has a bite to it. Imagine 23 hours a day breathing that. Yeah, I LOVE THIS SHIT! I have learned my lesson. Can I go home now?

“At 3:23 a.m. they have just done a major count and in about an hour medical comes to my neighbor’s cell to give him his meds. Talk about banging doors.”

Changing Cells

Do guards patrol the ranges at ADX Florence? Yes, they do, in what has been described as a ‘pencil-whipping walk-through.’

Every three months, like clockwork, inmates in the Control Unit are moved to a different cell. It’s not to reward them with a change of scenery, it’s only part of the security measures.

In the years McNair has been a prisoner at the Supermax, he has changed cells more times than he changed identities while on the run.

“We rotated cells yesterday. This time I went to a cell of someone very clean. I wash my floor every day, but today everything gets clean. I’m going to scrub the stainless steel. The shower is the most difficult to get perfect: no streaks, no stains, and no scum. I wipe it down after each use, but it stains fast. You have to scrub it once a week with scour powder and a green vinyl scouring pad.

“Never buy stainless steel fixtures or appliances; they are a pain to clean.

“Some of the inmates don’t care about themselves, so why should they care how they leave the cell for the next guy? The Hispanics are the most respectful. If you put me on a tier with nothing but Hispanic prisoners I would be happy. In all my time in prison, Hispanics are the most respectful, cleanest and best all around for neighbors.

“Even if we could talk to one another here, I would only speak to three people on this tier; two Hispanics and one white. The rest are no interest to me.

“We moved today — and the cell is a mess. It takes a day or two to get organized. Some knuckleheads leave a nasty cell. At least I moved away from them. The guy downstairs — don’t know who he is — seems to be really quiet, no screaming to his girlfriend every time something happens on TV, no five showers a day. Three months of that stupid stuff. The difference is beyond description.

“Also, laundry comes back today. Monday and Thursday night is ‘send out laundry’ time. I miss doing my own laundry.”

In Defense of Guards

Richard McNair is not what one would call a ‘typical inmate.’ He speaks favorably of the guards at ADX Florence, describing them as extremely professional.

He wrote about an incident where guards must have felt like they were in a zoo.

“One of the knuckleheads — a mental case — went off on the staff while he was in a recreation cage. I could hear him calling them names. Did staff lower to his level? No. They tried to talk to him and asked what the problem was.

“I couldn’t hear the problem through his rants. He was secured in an indoor recreation cage, a steel and concrete room with solid doors and clear armor for windows.

“About an hour later, the staff returned. He was still ranting. They asked him to ‘cuff up’ [Author: apply handcuffs]. Staff was not aggressive or demeaning. They seemed to ignore the racial taunts and name-calling. He finally allowed staff to secure him with the restraints through the slots in the huge steel sliding door.

“That was impressive. Being a state prisoner, I have seen how state prisons are run. Staff there most likely would have taken his rants personally and offered to send him to meet Allah.”

Flexible pen

Canteen Supplies

Orders for extra food and other goodies are submitted to the prison canteen … where nothing is cheap.

Example: the four-inch flexible tube pen [the size of an IV tube] used by inmates sells for 35 cents. The pens run out fairly quickly.

Prisoners aren’t allowed regular pens because they could be used as a weapon.

“I have been penning all day long. YESSS my freaking hand is sore. If they had told me the only thing I would have to write with was a putt-putt pencil and soft rubber pen, I would have run a hell of a lot harder!

“How can a pen die so fast? What, 20 pages for 35 cents? Certainly going to show it to the canteen crew.”

If prisoners choose, they can use golf putt-putt pencils to write letters and take notes from courses broadcast on the closed-circuit television.

“Hey, little Ricky has only one person to blame for his predicament — and when I find out who he is, I am going to kick his ass! Just kidding. As you pointed out in an earlier letter, I have already taken out my brain and dissected it. Not pretty.”

The March 2009 shopping list from the prison canteen included a kufi cap [brimless, short, rounded headgear] for $2.76, prayer rug for $13.99, a Rastafarian Crown for $20.70 and prayer oil for $3.25.

A pack of Bicycle playing cards sold for $2.60 and a package of Hall’s throat lozenges [limit of 3], for 95 cents a pack. ‘All sales are final.’

“Just signed for some manila envelopes, 15 cents a piece — up 5 cents. In 2009, ear plugs increased from 20 cents to 40 cents a pair.”

The commissary list makes it clear that certain items — mesh bags, greeting cards and playing cards, for instance — are not available to “SAMS” inmates. Here we go with the stupid initials again. SAMS stands for ‘Special Alternative Measures’ prisoners, inmates who face more severe restrictions with mail, visits, phone calls and things permitted in cells.

“Hopefully, the account will be in order tomorrow. I need stamps. Too bad we can’t stock up on stamps; all we are allowed to have at one time is $8.80 worth. It used to be $24. There is a limit to control gambling, etc. Of course, that is mainly a problem in the regular prisons.

“Today is canteen day so the kids are jacked up on candy. HEADPHONES ON (check). MUSIC ON (check). IDIOTS LEFT IN DUST (priceless).” Commissary list below---flex pens are now 45 cents



Meals

Did you know that prisoners at ADX Florence have a choice of diet?

“We get fed better than just about any other prison, federal or state. Several state pens and jails only feed two meals a day. We get three. I eat a little of my meal and save the rest for during the day. When on the streets, I ate five or six times a day.

“I like the new juice; the fact it has vitamins is important. The big things are Calcium, Vitamins E, D and C. Vitamin D is important, especially if one does not get the sunlight each day. Our Calcium/Vitamin D supplement is only $2.50. I have a huge bottle of it.

“All menus get changed the first Wednesday of the month. Will start the Heart Healthy diet. Have never been on it so it will be interesting to see what it is like. Would like to lose a couple more pounds. Once in a while, the fatty diet is okay, but we pay a price. The only thing I am going to miss is the 2% milk. Fat-free milk sucks.

“What milk do you drink? Are you like me when I was out there, whole milk for tea and 2% for the rest?

“I put in to be taken off the diet tray and back on the regular tray. The difference between the meals is no fried food and an extra piece of fruit each day. Lost some weight and that is good, but feel sluggish. Should be turkey for lunch. Good stuff; plenty of protein.

“Wow — we had a sandwich for lunch today. Turkey, wheat bread, lettuce, tomato and a fruit bar. A lot better than most have it. We get three trays a day and when I catch myself moaning, I remember all the people in your country and my country who have nothing.

“For lunch and dinner, we get a scoop of ice with our meal. I can hear them filling the ice bucket (a large 30-gallon container on wheels), right before they pass out the trays and when I hear the ice cubes hitting the bucket, my ears pick up.

“Today is ‘tuna’ fish which sounds good. Sounds being the key word here. The quality of this tuna is questionable. Every time I eat it I have to chew on a Tums [antacid]. We get tuna twice a week; once as a sandwich and once in a noodle concoction.

“Tonight is sub sandwiches. I like sandwiches. Big slices of tomato, ham, mayonnaise, and lettuce. Won’t see tomatoes here unless they are thin slices. Would eat tomatoes out there [on the street] like apples. So good for you. The other day, we got packs of crackers off Southwest Airlines. Past the due date, but really good. Wish I could have sent you the wrapper and said, ‘just got back from vacation and wanted …’

“That would have gotten your attention.”

Exercise

Supermax prisoners do indeed get out of their cells — though not very often, and not for long.

Aside from the 90-minute workouts in the recreation areas, they’re escorted by guards for medical care and for meetings with staff.

The main hallways, which seem to go on forever, are spacious — wide enough for a truck to drive down. And every inch is spotless, shined to a gleam any clean-freak would be proud of.
For recreation, inmates have a choice of places. They can stay indoors or go outdoors to an area known as the ‘kennel.’ The latter resembles an empty swimming pool, with about 250 square feet of floor space.

Once the prisoners are in recreation, the restraints are removed and they’re free to run around. If they’re in the ‘kennel,’ they can, if they choose, just stare at the sky through a  grated opening in the roof.

It is the prisoners’ only direct contact with nature.

“Had a great workout today. Did push-ups, rows, and abs. Felt good and it was just cold enough — 18 degrees Fahrenheit [minus 8 Celsius] — to be comfy in shorts and T-shirt. No, we don’t have anything more than a pull-up bar and a dip-bar. Did my stretches and windmills. Windmills are alternating toe touches. They are so good for you.

“Got plenty of sun yesterday. Felt sooo good. Just for health reason, we need sun. I should get sun about once a week this year. Last year was bad — maybe seven days of sun all year. If we have late recreation, then we get sun. If it is at 7 a.m., the sun never reaches us.

“If you get about 10 minutes summer (full) sun in a day you are good, but in the far North or winter months, one needs 15-20 minutes.

“Sure wish I had outside rec today. The sun is blasting. On a day like this, I would have packed a day pack, rigged out the mountain bike (GPS, satellite radio, etc.) and went for a ride. Boo hoo.

“Great workout. The weather was perfect. I love working out. Came in and ate an apple and now here I is. Will take a shower in a bit. Will wait for Mr. Shower downstairs to take his third shower of the day. If I take mine at the same time it won’t get on my nerves as bad.”

When a prisoner is finished with his workout, the restraints are put back on and a guard walks him back to his cell.

At the Supermax, guards walk, inmates shuffle.

“Do you stretch? My workouts are usually three hours. I must spend at least one hour stretching. If not, my legs hurt at night. Have you tried Tai-Chi?

“The only thing to die from here is old age or becoming a couch potato, or in our case, a bunk potato. That ain’t going to happen with Ric. I will never get fat or lazy!”

“Oh man, just dribbled tea down my favorite T-shirt. Once and a while they give us good heavy T-shirts and yes, they are made in U.S.A. Other times they give us the cheese cloth T’s made in Hong Kong or Indonesia. So I take very good care of the good heavy ones because for the most part, I live in T’s and the Khaki pants they give us. I wet down the T-shirt and put some bar soap on it, then put it in the laundry bag for tomorrow’s laundry.

“My laundry came back not smelling funky. We get two mesh bags and many times it comes back smelling funky. My jockstraps came back a tad shrunk. Great for the ego, but maybe not so great for the long run. Ah, the wit. That be a Byron saying.”

Exercising isn’t the only thing that happens in the rec areas. McNair wrote about a prisoner who had been in the ‘kennel’ just before he got there …

“I shuffled into the inside rec cage after Mr. Ghetto had his 1.5 hours. The guards removed my restraints through the door slots and I look around the cage and there is spit everywhere. I mean, running off the wall, on the floor. Thank goodness, not on the ceiling.

“I yelled down the tier and told the guys, ‘I am not the sorry-piece-of-shit who spit all over the cage. So don’t think I’m the guy who disrespects everyone!’ Mr. Ghetto didn’t say shit. You should thank the Good Lord for your life, Byron. I realize the only person I have to blame for my situation is me — but dang, I was sentenced to hard labor, not these mind games.

“One of the fine young men decided to bust his fire sprinkler this morning. So, of course, the horn on the fire alarm blares. I was in the indoor rec cage and luckily I had ear plugs.

“Our hot water has been off for three days while they do preventive maintenance. I am glad they do it this way instead of waiting for it to break. Then it would break down on a holiday, the parts wouldn’t ship for four days, etc. They are good around here; got to keep the terrorists happy. Okay, that was sarcasm. Bad Ricky.”

Muslim Prayers

“This is an off day, no recreation, so I decided to sleep in — wrong! The Imam was so loud this morning that even with earplugs, his B.S. invaded my brain. Oh God (the good one), I could have been brainwashed.

“Just a few more days of Ramadan left.”

An Imam is a spiritual leader who conducts Islamic worship services at a mosque. He is generally looked up to in the Muslim community.

