Murdered for Losing product
November 6th 2012: Two brothers were found murdered in Tijuana, on the 'free road' to Tecate, from Tijuana. The first Alberto Galeana, known as 'Aldo', 20 years old. A little up the road, and not known until later, was the body of his older brother, Antonio Galena. Both bodies were wrapped in black tape, with the 'Looney Tunes' logo, adorning the tape, which covered the brothers completely. Bruises were visible on both of the bodies, amidst other signs of torture, or interrogation, Aldo's front teeth had been wrenched out, forcefully, and not surgically removed.
The two lifeless bodies found on the road, on the Sunday afternoon, were in a sense two more anonymous corpses, found with all the pre requisites of a narco related murder, wrapped in plastic, signs of torture, dumped on a road, coldly, like an afterthought. Two more, that will garner a brief mention in the local papers, and in a sense, that's all there will be.
This is not to slander the dead, or accuse the innocent, just a closer look at two brutal, yet, almost run of the mill executions, in a land where debt settling, and lines of credit will leave family members wrapped in plastic and tape, on the side of the road.
Alberto Galeana was 3 weeks away from graduating from the Autonomous University of Tijuana, (UBAC), with a degree in computer science, he was also an intern at 'El Mexicano', the prime contributor to this article, and one of the most well read newspapers in Tijuana, and San Diego, along with Zeta, and Frontera. Aldo held a 9.5 grade point average, was considered by classmates and employers to be a good student. His brother, Antonio, was involved in drug trafficking, and smuggling, going back at least eight years. He was arrested by San Diego police in Chula Vista, with an amount of drugs, which he was imprisoned for, sometime in 2004, or 2005.
This time, Antonio lost, across the border again, in San Diego, another car of drugs, which he was either delivering, or received on credit. Reports state that tried to work out a deal, by giving up another vehicle, and partial payment, but it didn't work out, one way or the other, and he and his brother were kidnapped, tortured, and killed. Then, thrown on the side of the road. The scenarios may not matter to some, and least of all to the family and friends of the victims, but here are a few different paths of what may have happened.
The Drugs: Roughly estimating, 25,000-50,000 worth of product, which is roughly 150 pounds of marijuana, cost, 35,000, somewhere in the realm of 300 per pound, depending on when he came into possession, and other factors. Or maybe 2 kilos of cocaine at 20,000 per kilo. Or 3 kilos of crystal, at 15,000 a kilo. Enough product that someone wanted their money made up, wouldn't have been less then 20,000, to have two people picked up and murdered. And not retail sales in Tijuana, but shipments that crossed the border. This wasn't someone killed for selling to the wrong customers or in the wrong place.
It could have been a case of Antonio losing the drugs, he was delivering, either by being robbed by a third party, or losing them to the police, or some other way. If they were indeed seized by police, usual protocol, would be Antonio would have to come up with police statements, like a search warrant, or arrest sheet, which spells out exactly what happened, and if he is without fault, he would not owe for the shipment.
Workers are expendable, but good workers, can keep working, and simply pay off their employers with services, not receiving payment, indentured servitude, in a way, but at least you live. Was he unable to come up with the proper documents? Did they not exist? Was the load lost some other way, and he wasn't telling the truth? Did he have a history of these situations, and someone was just out of patience? Did he mistakenly trust someone who was an informant, or an undercover officer?
The labyrinth of murky drug deals, murder, drugs, and their owners is fascinating, leaving the tragedy and loss of life aside, it is like going down the rabbit hole. It reminds me of the Greek underworld, Hades, and all the mythology from school. A twisted, brutal, and bizarre dual life, where flesh is cheap, and drugs are expensive, even at wholesale prices, where it is better to kill two, then let something go unpunished. The catch, if you call it that, is this is an interesting story, but on the same Sunday, in Tijuana, authorities found 2 more bodies, unrelated to the Galena brothers. And more the next week. And today, and yesterday. The stories behind them are as endless as the bodies, tossed onto the road, wrapped in blankets on a street corner, bloody and wounded in a ditch, hung from a bridge, executed in their home, kidnapped from work. It just goes on. We can try to hypothesize, predict, guess, project, and to what end? I don't know, but I'd rather try, then simply shake my head, and turn the page, or click away, watching the bodies of two dead men, whose stories I will never really know.
Sources, AFN Tijuana, El Mexicano, Zeta Tijuana.