“Hallelujah! Ramadan is over! I have no idea how long this Imam wannabe is here — so don’t know how many years I have to listen to him. You wanna know what is worse? When I have to be his neighbor and listen to him teaching through the vent. Hour after hour of his teaching and converting the guys who live below him.

“Now I know why 90% of their bombing missions are messed up. Between the five showers and prayers a day, they forget their spot in the Acme Bomb-Making Manual.”

Contact With the Outside World

Not only is prisoner movement at ADX Florence highly restricted, so is their communication with the outside world. Outgoing and incoming mail is constantly monitored. Same with phone calls.

Inmates can find out about what’s happening in the outside world by watching television, listening to the radio, writing letters and by reading books and magazines. And of course, if McNair wants the latest basketball scores he can always eavesdrop.

“In case you have been Down Under [Australia] or something, March Madness is the basketball tournament for college. I wouldn’t watch basketball if they paid me. My Mom was a high school star in basketball and she hated it that none of us boys played.

“Oklahoma had an earthquake. 4.3. Can you imagine having sex and a big one hits just at the perfect time? Try and repeat that feat. We have had a couple of quakes around here. One, next door, was pretty strong.

“They are preparing to build one of the biggest telescopes — going to build it in Hawaii. Never did understand why they didn’t put one on the moon. Instead of having it float around in space like the Hubble, have it on the moon.

“The F.D.A. [Author: U.S. Food & Drug Administration] is going to approve a diet drug that has serious side effects. Can you say instantaneous voiding of bowels, projective vomiting, dizziness, etc, etc. Hell, just eat raw eggs or take a trip to Africa and drink the water. Cheaper, but then again you can’t sue, huh?

“The N.S.A. [Author: U.S. electronic spy agency] says we were spying on China. And to think we were screaming and crying about China spying on us! Man, I should have gone to the China Embassy in Ottawa and shared that I was an employee of N.S.A. and that the whole prison [escape] story was the U.S.A. Government’s way of discrediting me. Could have had one of those spy rings sold at Walmart. Ooops, that wouldn’t work since it would say, ‘Made in China.’

“Could have printed up a load of file folders that said, “Top Top Super Secret” and traded them for [political] asylum. Probably would have ended up working on the loading dock of the iPhone factory.”

Sports Interests

McNair follows the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys and St. Louis Rams. He pulls for the Rams because quarterback Sam Bradford is from Oklahoma City.

“My Cowboys got their butt handed to them. I do like Brett Favre, so not that big of a deal. I think it is going to be the Vikes and Colts. Hopefully, a better game than the rest of the playoff games, though the New Orleans-Arizona game was okay.

“Did I send you that blurb out of The Week that broke down the actual time of action in a football game? Eleven and-a-half minutes of action. Unreal that a two-hour game only has about eleven and-a-half minutes of action.

“When is Canada going to get an NFL team? I suspect American-style football is big there.”

It is popular in Canada. There is a professional eight-team Canadian Football League [CFL], with squads in major cities from Vancouver to Montreal. The rules are slightly different and the skill level sure isn’t that of the NFL.

“Looks as if football will survive. The billionaires and millionaires came to terms, or are about to. All the people out of work … and people want to strike. Crazy.”

Like What??

And in a letter from McNair dated 30 April 2013, he offers these thoughts on current events:

“Very interesting, today is National Honesty Day. Pretty sad when a country has to have a day of honesty. I guess today would be the day to buy a car.”

Magazines and Newspapers

Provided they have enough money in their accounts, prisoners can subscribe to a number of magazines — but only those that have been approved by the prison. Even with magazines that have been given the green light, sometimes pages are removed if an article deals with violence, crime, prison life, escapes … or if it depicts nudity.

“Received a rejection notice for Interview, a magazine I get for free. The rejection was for nudity. Didn’t know they had nudity in it …”

Because of the detail surrounding McNair’s three escapes alone, this book — The Man Who Mailed Himself Out of Jail — will not be on the approved reading list for prisoners at ADX Florence.

At various times, McNair has subscribed to The Week, Mother Earth News, Field & Stream, Wired, Rolling Stone, Log Home Living, Men’s Journal and Outdoor Life.

“Can’t understand how they can sell them so cheap. I got five magazines for a full year for $20. I realize there’s advertising, but just crazy. It must be about getting the numbers up for advertisers, huh?

“I subscribed to the ‘new and improved’ Christian Science Monitor. They offered a special deal: $13 for six months. No wonder they went broke. Okay, maybe not broke. Still not a fan of the new Christian Science Monitor. When it was a newspaper, it was a daily and a lot more in-depth.

Started receiving my Backpacker magazine last week. Many great pictures in it. Man, I enjoy reading that. If you dusted back-issues of Backpacker at libraries in Canada, you would see my paw prints all over them.

“When I created my Alaska driver’s license, I scanned a mountain scene from Backpacker, then ‘layered’ it on the driver’s license.

“The latest Backpacker is unreal. It is full of the best of boots, tents, sleeping bags, etc. Fun to read and dream.”

At ADX Florence, newspapers are passed from cell to cell …

“It is getting close to 8, had to stop and read the newspaper so the officer could pass it to the next cell. We get one USA Today for the tier and out of respect, some of us stop whatever we are doing, read it and pass it on. A couple of the guys tend to hold on to it until they get ready to read it. Gee, wonder who that would be? Interesting how if you are disrespectful in one area you tend to be across the board.

“By reading magazines and watching news magazine shows on TV, McNair maintains an interest in various subjects — and computers is one of them.

“Can you buy a copy of the day’s newspaper for your iPad? Wouldn’t that be something?Pass the news kiosk and see a USA Today story that catches your attention, so for $1 you buy a copy of the paper with just a few swipes of the finger on your iPad.

“The one that intrigues me is the Kindle. Download just about any book anywhere there is Wi-Fi or a 4G connection — in just seconds. They hold 1,000 books. That is so cool.”

Radio: A Captive Audience

“Just heard on the radio one of my acquaintances is not going to get the death penalty for killing another prisoner. So glad. He is one of those guys I would not ‘trip’ if he lived next door to my family.

“There is a difference between how a person has to live his life in prison, and how one would live his life on the streets.”

Another positive distraction for prisoners is to put on the headphones and crank up the radio to hear some tunes.

In a letter dated the 9th of February 2012, McNair comments on a local radio station:

“The classic rock station they pump into us from Colorado Springs either changed owners or format.

“They got rid of the two knuckleheads in the morning who spewed locker room ‘humor’ and other crap. They now play music in the morn. Get this — from 9 to noon — commercial free. Thank you 107.9.”

McNair is referring to KDZA-FM, ‘Colorado’s Legendary Classic Rock,’ Z 107.9.

“My favorite is on Sunday — old rock. Not a bad setup; no talk or commercials. Like an MP3 player.

“Dear Lord, who did we piss off today? Normally, on the Institution station on Tuesday, they play old music from the 1940s and 50s. Today they are playing disco! DISCO! Yeah, we must have done a bad thing.

“The worst is on Saturday … hip hop. I thought hip hop was like, dead.”

In a letter dated the 4th of June 2013, McNair penned a few lines of a song he heard on the radio that brought back memories of the day he was captured in Canada:

“Was listening yesterday to a song called Renegade [by STYX] and there is a line ‘Lawman finally got me, am so far from home.’ It had a line that made me think of Campbellton …”
The actual lyrics: “Oh mama, I’m in fear for my life from the long arm of the law; Lawman has put an end to my running and I’m so far from my home …” [© Almo Music Corp; Stygian Songs.]

Books

Books can be borrowed from the prison library, but again only publications that are approved. Prisoners are given a list of books and they check off those they would like.

The books are delivered to their cells.

According to McNair, they’re allowed to check out two books a week and hold onto them for a couple of weeks.

“They passed out the new library list. A few decent books. Chinese Medicine really looks great. That went at the top of my list.

“They treat us good with our book selections. Received the new library list for the quarter. Looks good. A couple of ‘shrinkology’ books I’ll check out.”

“We can only have five books and magazines at a time in our cell. It’s a bitch if you have a Spanish dictionary, English and a research book (new American Desk Encyclopedia).

“It motivates me to read my magazines fast and toss them out. We can’t pass them on, which is a shame.

“Got a decent book this week. It is a college text book, Introduction to Personality by Walter Mischel. Just read another cool book from 1959, Trees. It is a book about the trees of North America. Has decent drawings of the trees and descriptions.

Am reading Tom Clancy’s Red Rabbit again. Read it about six years ago; I do enjoy his writing style.”

Other books from the prison library McNair has written about include Chinese Mythology by Anthony Christie; Six Pillars of Self-Esteem by Nathaniel Branden; Between Heaven and Earth: A Guide to Chinese Medicine; A History of Psychology by Horst Kachele; Scott Thybony’s book The Rockies: Pillars of a Continent; Trump: The Art of the Deal, and Building Your Vocabulary by Marvin Terban.

“Oooo … horripilation: the bristling or standing on end of a person’s hair when they are frightened. Yeah, I’ll be using that one. NOT!

“Did you know ‘to gonk’ is to lie or exaggerate, especially online?

I have to say that Wednesday is my fav day — get two new books and a magazine. Not tooo difficult to keep Ric content — books, magazines, some music and NO FREAKING HOLLERING!

“The other night I was ready to confess to my part in the Wikileaks deal. Waterboarding! Ha, that is child’s play compared to having to listen to numbskull — —. Hell, I don’t even know what to equate it to.”

Rejects

Like all prisons, there are restrictions on what inmates can have in their cells. At ADX Florence, prisoners are allowed to have a number of things including photographs, writing materials, and wall calendars.

During the time I’ve been writing to Richard McNair, a dozen of my letters have been returned by the prison — for requesting details of one of McNair’s escapes … or mentioning the name of another prisoner. Apparently, these are no-no’s.

The mailroom will sometimes remove the offending page and pass the rest of the letter to McNair but occasionally the entire letter is sent back. When that happens, both McNair and I get identical memos from prison officials explaining why the correspondence was rejected.

Some of the reasons include: “It contains information from an incarcerated individual; it discusses an incarcerated individual; Google Maps; contains information about the inmate escape; matter [a printed article from the Internet] which depicts, describes or encourages activities which may lead to the use of physical violence or group disruption.”

Prison Form BP-S328.058 has a checklist of why material may be returned: stamps, cash or money-orders to be given to inmates; body hair; plant shavings and sexually-explicit personal photos.

“Byron, can you go through the letter that got sent back and delete the parts about escapes. That is why they rejected it.

“Are you starting to feel like Job? That is the prisoner’s favorite book in the Bible. For they too suffer, you know, with racial profiling and all.

“We sure didn’t do good with the mail this past week. Two rejections. What are you putting in your letters? Plans for a gyrocopter? Take it easy out there.

“Simply redact the offensive sections and re-mail.”

The letters were rejected because they contained photographs of the railroad tracks McNair walked down after he escaped from USP Pollock. Ditto with photos of the waste treatment plant he broke into near the prison.

It was the same deal with satellite images and road maps, although, in the beginning, those images were getting in. In our early letters, McNair not only got to see the satellite images I’d mailed, he made notations on them and mailed them back.

A feature story I mailed Richard McNair [from the October 9, 2006, edition of The New Yorker] was rejected for two reasons: “It was determined detrimental to the security, good order or discipline of the institution” … or that it might facilitate criminal activity — and — “It was not received from the publisher, a book club, or a bookstore.”

The story, by Mark Singer, was written when McNair was still on the lam.

McNair seems to be able to write about his own escapes — but I cannot provide him with details of his escapes. The prisoner has mailed me a number of hand-drawn maps, complete with a play-by-play account of how things went down.

Richard McNair has also had some of his letters rejected by his mailroom with instructions from staff to delete certain parts.

“Got back two envelopes — due to ‘security and orderly running of institution.’ I took the stuff out.”

I compensate Richard McNair for his postage and writing materials. In my initial correspondence to him, in the fall of 2008, I stuffed three one-dollar bills in the envelope.

The prison promptly sent the money back with a note explaining that any money for a federal inmate must be sent by money order to the prisoner’s ‘account’ in Des Moines, Iowa.

Odds and Ends

“No mail last night because of the Native’s favorite holiday — Columbus Day. I see this is your Thanksgiving.

“When is Boxer Day?”

Boxing Day — a federal holiday in Canada — is the 26th of December.

It’s a huge shopping event north of the border. ‘Bargains galore.’

In spite of the tight security, correspondence from Richard McNair can sometimes be lighthearted. This one got through:

“Things are okay here. I hear we are going to get to hunt Easter Eggs. Right after Hell freezes over!

“Was going to make another comment but they might hold the letter as a security issue.

“Gee, some people have no humor. I ‘called’ the officer on the phone and asked if I could run this down the street to the mailbox on the corner. Now I is ‘4-pointed’ on the bunk. Don’t even ask how I am writing this. Just kidding. We don’t have a phone.

“There are just a few sheets left. I’ll have you know my writing hand is just numb. Do your finger tips get numb or bruised from keying?

“Here is what I have learned, young grasshopper: composting creates some heat. Several times, my saved lettuce was a bit wilted and when I pick it up — in a bag — I can feel the heat it is giving off.

“I read that people have rigged pipes through a compost pit to collect that heat. They use it to warm a barn or shed. Granted, you are not going to get many BTUs, but it can warm the pad under a cow or a chicken coop. Just neat stuff.

“I cringe having to throw away paper every other day. See, if they would just replace our TVs with iPads! God, the politicians would go apeshit over that.

“Not much more to write. Boring here, but that is a good thing. Glad the book is coming along. Too bad I’ll never get to read the thing.”

In the summer of 2009, David Billingham, Office Manager of The Tribune in Campbellton, mailed Richard McNair his newspaper’s six-part series on the U.S. fugitive, titled The Running Man. Everything was sent back.

Enclosed in the envelope was a memo: “The publication has been rejected because pages contain information on methods of escape and how to avoid capture.”

Courses

Prisoners at ADX Florence can take educational courses on subjects ranging from parenting to the Universe. They do not have to leave their cells to attend class because the programs are shown on closed-circuit television.

The Executive Assistant at ADX indicates the courses are all about self-improvement. Mark Collins says the idea is to develop ‘strong values and skill sets’ to become law-abiding citizens when they’re released back into society.

McNair muses that by taking classes, inmates show they are programming and not just ‘wasting away’ in their cells.

The courses do not lead to college credits.

“We watch videos for a few weeks, writing a three or four-page essay each week. Some of the classes offered have been Planet Earth; Great Ideas of Psychology; Aging; Stress Management and Ethics.

“I’ve also taken a class called The Universe, one of the best. It was a 12-week course.

“Each week you get an open TV test. As you watch the program, you answer the questions.

“The new class on America at War is really good. Had the first video on Wednesday and some very interesting stuff on WW1. I’m going to enjoy this 10-week class.

“The only country that can beat us in having wars is Britain. The only reason is, their country is like nine times older than ours. Give us time.”

McNair offers these comments about other courses at the Supermax:

“The best class has been The Heart and Chi. I certainly believe we can self-heal. This is what the classes shared.

“I took a class over the Education TV Channel from the ‘Shrinkology Department’ called The Brain, and guess where it was from? The program, not the brain. Canada! A bunch of funny-sounding people from Toronto. Most of the program dealt with how hormones affect the sex of the brain. Crazy stuff.

“Started a psychology class. Really good, though four hours of lecture yesterday alone. Took notes big time. My hand hurt! Lucky my pisser and TV are in the same room.

‘Origin of the Modern Mind’ is very heavy into Aristotle, Galileo, Kepler and Copernicus, to name a few. A lot on how the church dealt with these ‘problem thinkers.’

“The lecture today for shrinkology was amazing. The subject was a physicist, Wolfgang Pauli — who passed away on December 19, 1958, [Author: the same day Richard McNair was born]. I am not much on reincarnation, but whoa. Wolfgang studied the relationship of physics and Chinese culture, mythology. If I was the recipient of his soul, that would explain a lot. He was only 58 when he passed. Just a fascinating lecture.

“Wolfgang felt that to be a proper physicist he needed to repress his feelings of love, etc. Not going to retell the lecture, but his dreams led him to the opposite conclusion. Man, I love learning.”

Religious programs are also shown on the institution’s closed-circuit television channel.

The Supermax does not have a chapel. According to Mark Collins, if inmates so want, religious staff can visit them in their cells.

Phone Calls

Starting in May 2010, Richard McNair was allowed to make one 15-minute phone call per month — but only to people on an approved list.

How it works is that a guard brings a telephone to his cell, a connection is made, the guard closes the door and leaves.

The calls are monitored and end exactly at 15 minutes, with a two-minute recorded warning the call is from a federal prison .

The telephone calls made by inmates illustrate the super tight security at ADX Florence.

“Have to first activate my voice recording. It matches my voice when I call so they know it is me.”

If McNair has a bad cold, his voice may not be recognized and the call might not go through.

McNair can either pay for the call with money from his account or he can phone someone on his list who has a special prepaid phone account set up through a private company. Prisons are good business.

Richard McNair’s first call from the Supermax, in May 2011, was to his mother in Oklahoma. His second call, in June of that year, was to his father. I received his third, on the 20th of August. All 2011.

In a letter, McNair cautioned me not to discuss certain topics: his escape from Pollock, prison security, etc. — or our call would be terminated without warning.

“Byron, we will have to be so disciplined when we talk. I don’t believe we will be able to talk about anything related to the book without risking the call.

"They have no problem ending a call.”

Nothing like that happened, even though the ‘E’ word [escape] was mentioned a couple of times. How could it not?

After 15 minutes of questions and answers, the line went dead.

“At least they brought the phone at dinner so the idiots were stuffing their faces instead of screaming. Good job, staff.

"Money on the account for phone calls out is a heck of a lot cheaper than collect calls. Next door, [the ‘regular’ federal prison at Florence where McNair was held from 2001 to 2005], a prepaid call was about $3.80 for 15 minutes versus $8 collect.

"The feds are way cheaper than state prisons. At Oak Park Heights in Minnesota, a prepaid call was about $8 and collect was $15. The states are nasty about sticking it to families and prisoners. I had lost canteen, phone and visiting for five years.

Special Treatment

"At Florence, all visiting is through the glass (non-contact), but the Hearing Officer gave me back my visits. I excitedly informed my family.

"A couple of months after I arrived at ADX Florence, my family called the prison and made an appointment to visit. They drove from Oklahoma, processed in to the prison, started down the hall to the visiting room and then were told ooops, Richard McNair cannot have visits.

"Talk about devastated. Them and me. In spite of what I was promised in Louisiana, there was nothing in my file about being given my visits back. I wrote three letters to officials at USP Pollock. No response.

"How about those apples? Can you say payback?

"I overheard a conversation on the weekend between a new guy and a couple of other prisoners. All three had stabbed other inmates. Not one got more time in the Control Unit than me! The only guy so far I have heard who got more time than me got 10 years for trying to kill an officer. That is crazy.

"It just pisses me off that I didn’t hurt anyone physically, didn’t take anyone hostage, didn’t do anything even close to violent — and I get 60-plus months in the Control Unit. It does not make sense.”

In a letter dated 23 of July 2013, McNair again mentions his frustration at his spending so much time in the Control Unit.

“One of the Taliban wannabes left last week. He was one of those who yelled the Koran lessons for hours. Byron, he got here way after me and is gone before me. Over and over I have seen that. Am the last one on the tier from when I got here. Does that make sense?

"In other words, everyone else is gone and many who came after me are gone. That sure works on me.

"While you were in Louisiana, did anyone share with you all the mistakes [USP] Pollock made?

"I had a lot going in my favor.”

No kidding.

In the fall of 2010, I had dropped by USP Pollock for information about McNair’s escape -- and the punishment he got for the escape.

The prison’s Public Information Officer, Ron Martinez, refused to discuss the matter. He also declined to talk about disciplinary action taken against staff that had screwed up.

I then asked for permission to see the warehouse located on prison property, where McNair ended up with a shipment of mail bags in April 2006. Again, no.

“You realize, Ron,” I said, “it’s harder to get into your prison than it is to get out.” He smiled.

Medical Treatment

At the 'Alcatraz of the Rockies,' inmates get free medical care and other services ...

“What a couple of days. For a place that is boring, this has been like ‘hectic’ for me. I changed cells, then went around the corner and got my hair chopped. Got me a buzz cut; two years of growth hit the floor. It feels so good.

"Just got ‘breathalyzed.’ They have a little handheld unit and do random alcohol and drug tests.

"They came and took my DNA last week. That is the government’s program to take DNA from all incarcerated with a violent history. Am in favor of that. It started as a State program. Guess what? Police solved 16% of outstanding sexual assaults. Guess who were the majority of assailants identified through the program? Home burglars. Officials think it is a crime of opportunity. A few of these guys were close to getting released for their original crime. The results came back and a deputy was at the front gate waiting for their sorry ass.

"Went to medical today for x-rays of the head — my sinus infection. While waiting to get cleared with my multi-staff escort, we were in a corridor, and guess what? It was way louder in the corridor than on the ranges. What I suspect happens is all that screaming on the ranges gets funneled to that corridor.

"Am on the super-duper antibiotics right now. They are kicking my arse; flashes, headaches, blurred vision, sour stomach, joint aches ... and I can’t crap. It has to be working huh? I just want this sinus infection to end. This round of meds is Sulfamethoxazole-Trimeth. I feel cheated — the name on the other round was longer. I figure the stronger the dose, the longer the name. It is the same stuff, just stronger doses.

"One of the things they gave me for my hemorrhoids is a wipe with ‘witch hazel.’ Amazing stuff. If you are ever bored, you could print out something about it and why it works. Ooooo, so soothing. My little desktop encyclopedia just says it is a brush with medicinal uses.

"Have you tried acupuncture? Does your medical plan cover it? For pain, I can understand how acupuncture works — but high blood pressure, that baffles me. You can block pain with pressure points. Toothache — the web of the thumb, headache — the temples. But blood pressure?

"Have not had a flu shot in more than 6 years. Had to sign my life away to medical when I refused the shot! Have seen people take the shot and get sick as can be. Will just keep working out, eat right and wash the heck out of my hands.”

My Visit to ADX-  A "Fail"

I traveled to Colorado in late 2010 with the hope of meeting Richard McNair, albeit behind thick glass. Months earlier, I’d mailed the visitor’s form, properly completed and triple-checked.

I pulled into Florence late at night and checked into a motel just a mile down the road from the pen. From my second floor window, I could see the sprawling prison complex, well lit by the same security lights McNair had described in his letters. “I’m that close,” I said to myself.

The Super 8 is where folks stay when they visit relatives imprisoned at the Federal Correctional Complex.

F.B.I. agents book rooms there as well. Makes for hushed conversations over breakfast.

Before I took off to see McNair, motel manager Carol Stires had a gentle warning: “When you pull up to the main gate,” she said, “make sure your car is empty.” Then she explained why. “When one of our guests tried to visit a prisoner, guards discovered a rifle in the bed of his truck. The guard asked, ‘what are you doing here with that?’” Legitimate question, all things considered. “The guy explained he’d been out bird-hunting.” How To Cancel Prison Visits 101.

After hearing that story, I took everything out of my rental. I mean everything. Armed with nothing but a driver’s license, notepad, two pens and a cell phone, I headed out to the Supermax. I could soon ask Richard McNair questions and not have to wait a month and half for answers.

Alas, the visit was not allowed. Turns out, no record of my paperwork could be found. Hmmm. “Sorry for coming all the way down from Canada,” one staffer said on the phone.

I returned to my car in the parking lot next to the ADX reception building, feeling a little empty myself, only to be startled by the rapid fire of assault rifles nearby.

Guards were practicing their marksmanship. Then again, maybe it was a hint I should get out of Dodge.

McNair came up with his own ‘plan’ to get me into the joint:

“You could always start your own church. Just kidding. It seems religions have the run in prisons.”

After driving the twisting, paved road through the prison complex, I signed out at the main gate and thanked the guards for their time. They’d been polite and professional.

Shucks. My planned get-together with McNair had gone south. I headed south too.

After picking up my camera at the motel — hey, time for another plug: the Super 8 Motel —  I made my way up Siloam Road [Colorado Road 19], just south of the Supermax. When I got to the top of the hill I snapped pictures of the sprawling complex.

While waiting at the registration desk at ADX Florence, I had thoughts of interviewing former bankers and investors who had looted billions of dollars — criminal acts so huge and greed so obscene it brought the world economy to its knees.

Squirreled away at the Supermax, I’m sure, would be a hedge-fund manager or two, perhaps even a politician who’d turned a blind eye to it all.

Reflection and Hope

A philosophical Richard McNair has the last word about his dramatic escape from a Louisiana penitentiary in 2006:

“A lot good did come from my vacation. Glenn Belgard was made ‘Marshal of the Year.’ The R.C.M.P. got to hand out some ‘atta-boys.’

"And I got to meet you. Not bad.”

It’s not known how much time Richard McNair has to serve before he gets a shot at parole. According to a Progress Report from USP Florence dated the 1st of September 2003, the projected release for prisoner Richard Lee McNair reads: ‘Unknown.’

As of the 20th of June 2013, the Bureau of Prisons Website simply lists prisoner McNair’s release date as ‘STATE PRIS.’

“What happens after my term in the Control Unit? I could go to another prison, such as the one next door, or simply be walked to what they refer to as ‘General Population’ at ADX. Not much different from this place; but no leg irons and not all the strip searches.”

In a letter dated 25th of April 2013, Richard McNair writes about his current status, wondering where he could be moved when his time in the Control Unit is up.

“Their main options are 'State Placement' (send me back to North Dakota), ‘down the hall,’ to a step-down program ... or to an open compound (a regular pen). A step-down program is more for gang members. It is to see how you interact with others.

"Had team [meeting with his case worker] on Tuesday [23rd of April 2013]. Five months to go. One of the surprises: was informed would be going to executive panel in May or June. Ex-panel is made up of administration big wigs, along with the regional director out of Kansas City. Strange it would be 150 days before. At least two times normal. Ex-panel should give me an idea what they have in store.”

Television 

McNair’s letter, dated the 8th of May 2013, was upbeat. That’s because prisoners in the Control Unit had just received new televisions.

“We got new TV’s this morn! NO BUZZING. All the old TV’s had a buzz that could drive one bonkers. And it has stereo. Dear Lord to hear music in stereo. The difference is unreal. To see things on TV in color and clear. For five years I’ve had no color TV, no stereo and a buzz. While the rest of the world moved to HDTV, we were still in the B/W analog game.

"The TV is a little thing made by Skyworth. The picture is very good, but the knuckleheads are whining that when they move around the cell the picture deteriorates. Are you kidding me? I am just glad to have a TV that is all there and in color. They told us we are responsible for the TV and it moves with us. YESSSS! For the next five months I will baby that TV and it will look brand new when the next guy gets it.

"I am giggling (yes, big bad Supermax guys giggle) about the sound quality. STEREO and no buzz. Remember how you had to purchase a filter for your old 60s and 70s model cars because otherwise as you increase the RPM you would get a buzzing in the radio? Well, that is similar to the buzz the old TVs had.

"Oh yeah, another thing, the picture is not scrunched up on the broadcast channels. To make the digital picture fit on the analog screen the stations scrunched the picture. People looked goofy and you could not see all the picture.”

"There is one man who remains unforgiving about the 1987 shootings in Minot. He is not a police officer, a judge, a case worker nor the U.S. Marshal who tracked the escaped killer for a year and half.

"Don’t make me out to be something I am not. I am guilty. I am a murderer, and I tried to kill Mr. Kitzman. If we do a book, I want to be raked over the coals. The book needs to as honest as can be.”

More Reflection

In the 3,000+ pages Richard Lee McNair has written from his cell at the Supermax, he has provided far more than just the ‘inside story’ of three breakouts and his time on the lam.

After a number of requests, McNair finally wrote about the deadly shooting a quarter of a century ago. In letters and now phone calls, the former Airman has repeatedly expressed remorse for the 1987 shootings.

Is he sincere? Only Richard McNair and God know for sure. You make the call.

“I can see where people are cynical when it comes to prisoners declaring remorse. How many find God when they come to prison only to lose Him when they hit the streets again. Or how many sex offenders get the cure.

"Hell, I am cynical when it comes to prisoners showing remorse. Have had a lot of ‘yeah right’ moments.”

Richard McNair has opened up about his upbringing in Oklahoma, old friends and some of his role models — whether in uniform or people on the streets. As I was putting this book together, the thought occurred that not only had law enforcement been trying to find the fugitive, McNair was trying to find himself.

Then again, perhaps that applies to us all.

How does an intelligent, industrious child from a typical Midwestern family go so terribly wrong? I don’t know the answer. I’ll leave that for criminologists and psychologists to ponder.

“Many days I have laid on my bunk and wondered what happened to that happy little boy to propel him into an angry and violent man — an anger that seethed below the surface for many years. To this day I have no clue where that anger came from and yes, initially in hindsight I blamed everyone else for my anger — everyone but me."

Some, like Sheriff Vern Erck in North Dakota, wonder if Richard McNair was a thrill seeker who was “wired” differently. Instead of climbing mountains or jumping out of airplanes, Erck said, McNair went to the dark side, getting his kicks from break-ins, carrying a firearm — and when surprised and ticked off, blasted away. Is that the answer?

Or, was his violent behavior that night the result of some misplaced anger? I don’t know the answer.

“I am a convicted murderer. Hopefully, people who matter see that I have turned my anger from uncontrolled outbursts to, I don’t know, a controlled ability to work it out. I realize many people would say, ‘Oh yeah, he proved that by escaping and doing break-ins.’ That is true and deserved.

"While on the run it was my intention not to hurt anyone physically. By that I mean, not put my hands on them. I realize people were frightened, lost their jobs, lost property, etc. I apologize for that. No excuses.”

I wrote McNair that no single act — good or bad — defines a person. I put it to him this way: if I were to donate my life savings to charity, it wouldn’t necessarily make me a good man. One night of evil doesn’t necessarily define one’s true character either, although a murder in cold blood is one scar that’ll never go away.

In the eyes of many, Richard McNair’s violent rampage a quarter of a century ago will forever define him. He’s a murderer. The life of an innocent man was snuffed out. Jerry Thies’ killer should pay an appropriate price — a penalty to be determined by the state and the courts. If the price is death, so be it. If it’s a 20-year prison sentence, so be it.

All would agree that Richard Lee McNair should serve his time. Has federal prisoner #13829.045 paid his debt to society? That’s a question I cannot answer. Perhaps that is why God made parole boards.

In early 2010, I wrote to McNair with the news that his shooting rampage in Minot may have claimed two lives, not one. I explained the other victim was the younger brother of the man he murdered. James Thies was so stressed — not only about the killing — but the killer’s break-out in the fall of 1992 that he died of a heart attack within weeks of the escape.

McNair wrote back:

“Just received your 14 February [2010] letter. The biggest impact was your sharing about Mr. Thies’ family. This letter is the most profound thing anyone has ever done for me. Thank you. You have truly had a strong influence on me.”

"Byron, I cried when I read about Jerome Thies’ brother. Don’t quit writing about such things. I need to hear these, as they keep me aware of what my actions have done. At times I get feeling sorry for my situation, and when I hear what repercussions occurred from my senseless acts — thank you for that.

"I now understand how victims meeting with their assailants can change a criminal, even if it is only through the mail.

"While going through group [therapy], the facilitators continuously told us to think of all our victims — the victim, their family and friends and of course our family and friends. Yes, I understood this to some extent and my actions.

"I know any words I try to share with the Thies family sound hollow and self-serving, but I am truly sorry for all I have done to them. I now realize that even my escapes most likely opened old wounds for them. Please let the Thies family know how truly sorry I am.

"Even as horrendous as I realized my actions were, what I learned today placed those actions in a new light. I have to look at what I have done and rethink everything. Feeling sorry for myself is something I can never do again. I brought this on myself, and it is time to take a step back and look at the whole picture.

"Even in the small amount of info you have shared, drives this home like a hammer. Thank you. This is the letter I will read when I start feeling sorry for myself and my situation.”

A year or so later, McNair wrote:

“I know I have answered this letter before, but it keeps my attention. This is the one with the crime scene photos, your talks with Mr. Kitzman, Sheriff Vern Erck and the death of Mr. Thies’ brother. I have to admit this letter has affected me tremendously. I read it and wonder what right do I have to seek parole? The damage I did. How sorry a piece of crap I was. No human has the right to do what I did.

"I appreciate your letters very much. You have absolutely had an impact on me. Also not compromising your ethics. You are your own man, and there ain’t a whole lot of those anymore.”

I have not shared this information with members of the Thies family. Their pain must still run deep, even with the passage of time. If they read this book, they can see and judge for themselves what Richard McNair has written. It is not my purpose to sway their opinion — or anyone’s opinion.

“The anger those two families have — I can’t imagine. All the people my action hit: the victim’s families, my family, my girlfriend, friends, the people I worked with at the Air Base, the people who worked at or had to visit the grain elevator, law enforcement, the nurses who treated Mr. Kitzman, on and on.

"Mr. Kitzman mentioned to you he had nightmares [of the shooting]. I can only imagine the look on my face as I stood over him — the deranged look of anger. To think this man overcame his nightmares, went back to work and went on with his life. He is very strong, stronger than me — I kept trying to avoid my punishment.
"Thank you, Byron for sending me this letter, I am sure you contemplated doing so. Thank you.

"What has changed? Much counseling and good people taking an interest in me and helping me find some insights. What has amazed me the most is how corrections staff and even some law enforcement have taken the time to help me understand some of my mistakes, even point out my qualities.”

In Richard Lee McNair’s very first letter, dated the 15th of December 2008, he asked, “Who do you write for, or do you freelance? Is crime and psychology your beat?” I responded that my reporting beat was crime, not psychology.

I felt he was probing and so I replied that for some time, someone has wanted to know what makes Richard Lee McNair tick. And that person is Richard Lee McNair.

And so began an exchange of letters.

So Long Control Unit

In early September 2013, Richard McNair was moved from the highly restrictive Control Unit to the Special Handling Unit, commonly known as the SHU, still at ADX Florence.

The prisoner went from wearing tank tops and sweat pants to an orange jumpsuit. McNair was also given more privileges, including exercise time ... and more contact with other prisoners.

But the noise remained. On the 19th of September 2013, he wrote:

“Moved yesterday to another area of the hole. Last night you could hear a pin drop it was so quiet. During the day it was another matter. Here is a running dialog of the two guys:

"‘You’s a rat! (scream)’ ‘Oh I is a rat?’ ‘Not only you’s a rat, you a rat bitch.’ Then it broke down into sexual crap.

"At 2 p.m. they were still going at it, and it went non-stop until dinner. Then, as if the work day whistle sounded, they called it quits for the night. At about 8 this morning, right back at it.

"We can only pray that one or both are slated to go to the Mental Health Unit [in Atlanta]. Byron, so many of these guys are mental. It is like being in a mental asylum for really dangerous guys.

"One of the inmates (info worth about 5 cents) drain-piped that they are going to quit selling hot sauce and spices. If true, then that means some piece-of-crap threw hot sauce in a C.O.’s [correctional officer’s] face. Crazy that we too get punished for the actions of a few. Sort of like being on the streets.”

"Am in 12-cell, upper B Range. Upper is where I spent five years [in the Control Unit]. Being on the upper tier prevents some idiot from flooding you out.

"The cell has no concrete desk or shelf. The windows had been broke out, so a mess to clean up. Someone did a number on this cell. How one can break a concrete shelf/desk top that is at least 4” thick is beyond me.

"What else? One of the idiots is now screaming over and over ‘shut up!’ My sentiments exactly.

"Can you believe these guys throw piss and crap on one another?”

Yup. It’s known as ‘shit-bombing.’ Inmates put urine and feces into a plastic bottle, leave the cap off, aim the bottle at someone they don’t especially care for, then step hard on it. Splat!!

On the 19th of September 2013, Richard Lee McNair was finally moved to General Population. Here’s how he put it:

“And then God said, ‘Ric has been through enough crap.’ In the 6th year it was great!

"Byron, are you sitting down? They moved me to G.P. and I don’t mean just any general population — the best. Don’t know whose butt I gotta kiss, but this is unreal.

"Am in D Unit, and it is in the high-security section. Only eight guys in this area. Me and seven others.

"It is so quiet. I mean funeral home quiet. These dudes are the real deal. So respectful and no games. Am in Heaven. After almost six years of crap, this is unreal. Have not had to wear earplugs one time. A funny. It was sooo quiet last night I could not sleep. Kid you not. Could not figure out the problem, and then turned the music on real low. Slept then.

"The hot water is HOT! Tea bags actually seep. I told my neighbor — yes I drain-piped — you have no idea how good you have it. These guys have no communication at all with other areas.

"We don’t go to a regular recreation area, we are separate and it is sooo clean. No snot on the walls or spit on the floor. Six years to get this. The indoor rec cages are smaller, but who cares?

"The newspaper is all there! Am in 6-cell and got Thursday’s paper on Thursday. Have not seen Friday’s paper yet, but bet it is all there.

"When the officers came to my cell in the SHU to pick up my dinner tray, they gave me trash bags. I said, ‘what are these for?’ They said, ‘you are moving.” I figured [moving] to another cell in the hole. They said, ‘to G.P.’

"What a blessing. Thank you, Guardian Angel.”

Video 


A video describing Mc Nair’s prison escapes, including the one where he mailed himself in a box out of prison.  At 9::31 he is captured on video after being stopped  by a cop while “jogging”.  He gives the officer two different names but the cop did not picked up on it.


Busts: Record setting 1.7 tons of meth worth 1.2 Billion and Biggest Fent bust ever --254 pounds

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Chivis Martinez Borderland-thank you BB follower Twitter

Authorities seize record-setting 1.7 tons of meth worth $1.29 billion at Los Angeles port

PHOTO: Customs and Border Protection agents discovered methamphetamine hidden in speakers at the Long Beach seaport in mid-January. (U.S. Customs and Border Protection)

 
A joint drug bust between Australian and U.S. authorities in mid-January resulted in a record 1.7 tons of methamphetamine being seized at Los Angeles/Long Beach seaport.

Customs and Border Protection announced the seizure of the three containers on Thursday, which were intended to be shipped to Australia before being searched on Jan. 11. The containers were filled with speakers "artfully" stuffed with the drugs.


In addition to the 3,810 pounds of meth, the shipment also contained 55.9 pounds of cocaine and 11.5 pounds of heroin. Australian officials said the total street value of the haul was $1.29 billion.



"There's no question that the criminal organization behind this scheme has been dealt a significant blow," Joseph Macias, special agent-in-charge for Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Los Angeles, said in a statement. "Along with our law enforcement partners here and around the world, we continue in a day-to-day battle against the blight of methamphetamine that continues to devastate our communities. Through a collaborative effort -- pooling our information, resources and expertise -- we are keeping this dangerous contraband from reaching our streets and potentially saving lives."


The bust was the largest amount of methamphetamine ever seized in the United States, according to police.

Authorities said six people have been arrested in the scheme -- two Americans and four Australians. The Americans were identified by Australian police as a 52-year-old man and 46-year-old woman living in Woodstock, Victoria.


CBP announced the largest-ever fentanyl bust on Jan. 31. Authorities seized 254 pounds of fentanyl, a powerful opioid, worth about $3.5 million at the Nogales Port of Entry in Arizona.


Just two days later, the Maricopa, Arizona, County Sheriff's Office announced they had seized 3,500 pounds of marijuana and over 220 pounds of meth near Gila Bend when two trucks swerved around a border patrol check and tried to elude authorities in a desert chase.

AFO attempted twice to kill their godson--Serafin Zambada. the first when he was 2

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Chivis Martinez Borderland Beat-thank you BB follower via email--from Tribuna


Culiacán, Sinaloa.- Serafín Zambada Ortiz, the youngest son of Ismael 'El Mayo' Zambada , came close to being killed on two occasions at the hands of his godfathers, Arellano Félix brothers.
Serafin went to drug trafficking like his father, however, he was arrested and prosecuted, on September 6, 2018 he was released after 5 years in prison.

Serafin pleaded guilty in the crimes and claimed to be sorry that he committed. The son of 'El Mayo' could have been sentenced to  10 years in prison to life imprisonment, but when he pleaded guilty the years were reduced.

Serafin went to drug trafficking like his father, however, he was arrested and prosecuted---on September 6, 2018 he was released after 5 years in prison.

During the party of his second birthday  his godparents detonated a car bomb, during the  time when the war between his father and the Arellano Felix began.

 The second attack occurred when Zambada Ortiz was 9 years old; the Arellano Felix killed his mother's entire family.

After those events, 'El Mayo' sent armed men to guard their son, at school through his university years.

Leticia Ortiz Hernández, Serafin's mother , sent a letter to the Federal court in San Diego where her son was prosecuted.

“The same men who not long ago sponsored our children in the church and promised to raise them to be good Catholics (the Arellano Felix, in 1990), now they were trying to kill him”, she wrote.

Radio Host Assassinated In Tabasco

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Throw Away for Borderland Beat--La Jornada



This morning, journalist Jesús Ramos Rodríguez was killed, he was a host of radio program "Nuestra Región Hoy" in the municipality of Emiliano Zapata, in the Region of the Rivers

According to the first reports, the host was shot dead in the company of a local politician while he was having breakfast in a hotel restaurant, located near the radio station where he worked.

It's been reported that the breakfast would also be attended by the mayor of Emiliano Zapata, Carlos Alberto Pascual Pérez Jasso, but he had not yet arrived at the site.


According to witnesses, the person who fired point-blank at the journalist was already waiting for him at the scene, but in another version it is reported that he was executed by three people who came to the site to finalize it.

The news of the assassination of Ramos Rodríguez, popularly known as "Chuchín" was announced by his partner Alfredo Naranjo, who is in charge of the radio program on Saturday and Sunday.

Head of the state’s department of the Mexican Interior Ministry Marco Rosendo Medina Filigrana has expressed condolences over the death.



El Chapo Trial: Chupeta testimony requested by the jury regarding "Juanitas"

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Chivis Martinez Borderland


Below find the testimony from Chupeta asked for by the jury on Thursday. Specifically they asked for testimony about “Juanitas” shipments.  Within the testimony is specifics about logistics and ledgers--

Q Now, in this partnership with the Sinaloa Cartel, did you
end up sending them cocaine?
A Of course.
Q What kind of vessels did you use?
A Fishing boats.
Q Did you have a code word for these cocaine shipments?
A Correct.
Q What was that code word?
A Juanitas.
THE INTERPRETER: By interpreter, J-U-A-N-I-T-A-S.
Q How many juanitas or how many cocaine shipments known as
juanitas did you send to the Sinaloa Cartel?
A 10 juanitas.


Q When did you send the first cocaine shipment called the
juanita to the Sinaloa Cartel approximately?
A Approximately at the end of 2002.
Q When did you send the last cocaine shipment called
juanita to the Sinaloa Cartel?
A Approximately January, February of 2005.
Q When did you stop sending cocaine to the Sinaloa Cartel?
A When I was arrested in 2007.
Q Now, you testified before that under this partnership the
Sinaloa Cartel were investors in your cocaine shipments.
A Correct.

Q When you first started sending these cocaine shipments called juanitas to the Sinaloa Cartel, who specifically was
investing in these cocaine shipments?

A Mr. Guzmán Loera, Mr. Mayo Zambada and his brother Ray
Zambada, Nacho Coronel, the Beltran Leyva brothers, and in the
beginning Vicente Carrillo.
Q What do you mean by in the beginning?
A Because he participated until approximately 2004.
Q What happened in 2004?
A Well, one of his brothers, El Nino, Rodolfo was murdered.
Q And what did that lead to?
A It led to problems between the people of the Federation
of the Sinaloa Cartel and the Guerreros.

Q What was the end result of those problems?
A We separated, and he stopped participating in the
shipments.
Q When you say he separated, who specifically are you
referring to?
A I'm referring to Mr. Vicente Carrillo.
Q Now, German Rosero was your top guy in Mexico; correct?
A Correct.
Q Are you aware of whether or not Mr. Rosero met with the
defendant while he was in Mexico?
A Yes.
Q Did Mr. Rosero discuss this with you personally?
A Correct.

Q What did German tell you?
A Well, Mr. German Rosero told me that he was going to the
sierras, to the mountains to speak to Mr. Guzmán Loera, that
he was going in some rickety old planes. He said I'm nervous
because these are old airplanes, I'm scared that one of these
airplanes are going to crash with me in it. And he said when
he had a meeting, well, one of the meetings he had had with
Mr. Guzmán Loera, he had told him I know who all that cocaine
that you're bringing to Mexico and selling to us belongs to.

Q Mr. Ramirez, who said that to whom?
A Mr. Guzmán Loera told German Rosero, my lieutenant. And
in one of my lieutenant's trips to Colombia, he explained this
to me.

Q What is it that the defendant told German Rosero at that
meeting?
A I know who all that cocaine, all those drugs you're
selling us belongs to, all the drugs that are coming from
Colombia through you, I worked with him for a long time, with
that man. I send my respects. He was always a straight
shooter. And that's basically what German told me.
Q When the defendant told German that he knew who the
cocaine was coming from, what did you understand that to mean?
A So it meant that the defendant knew that cocaine that was
arriving to them, to the Sinaloa Cartel, to Mr. Guzmán Loera,
and to the others was mine, that I was the one sending it to
 them and giving it to them in high seas.

Q Did you say anything to German Rosero about this?
A Yes.

Q What did you tell German Rosero?
A I said: Please, act like you didn't hear anything.
Please don't mention my name at all. You keep showing your
face and keep saying that's your cocaine and don't name me.
Q Now, did you eventually send out a cocaine shipment named
Juanita 1?
A Correct.

Q Do you recall how many kilos of cocaine were on that
shipment?
A Approximately 3,600, 3,800 kilos of cocaine.
Q Was this the average size of a cocaine shipment you were
sending around this time?
A I started with that amount of kilos in that shipment.

Q Was that small or large compared to the shipments you
would later send?
A It was the smallest one because we went back to the
fishing boats. I started that way to test if everything was
going to go well, if it was going to work.

Q Did that cocaine shipment make it successfully to Mexico?
A Correct.
Q How do you know this?
A Through my lieutenants and because the money returned to
Colombia from the cocaine I had sold him at high seas.
Q And who were the investors in this initial Juanita 1 one shipment?
A Mr. Guzman, Mr. Nacho Coronel, the Beltran Leyva
brothers, Mayo Zambada, his brother, and Viceroy who is
Vicente Carrillo.

Q Do you remember what percentage the Sinaloa Cartel
invested in this specific cocaine shipment?
A I don't remember exactly how much.
Q And where did you hand off this initial Juanita 1 cocaine
shipment to the Mexicans?
A High seas, it was delivered to them.
Q Do you know who it was delivered to?
A Yes.

Q Who was it delivered to?
A Nacho Coronel.
Q So what role did Nacho Coronel play in Juanita 1?
A He came up with the logistics for receiving my ship at
high seas with the cocaine and he also gave German the money
for the Sinaloa Cartel people's share before I sent out the
shipment.
Q Mr. Ramirez, you've used that term a couple of times, the
logistics for receiving the shipment. Can you explain what
you mean by that?

A The logistics mean, means what, I mean, which member of
the Federation of the Sinaloa Cartel was going to send the
fishing boat to meet up with our boat to transfer the coke on
to the Sinaloa Cartel people's boat and to offload it onto the
Mexican beach.

Q So, if Nacho Coronel was responsible for receiving the
cocaine shipment of Juanita 1, does that mean that he was the
sole owner of those kilos of cocaine?
A No. No. He was just doing the logistics of receiving
the boat.
Q For the Juanitas that you ended up sending to the Sinaloa
cartel, was Nacho Coronel the only one that handled the
logistics of receiving your cocaine at the high seas?
A No.

Q Who else received -- who else handled the logistics for
receiving these cocaine shipments?
A The Beltran Leyva brothers and Mr. Guzman Loera.
Q Did you end up sending a cocaine shipment titled
Juanita 2?
A Correct, yes.

Q When did you start planning Juanita 2 in comparison to
the when Juanita one left?
A Once Juanita Uno made it successfully to Mexico and the
cocaine had been received by them, by the Sinaloa Cartel's
people, it was transported by them to the United States. It
was sold and then the money came back and was delivered to me,
delivered to my people in Mexico City. Then I immediately
began the planning of Juanita Dos, Juanita 2.

Q How long did it take you to plan to send out Juanita 2?
A The planning would usually take two to three weeks,
sometimes four.
Q Can you describe briefly what would happen in those two
to four weeks that you were planning the cocaine shipment?
A Correct. I had to coordinate the sending of my cocaine
to the Colombian coast from where the shipment would leave.
We had to coordinate who was going to protect the shipment of
cocaine in the Colombian coast, whether it be the guerillas or
the paramilitaries.
We had to make, coordinate corruption arrangements
with the Colombian navy to be able to know that way also where
the American frigates would be located so that we could figure
a route for our cocaine, our shipment of cocaine to avoid
meeting up with them and to avoid the boat being seized.

Q Did you have to purchase anything to put on these boats?
A Correct. I had, I had to buy the food for the crew of
the boat, fuel for the boat, parts for the ship in case the
ship suffered an inconvenience, and ice to put in the freezer
in the ship where supposedly the catch would be.
Q What catch are you talking about?
A I'm speaking of the catch that the boat would pretend to
be taking by using the nets as it was going up the Pacific
Ocean to meet up with the Mexican boat.

Q Once the cocaine shipment was ready to leave fromColombia, approximately how long would it take to get to the
meeting point with the Sinaloa Cartel on the high seas?
A It could be two, three, four weeks, depending on if there
was nothing unexpected that came up, and also the sea
currents.
Q What role would you play during those two, three or
four weeks that the cocaine was on its way to the Sinaloa
Cartel?
A I would be in permanent contact with my lieutenant in
Colombia who in turn were in permanent contact with Mr. German
Rosero in Mexico and I would monitor how things were going,
you know, on the boat until my boat met up with the Mexican
boat. The cocaine was transferred and then it would be
offloaded in Mexico so I could tell them my lieutenants,
German, the cocaine is there, get ready to start collecting
the money.

Q During the time you were planning these Juanita cocaine
shipments, how frequently were you speaking with your
lieutenants and employees?
A Permanently, always, throughout the week, several times
during the week.
Q Would it be fair to say that you are a hands-on boss?
A Always.
Q Did Juanita 2 make it successfully to Mexico?
A That's correct.

Q Now, for Juanita 2 through 10, was the logistics the same
for all the other cocaine shipments that you just, the process
you just described?
A Precisely the same.
Q Was your level of involvement in the preparation of these
Juanitas similar?
A Yes.

Q Now, you said that Juanita 1 had approximately 36 to
3,800 kilos of cocaine. Did the amounts increase?
A Yes.
Q What was the largest cocaine shipment via Juanita that
you sent?
A 12,500 kilos of cocaine.
Q Now, did you have any issues with any of the earlier
Juanita shipments?
A Yes.
Q Which one was that?
A I had a problem with the Juanita Four. The boat was
actually boarded by the American Coast Guard and it was
searched in detail, my ship, the one carrying the cocaine.
Q Did the Coast Guard find the cocaine on your ship?
A No. We had it in a really well-built secret compartment
and they were not able to find it.

Q What, if anything, did you do with that boat?
A I told them to come back again and to approach the
Colombian Pacific coast to transfer the cocaine to another
Colombian fishing boat because I decided not to use that one
because it had already been boarded so it seemed dangerous to
me, it seemed risky to me.

Q So what did you do?
A I told my lieutenants to not use the boat that had been
boarded to transfer the cocaine to a new, a different fishing
boat. The cocaine was placed in the secret compartments and
he took, took off again going towards the high sea meeting
point where it would have to deliver the cocaine to the
Mexican boat.

Q Now, Mr. Ramirez, you discussed a lot of planning and
expenses to prepare these Juanita shipments.
A Correct.
Q Whose money paid for these expenses for these cocaine
shipments?
A It was my money.
Q Who was the only person authorized to make such payments?
A I was.
Q How did you make these payments occur?
A I would instruct my lieutenants to make said payments.
Q Could your lieutenants make payments without your express
authorization?
A No.

Q How frequently would you meet with your lieutenants and  workers to discuss the payments that you were making for the
Juanita shipments?
A Frequently as, as need be, as many times as necessary.
Q And who specifically would you meet with to discuss these
payments?
A With my lieutenant Laureano Renteria, with an accountant
whom we used to call Esteban, and on some occasions, Sergio
Ramirez was also there.
Q In what level of detail would you go into when you would
have these meetings about these shipments?

MR. PURPURA: Your Honor, respectfully, time frame?
THE COURT: Yes.
Q At what point in time are we talking about?
From what time were you sending Juanita cocaine
shipments?
A Approximately from towards the end of 2002 until
Juanita 10 which took place in 2005.
Q So during this time, what level of detail would you get
into about the payments that were made?
A To every detail, to every small detail. All the payments
were checked and instruct, ordered by me.
Q Were there written reports kept for the Juanita drug
shipments?
A Yes.

Q Did you keep these accounting reports?
A Yes. They were created by my people.
Q Did you physically input the information that were
contained in these accounting ledgers?
A No, not me.

Q Who would do that?
A Two of my lieutenants did it who were Laureano Renteria
Mantilla and one of his assistants whose name is Orlando
Alzate.
Q Who ordered these accounting ledgers to be created?
A I did.
Q Why?
A Because I needed to keep control of the shipments of
cocaine, of the expenses, to then be able to know what was the
net gain.

Q Did you keep accounting records of your expenses in
addition to the Juanita drug shipments?
A Correct.
Q What did you call these accounting ledgers?
A The main accounting ledger.
Q What information did you order kept in these records?
A Everything that had to do with the expenses being made
with the Juanitas, about the Juanitas and also other things
that had to do with my organization.
Q Did you, did you order these main accounting ledgers to
be created?
A Yes.

Q Did you review the ledgers for the Juanitas as well as
the main accounting ledgers?
A Correct.
Q How frequently would you review these reports?
A Frequently during the week, you know, when it was
necessary.
Q Did you review every single line item in these reports?
A Yes.

Q Did you ever make changes to these reports?
A Correct, yes, when it was necessary, because something
came up unexpected.
Q Why was it important for you to review these reports?
A Because I wanted to keep track, to have control with all
detail, with great detail of my money.
Q Now, Mr. Ramirez, does there come a time that you leave
Colombia?
A Correct.

Q Approximately when was that?
A In 2004 approximately.
Q Do you remember when during the year?
A Before June. April, May, after the extradition request
from Washington came out because of RICO.
Q Did you continue to send cocaine -- I'm sorry.
Where did you go when you left Colombia?
A First to Venezuela.
Q Did you continue to send cocaine shipments to the Sinaloa
Cartel when you were in Venezuela?
A Correct.

Q While were you in Venezuela, who was running your
organization?
A I did it completely myself.
Q How frequently would you talk to members of your
organization?
A Constantly, the entire day, all the time.
Q Did you send any Juanita drug shipments while you were in
Venezuela?
A Correct.

Q Which one?
A Juanita Siete, Juanita 7.
Q Did you see the reports that were created for Juanita 7?
A Of course.
Q How is that?
A I instructed my lieutenants in Venezuela to organize the
job and I checked the accounting and the main accounting
ledger and all the expenses that had to do with that shipment.
Q Mr. Ramirez, does there come a time that you leave
Venezuela?
A Correct.

Q Where do you go?
A I went to Brazil.
Q While were you in Brazil, did you continue to send
cocaine shipments to the Sinaloa Cartel?
A Correct.
Q While you were in Brazil, who was in charge of your drug
trafficking organization?
A Me, totally me.

Q How were you able to send your shipments while you were
in Brazil?
A Because I was directing the cocaine shipments with my
lieutenants. I was in permanent communication with them. I
had lieutenants in Venezuela, others, well, the ones I had in
Colombia, and I was in permanent contact with them.
Q Did you create any records -- I'm sorry.
Did you send any Juanitas while were you in Brazil?
A Yes.

Q Which ones?
A Juanita 8, 9 and 10.
Q Did you create any or did you have your organization
create any accounting ledgers for Juanita 8, 9 and 10?
A Same as always with the ones before.
Q Did you see those ledgers for Juanita 8, 9 and 10 while
you were in Brazil?
A Of course, yes.

Q How is that possible?
A Because it was sent to me, because they had people bring
memory sticks, my lieutenants would send people.
MS. GOLDBARG: For the witness only -- actually, may
I approach, Your Honor, since it's several pages?
THE COURT: Sure.
MS. GOLDBARG: Let me do this from the stand,
Your Honor, to make it quicker. Just for the witness.
Q Put your glasses on.
I'm showing you 302A. I'm going to go through these
quickly. 302B, 302C, D, E, F, G, H.
MR. PURPURA: Your Honor, just to shortcut it, the
defense will stipulate that, in fact, these ledgers accurately
depict the ledgers that he's referring to that were prepared.
THE COURT: Okay. Are you stipulating that they are
admissible in evidence?
MR. PURPURA: We have no objection based on the
foundation that was laid in court here today.
THE COURT: Okay. They are received. Just recite
the total numbers, the first and last.
MS. GOLDBARG: Sure. 302I, 302J, 302K and 302L. So
the government would move without objection 302A through L
into evidence.
THE COURT: Okay. They are in.
(Government Exhibits 302A through 302L so marked.)
MS. GOLDBARG: I'm going to put on the screen for
the jury to see 302A.

Q Mr. Ramirez, what are we looking at here?
A These are the expenses for the Juanita 2 shipment.
Q According to this ledger on 302A, how many kilos of
cocaine was in Juanita 2?
A 6,000 kilos of cocaine.
Q According to this ledger, who had the responsibility to
receive the cocaine at the high seas?
A So, the Beltran Leyvas through Olafo or Ofalto, my
lieutenant Alvaro Palau.
Q I have an arrow here. Is that where you say Olafo,
O-L-A-F-O?
A Correct.

Q What is -- is that a code word?
A Yes.
Q What does that mean?
A It was the person from the Sinaloa Cartel Federation who
was investing in the cocaine shipment I was sending to them in
high sea.
Q And above that, there's a name. There's a name. What is
that name?
A Yamile.
Q Who is that?
A That was me. That was a code word for me.
Q So according to this, how much did you have invested in
Juanita 2?
A 3,000 kilos of cocaine.
Q And who were the investors, who were the Mexican
investors in this cocaine shipment, Juanita 2?

A The Sinaloa Cartel or Federation people.
Q And who would that be at this time?
A Mr. Guzman Loera, Beltran Leyvas and Vicente Carrillo,
Mayo Zambada and his brother Rey Zambada and Nacho Coronel.
Q Turn now to 302B. According to 302B, how many kilos of
cocaine were sent on Juanita 2?
A 6,465 kilos of cocaine.
Q Let's zoom in a little. See how many kilos it says
there?
A I only see up to the column where it says, "Saldo." I
don't see all the way down.
Q If you look at the top.
A 6,165 kilos.

Q I'm sorry. This is Juanita 3?
A Yes. On the top, it says 6,165 kilos, but on the bottom,
it says that the total sent was 6,485 kilos of cocaine.
Q Why the difference between the top line and the bottom
line?
A Because one of my lieutenants who we called El Broder
invested 300 kilos of cocaine, he provided 300 kilos of
cocaine in shipments.
Q According to this ledger, who was responsible for
receiving this cocaine on behalf of The Sinaloa Cartel?
A Nacho Coronel.

Q How do you know that?
A Because of my lieutenants and because the N was a code
word we used in the ledgers to refer to him.
Q Showing you what's now in evidence as Government
Exhibit 604-C.
(Exhibit published.)
Q This is Page 1.
THE COURT: 304-C, right?
MS. GOLDBARG: Yes, sir. Yes, Your Honor.
Q This is page 1 (published) and now I am showing you
page 2 (published).
According to this ledger, how many kilos of cocaine
were sent on Juanita - 4?
A 8,000 kilos of cocaine.
Q Can you circle where you see that?
A Correct. (So marked.)
Q And according to this ledger, who was responsible for
receiving the cocaine shipment at the high seas for The
Sinaloa Cartel?
A Mr. Guzmán Loera.

Q How do you know that?
A Because S-H-A, Sha, that's how we refer to him,
Mr. Guzmán Loera.
Q Can you circle --
A And my lieutenants.
Q I'm sorry.
Can you circle where you see that?
A Correct. (So marked.)
Q Could you read that off again, please?
A It says S-H-A, Sha, 3,000 kilos of cocaine.
Q Let me zoom in a little bit. Is that first letter C or
an S?
A C-H-A.
Q And what did C-H-A mean?
A That's a code word we used to refer to Mr. Guzmán Loera,
like Chapo. We only used Cha.

Q According to this ledger, how many kilos did The Sinaloa
Cartel invest in Juanita - 4?
A They invested in 3,000 kilos of cocaine.
Q Of the total 8,000 investment?
A 8,000 kilos of cocaine.
Break-----
Q Mr. Ramirez, before our break you testified that in 2004
you went from Colombia to Venezuela.
Do you recall that testimony?
A That's correct.

Q Why did you leave Colombia and go to Venezuela?
Because the U.S. Government requested my extradition and
they even offer a $5 million reward. And the U.S. government
and the Colombian government were doing everything possible to
capture me.
Q How do you know this?
A Because I lived through it. Because the U.S. Government
requested my extradition. They publish a picture of me with
the reward of up to $5 million all over the country.
Q Prior to this did you have any information from your
corrupt contacts about the U.S. investigation against you?
A Yes.

Q Did you ever make bribery payments directly to U.S. law
enforcement officers?
A No.
Q Did you try?
A Yes.

Q How?
A To a group of the Colombian police, an elite group of the
Colombian police who worked with the group named Siu, who
worked for the U.S. Government embassy in Colombia in Bogota
and along with the DEA agents assigned to said embassy.
Q But did any DEA agents receive your money directly that
you're aware of?
A No, never.

Q Going back to Government Exhibit 302-C in evidence, these
are the ledgers for Juanita - 4.
(Exhibit published.)
Q Now, you've testified previously that Juanita - 4 had to
be sent back to Colombia because it had been aborted by the
U.S. Coast Guard.
Do you recall that?
A Correct.

Q Is there anything in the ledgers that are Juanita - 4
that indicate this event?
A Yes.

Q Could you mark it, please?
A (So marked.) Rental of new Juanita.
Q And if I'd ask you to read what you have in the
observations column?
A Yes.

Q What does it say there?
A Juanita's unit was changed to $60.
Q What does that mean?
A That Juanita was changed means that the boat was changed
and that brought an additional cost of $60 per kilo of cocaine
that was transferred to the other ship.
Q You also testified, Mr. Ramirez, that you had accounting
ledgers for the main accounting ledger for your organization?
A Correct.

Q Showing you what's in evidence as Government
Exhibit 302-J, do you recognize this document?
(Exhibit published.)
A Yes.
Q What is it?
A It is an accounting from the book that we used to call
the main accounting ledger.
Q Is there anything in here in this main accounting ledger
referring to Juanita - 4?
A Correct, yes.

Q What is that?
A Up above it says: Units pad are going out for Juanita -
4. Then it says transport for Juanita - 4 is also going out.
And then it says, payment for Juanita - 4 for the cost of
transportation.
Q And what does it say in the observation code for that
last entry you just read?
A Juanita was changed due to safety reasons.
Q And also showing you what's in evidence as 302-K.
A Correct.

Q And what is this document here, 302-K?
(Exhibit published.)
A This is a document of the accounting from the main
accounting ledger.
Q Do you see any reference here to Juanita - 4?
A Correct.
Q What does it say?
A 50 percent payment Juanita - 4.
Q What does it say in the other columns?
A Next to it, it says: Payment is made for 7,660 units.
Then three other references to Juanita - 4 appear. New
reporters for the delay in the going out.
Q What is a reporter, Mr. Ramirez?
A Reporteros were the reports that we receive from the
Colombian Navy for our corruption payments to them, which were
informing us and giving us the navigational charts of where
the American frigate would be on the Pacific Ocean.
Q Now, moving along to 302-D, Juanita-5.
According to the ledger, how many kilos of cocaine
were sent on Juanita-5?
(Exhibit published.)

A 10,000 kilos of cocaine.
Q And can you circle that, please?
A Yes. (So marked.)
Q According to these ledgers, who within The Sinaloa Cartel
was responsible for receiving this cocaine at the high seas?
A The Beltran Leyvas through one of my lieutenants, Alvaro
Palau, Olfato.
Q Can you circle where you see that name?
A (So marked.)
Q And above that name do you see Olmedo, what is that?
A That's me. That's another code word to refer to myself.
Q Who were the investors from The Sinaloa Cartel in this
cocaine shipment?
A Mr. Guzmán Loera, the Beltran Leyva brothers, Mr. Nacho
Coronel, Mayo Zambada with his brother Rey Zambada, and
Viceroy, Vicente Carrillo.

Q Moving along to Juanita - 6.
(Exhibit published.)
MS. GOLDBARG: 302-E, for the record.
BY MS. GOLDBARG:
Q How many kilos of cocaine did you send to The Sinaloa
Cartel in Juanita - 6?
A 10,000 kilos of cocaine.
Q Can you mark where you see that?
A (So marked.) Here.
Q According to the record for Juanita - 6, who was
responsible for receiving the shipment of cocaine at the high
seas?

A The Beltran Leyva brothers through my lieutenant, Olfato
Alvaro Palau.
Q And how much did The Sinaloa Cartel invest in this
cocaine shipment, Juanita - 6?
A 2500 kilos of cocaine.
Q Who were the names that are underneath Olfato,
O-L-F-A-T-O?
A Riascos, Broder, Alex, Don R.
Q Who are those people?
MS. GOLDBARG: Hold on, I'm sorry. Is there a
problem with the microphone?
THE COURT: Say something.
MS. GOLDBARG: Can we try that one more time, Your
Honor? Sorry.
THE COURT: Still?
MS. GOLDBARG: No.
THE COURT: Why don't you try turning it off and
turning it on and see if that helps.

BY MS. GOLDBARG:
Q Who are the people that are below Olfato's names, do they
belong to your organization?
A Yes.
Q And who are the investors from The Sinaloa Cartel in this
cocaine shipment?
A Mr. Guzmán Loera, the Beltran Leyva brothers, Mayo
Zambada with his brother Rey Zambada, Nacho Coronel and
Vicente Carrillo.
Q Showing you now what's in evidence Government
Exhibit 302-F.
(Exhibit published.)
Q Juanita - 7, how many kilos of cocaine did you send to
The Sinaloa Cartel in Juanita - 7?
A 10,000 kilos of cocaine.

Q And according to this ledger, who was responsible for
receiving the cocaine shipment for The Sinaloa Cartel?
A Nacho Coronel.
Q And how much did The Sinaloa Cartel invest in this
cocaine shipment?
A 2500 kilos of cocaine.
Q Who were the members of The Sinaloa Cartel that invested
in this cocaine shipment?
And let me ask this question: Is it the same
members of The Sinaloa Cartel you just said on the last three
occasions?
A Correct.

Q Moving on to Juanita - 8.
(Exhibit published.)
BY MS. GOLDBARG:
Q According to Government Exhibit 302-G, the accounting for
Juanita - 8, how many kilos of cocaine did you send to The
Sinaloa Cartel on this cocaine shipment?
A 10,500 kilos of cocaine.
Q And who from The Sinaloa Cartel was responsible for
receiving Juanita - 8?
A The Beltran Leyva brothers through my lieutenant, Alvaro
Palau.
Q How do you know that from this ledger?
A Because of the accounting and because Orestes was the
same Alvaro Palau. That was another code word we used to
refer to him.
Q Orestes, is that that name right there?
A Yes, Orestes.

Q And the name above Orestes Olmedo, who is that a
reference to?
A That is me, that was a code word to refer to me.
Q Going through Government Exhibit 302-H in evidence, which
is the ledger for juanita nine, can you tell the jury how many
kilos of cocaine you sent to the Sinaloa Cartel in juanita
nine?
A 12,000 kilos of cocaine.
Q According to this ledger, who was responsible within the
Sinaloa Cartel of receiving this juanita nine cocaine
shipment?
A Nacho Coronel.
Q And how do you know that?
A From the accountant, from my lieutenant, and because
Nieto was a code word that we used to use to refer to Nacho
Coronel.
Q Can you tell us where on the ledger it shows Nieto,
N-I-E-T-O?
A Here.
Q According to this record, how many kilos of cocaine did
the Sinaloa Cartel invest in in juanita nine?
A 2,500 kilos of cocaine.

Q Lastly, going to juanita ten, Government Exhibit 302-I,
according to this exhibit, accounting for juanita ten, how
many kilos of cocaine did you send to the Sinaloa Cartel?
A 3,200 kilos of cocaine.
Q From this ledger, could you tell who was responsible for
receiving this cocaine from the Sinaloa Cartel?
A I know it precisely. Barco was my lieutenant who
organized the logistics to receive the shipment.
Q Mr. Ramirez, let me ask you, did you turn these
accounting ledgers over to the U.S. Government?
A No.

Q Now, you testified that juanita eight, nine, and ten were
sent while you were in Brazil. Do you recall that?
A Yes.
Q Did juanita one through ten make it successfully to
Mexico?
A No.

Q How many successfully made it to Mexico?
A Seven juanitas.
Q What happened to the other three?
A They were seized.
Q How do you know that?
A Through my lieutenant and because I personally directed
the shipment of that load of cocaine. I was personally on top
of it all the time.
Q What are the names of the three juanitas that were
seized?
A Juanita eight, juanita nine, and juanita ten.
Q When was juanita eight seized?
A September 2004, approximately.
Q Do you remember when juanita nine was seized?
A Yes.

Q When was that?
A Also approximately September 2004.
Q How do you remember this so clearly?
A Because that's a tragedy for me as a drug trafficker
because in my entire history as a drug trafficker, I had never
had two ships seized by the American authorities, that had
never happened to me.
Q How many kilos total were there in juanita eight and
juanita nine?
A 22,500 kilos of cocaine.
Q Who were the investors of the Sinaloa Cartel of those two
2,500 kilos of cocaine?
A Mr. Guzmán Loera, Beltran Leyva, Nacho Coronel, Mayo and
Ray Zambada, and Vicente Carrillo, Viceroy.
Q What kind of shipping vessels were these?
A Shipping vessels. I'm sorry, they were white shipping
vessels.
Q Do you know where the cocaine was found aboard the ships?
A Not exactly, but it was stored in a secret compartment in
the structure of the ships.
Q Now, looking briefly at juanita eight, according to this
ledger, what did you put on juanita eight, and this is 302-G
for the record?
A What do you mean? I didn't understand the question. Can
you repeat the question.
Q According to this ledger, did you place anything on the
boat?
It says the word "hielo" right there, H-I-E-L-O?
A Okay.

Q Why did you put -- what is that?
A That's two tons of ice that we placed in the boat's ice
chests for the catch that had been caught supposedly by the
boat.
Q Would you occasionally put fish on the boats as well?
A Yes, of course.
Q What kind of fish?
A White fish, sharks.
Q Now, as a result of the seizures of juanita eight and
juanita nine, did you change of any of the methods of
transporting cocaine to the Sinaloa Cartel?
A Yes.
Q What did you do?
A Well, it occurred to me or I gave instructions to my
lieutenants of building submarines.
Q What do you mean by a submarine?
A A submarine is a vessel that submerges a few meters under
the water, that way it could cross the Pacific Ocean and avoid
being detected by American frigate boats and by the American
airplanes that are patrolling the Pacific Ocean, and when they
see a suspicion fishing vessel, they board it. So we did this
to avoid that because we had lost two shipments in those two
previous fishing vessels.
Q Did you send a submarine to the Sinaloa Cartel?
A In January, February, 2005, approximately, I sent the
first submarine.
Q And what was the name of the shipment?
A Juanita ten.
Q Showing you again 302-I, is the accounting ledger for the
first submarine you sent to the Sinaloa Cartel?
A Correct.

Q Did this submarine make it successfully to the Sinaloa
Cartel?
A No.
Q What happened?
A It was also seized in the Pacific.
Q Was this the only time you attempted to send a submarine
to the Sinaloa Cartel?
A No.

Q Did you send more submarines to the Sinaloa Cartel?
A Correct.
Q How many more submarines did you send to the Sinaloa
Cartel?
A Approximately eight to ten additional submarines.
Q How many kilos of cocaine on average did you ship on
these submarine shipments?
A Normally between 4,000 and 5,000 kilos of cocaine.
Q These additional submarines that you sent after juanita
10 was seized, did they all make it successfully to the
Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico?
A That's correct.
Q Did you start sending cocaine any other way to the
Sinaloa Cartel in addition to the submarines?
A Yes.

Q How else did you start sending cocaine to the Sinaloa
Cartel?
A We were also using small aircraft, piston planes to
Central America.
Q Did you have a code word for the small airplanes?
A Correct.
Q What was that code word?
A Cometas.
THE INTERPRETER: C-O-M-E-T-A-S, by interpreter.
Q Showing you what's in evidence as Government Exhibit
302-L. What is this document?
A It's the main ledgers accounting.
Q Do you see anything in here related to the cometa?
A Correct

Q Where is that?
A Here.
Q And what does it say there?
A It says 50 percent payment transport cometa four.
Q Can you read the line above that, please, as well?
A Payment manufacturing 800 units cometa four.
Q What does that mean to you?
A 800 kilos of cocaine that we had made because those were
the 800 kilos that we sent on that airplane.
Q And who were these cometas going to?
A Central America, Guatemala.
Q And who was receiving them?
A The Sinaloa Cartel people.
Q Do you know approximately how many planes of cocaine you
sent to the Sinaloa Cartel during this timeframe?
A Yes.

Q Approximately how many?
A Approximately 10 airplanes.
Q What was the average quantity of cocaine per airplane?
A 600 to 800 kilos of cocaine.
Q Did these 10 planes make it successfully to the Sinaloa
Cartel?
A Not all of them.
Q Who was your lieutenant in charge of the airplanes, the
cometas?
A Sophia, and another person we called Victor.
Q Now, during this time that you are sending the juanita
cocaine shipments to the Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico, do you know
where these drugs are being sold?
A Correct.

Q How do you know this?
A Through my lieutenants and picking up the money for the
cometas, for the airplanes that we were sending.
Q Where was the Sinaloa Cartel sending the cocaine that
they were receiving on the cometas?
A To the United States.
Q Now, you mentioned earlier that there were various
methods of transportation you learned about including trains.
Did you have any specific conversations with any of your
lieutenants about the transportation of your cocaine via
train?
A Correct.

Q How did this conversation come up?
A Because there had been a delay in paying me money for the
cocaine I had sent to the Sinaloa Cartel, to the Federation.
So I spoke to my lieutenant, well, to two of my lieutenants,
and I said, what's happening, why is there a delay with my
money. And they said it was because the Sinaloa Cartel people
had had a cocaine seizure in the U.S. and it had been
transported by train.

Q Did your lieutenants tell you where that train seizure
occurred in the United States?
A They said the seizure had been in New York.
Q Did your lieutenants tell you what type of trains were
being used for the shipment of cocaine?
A Correct.

Concludes testimony regarding Juanitas page 100 thru 132 testimony Monday December 3rd 

Michoacan: ‘la vieja Familia Michoacán’ killed 5 police with More than 30 gunshots

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Chivis Martinez Borderland Beat --Thank you Tu Fren--from Primera Plana


It is confirmed that the five bodies of the municipal police of the municipality of Tuzantla, were riddled with more than 30 bullets on board a vehicle and had a cartulina with a narcomensaje, on the road that goes to the town of Curungueo to Loma Larga .

The events occurred today morning 9:00 am, when the Michoacán Police was alerted by local residents, about several detonations of a firearms.  An  operation was implemented and upon arrival they located a Nissan vehicle, Tsuru, white color, plates PFR381-W, as well as more than 30 percussion shells of AR-15 assault rifle.

When they checked the inside the car they confirmed that it was the five municipal police officers of Tuzantla, who had been picked up by members of the criminal group of the la vieja Familia Michoacán’, eight days ago.

The corpses of the uniformed men had several bullet wounds. Next to them was a card signed by the delinquency leader of thela vieja Familia Michoacán’ nicknamed "La Morza".


El Chapo Trial: If Chapo is acquitted-can he be tried elsewhere? What about double jeopardy?

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Chivis Martinez Borderland Beat-TY Un Vato my go to legal mind



I asked my most trusted legal mind the “what if?” Acquittal, double jeopardy or another trial elsewhere

His answer

There is no getting around double jeopardy if Chapo is acquitted. The only way to avoid double jeopardy is to charge him with a different crime that has different facts or different elements. One way is to charge him in state courts because state laws often require proof of different elements to convict for the same actions that are violations of federal law. To obtain federal jurisdiction over a defendant, a federal prosecutor must show that (1) the defendant violated federal law, or, (2) the defendant crossed state lines in the commission of a crime defined under state law.

For example, we were able to convict a fuel distributor in federal court when we proved he loaded his trucks in New Mexico and delivered gas in AZ or TX to avoid NM fuel tax, a violation of state law. The fact that he did it the other way (load in TX and deliver in NM) to avoid TX fuel tax added to the charges. I initiated and supervised that investigation from NM and convinced the other states to join us and got the FBI and the federal prosecutor to take the case. What gave the feds jurisdiction was the fact the distributor crossed state lines to violate state laws. NM Governor Johnson had to sign almost 200 letters of appreciation for every member of the investigation team.

The feds very likely had cases pending in other jurisdictions (actually, other judicial districts) or in state courts in case this prosecution failed. That is still true; the other cases will allege different facts and different violations, some of them violations of state law. Chapo has no realistic chance of going free anytime soon.

Chapo could very likely to cut a deal because his lawyers know that even if he is acquitted in this case, he will likely spend years in court for different charges. Also, there is the continuing problem of paying his lawyers. Even if he is acquitted, forfeiture laws have different evidentiary requirements. I don't think Chapo can use his money even after acquittal. I can see how the feds would make a case for money laundering if Chapo ever managed to get money into his lawyers' hands.

So then, why haven't the parties started plea negotiations? Simple answer: neither side has anything to lose if they wait until the verdict is in. Even if Chapo is acquitted, the feds will not enter negotiations until the verdict is in. In that event, Chapo would be taken into custody immediately on the other charges I suspect the feds have pending. Likewise, for the defense, an acquittal would strengthen their position in negotiating a favorable deal for pending charges. Simply stated, a verdict either way will most clearly define the parties' bargaining positions. Best way not to waste time and money.

So, while I do not believe Chapo will be acquitted, I think both sides have already planned for either eventuality. I also think Chapo waited too long to turn snitch. His information is stale by now.

Jalisco/Tlajomulco de Zúñiga: Armed Confrontation Leaves Several Criminals Dead

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 Oaxaqueño for Borderland Beat


On Friday afternoon at around 14:00 hrs, a shooting between agents of the State Attorney General’s Office of Jalisco and criminals took place. The encounter happened at the intersection Boulevard Colón and Calle De las Américas in the municipality of Tlajomulco de Zúñiga, located some 15 kilometers south of Guadalajara’s center. The balance of the skirmish; five criminals were killed and four other people (three thugs and one uninvolved passer-by) were wounded. No casualties were reported among the security forces. Reportedly, the shootout erupted when the agents noticed and subsequently approached/confronted the armed men riding in two trucks, a Mazda CX5 and a Toyota Hilux.



Oaxaqueño Analysis:

It remains unclear to which criminal group the deceased and wounded belong. However, it should be noted that just hours before this incident, security forces managed to arrest Jesús Ricardo Patrón Sánchez, alias “El H3” or “El Diabólico”, in Tlajomulco de Zúñiga (unfortunately, reports have not specified where exactly in the municipality). According to reports, “El H3” (who should not be confused with Michoacán’s formerly infamous criminal group with the same name (H3/La Tercera Hermanda) was a local plaza boss for the Beltrán Leyva Organization, which is obviously not existing with this name anymore. More precisely, “El H3” was plaza boss for Los Mazatlecos in
Tepic (State of Nayarit), situated about 185 kilometers northwest of Guadalajara. Los Mazatlecos is one if not the most prominent and strongest of all the criminal groups which have emerged some years ago from the Beltrán Leyva Organization. The brother of “El H3”, Juan Francisco Patrón Sánchez aka “El H2”, was shot dead by security forces in February 2017 alongside several of his sicarios in the course of a massive security operation in Tepic. “El H2” was Nayarit plaza boss and considered one of the most important lieutenants working under Los Mazatlecos leader Fausto Isidro Meza Flores, alias “El Chapo Isidro”.

Given that Friday’s shooting took place shortly after the arrest of “El H3”, as well as potentially geographically near (for sure in the same municipality), it is possible that the killed criminals were belonging to the entourage of “El H3”. However, this is pure speculation. As a side note, another open question up for speculation is what the reason for the presence of “El H3” in Tlajomulco de Zúñiga was exactly about, given that his home base is in Nayarit.

Nonetheless, considering that Tlajomulco de Zúñiga is one of the contested areas between CJNG and its splinter group the Nueva Plaza Cartel, which has a known presence there, the deceased criminals’ affiliation to one of the two groups would be highly credible as well.


Video of the execution of Hugo Figueroa

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Chivis Martinez Borderland Beat- Thank You BB follower! from  Twitter 
Circulated on social media, this video depicting the execution of  Hugo Figueroa nephew of Joan Sebastian, by  "La Gente del Cerro".  The group has been identified as close to Los Viagras, aka "LNFM" or "Gente Nueva Michoacana” the armed wing of Viagras.

Graphic video Below




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