Garca Abrego brokered a deal with the Cali Cartel, the Colombian mega-structure that was looking for new entry routes into . From the late 1980s until his arrest in 1996, the name of the as a U.S. citizen. At one point, he informed Perez that he intended to kill two Mexican reporters because they were writing [t]oo many personal things in the newspaper about his narcotics trafficking business. El Chacho y otros eran una amenaza a su dominio en esas tierras.Respeto mucho tu trabajo MX, se que primero lo pones en el foro y ah est la gente ms truchas. I know something about it, being a lawyer. See id. The jury instruction regarding the organizer/supervisor/manager element of the CCE offense tracked the language of the Fifth Circuit Pattern Jury Charge, which provides as follows: The term organizer, supervisor, or manager means that the defendant was more than a fellow worker and that the defendant either organized or directed the activities of five or more other persons, whether or not the defendant was the only organizer or supervisor. . Medrano met with Nieto to make arrangements for Nieto to turn over the cocaine that he still had to Ortiz for transportation. As noted above, the government adduced a great deal of evidence at trial regarding a large number of individuals over whom the jury could reasonably conclude that Garcia Abrego exerted direct or indirect managerial authority. charged with raping a maid in his own home and with extortion Defendant-appellant Juan Garcia Abrego appeals his conviction and sentence for ten counts of possession with intent to distribute cocaine in violation of 21 U.S.C. In one of numerous mysteries in the case, it's not clear ; United States v. Pineda-Ortuno, 952 F.2d 98, 105 (5th Cir.1992). killings were attributable in some way to Figueroa's book. Email This BlogThis! servants for months, authorities say. Garca Abrego was charged with knowingly transporting stolen vehicles using Among those on the list who stand out is denied, 519 U.S. 824, 117 S.Ct. Dr. Lykissa also testified that some of the hypertension medication that Garcia Abrego received would block his kidneys' ability to eliminate Valium for a six-hour period. The district court's admission of testimony that implicated Garcia Abrego in several murders violated Rules 403 and 404(b) of the Federal Rules of Evidence. Accordingly, admission of the financial records did not violate Rule 404(b). Though usually quiet and 1489 (1946). Some people believe that a clue to the murders may appear on Garcia Abrego's conviction of conspiracy to launder money violated the Ex Post Facto Clause because it was based on conduct that occurred prior to the enactment of the harsher penalty provisions of 18 U.S.C. 841(a)(1), which criminalizes the knowing possession of controlled substances, including cocaine and marijuana, with intent to distribute. In the mid-1980s, Carlos Resndez set up a meeting between Garca Abrego and Gernando "El Aguacate" Martnez, regarding permission for Martnez to move cocaine through Matamoros. While authorities assured residents that Tuesday's assault was an isolated incident, it gave a sobering peek at the strength of organized crime in this border city, where such Mafia violence has become rare since the fall of reputed kingpin Juan Garcia Abrego. 1956(a)(2). D.Sufficiency of the Evidence Supporting the Substantive Drug Convictions. Garcia Abrego objected on the ground that Dr. Coleman ha[d] testified that he is not qualified as an expert in that area of practice. The district court overruled the objection on the ground that Dr. Coleman ha[d] practical experience sufficient to give his opinion. Dr. Coleman then testified that [s]omeone who has taken Valium for a long period of time, depending on the doses which he has been taking, may have some resistance to that medication and that such a person oftentimes can take dosages which are quite high and not manifest the typical symptoms of sedation of someone who does not use this medication.. He alleviated this pressure through further bribes to government officials. His wife, Yolanda Figueroa, had recently published "The Gulf Capo," a book about one of Mexico's most infamous drug traffickers, Juan Garcia Abrego. 2. At the suppression hearing, Dr. Coleman testified that an overdose of Valium would be evidenced by signs of somnolence and sleepiness. Juan Garca Abrego fue el jefe del Crtel del Golfo, organizacin criminal que tuvo nexos con las mafias italianas y que en la dcada de 1990 fue una de los tres crteles principales que operaban entre Mxico y Estados Unidos para el trasiego de droga. Garcia Abrego responded, We left him at the Rio Bravo more or less, a comment which DeLaO took to mean that Garcia Abrego had killed him. [12], The book categorized the payments not so much as bribes but rather as what Garca Abrego considered a tax on business. Federal jury, Houston, Tex, convicts Juan Garcia Abrego of 22 counts of money laundering, drug possession and operating criminal enterprise that allegedly smuggled more than 200,000 pounds of . drug traffickers. trafficker. Vida y captura de Juan Garca Abrego. Classifications Library of Congress HV6248.G295 F54 1996 The Physical Object Pagination 324 p. : Number of pages 324 ID Numbers Open Library OL604413M ISBN 10 9700506665 LCCN 96198952. 19. at 640-41; see also United States v. Bustamante, 45 F.3d 933, 943 (5th Cir.1995) (It is also settled that, unless the government has abused its immunity power, a defendant has no due process right to have the trial court immunize defense witnesses.); United States v. Follin, 979 F.2d 369, 374 (5th Cir.1992) (District Courts have no inherent power to grant immunity. It's mostly a media misrepresentation since the so-called Matamoros "Narcosatnicos" practiced a distorted version of Palo Mayombe and Santera. In United States v. Miller, 830 F.2d 1073, 1078 (9th Cir.1987), the Ninth Circuit rejected a Confrontation Clause challenge to the admission of foreign bank records under 3505. By Juan A. Lozano | AP. Garca Abrego bribed the agent in an attempt to gather more information on U.S. law enforcement operations. of the maids' husbands, who worked as the family's drivers. A:In medical school we did study the effect of Valium and other benzodiazepines. See Tolliver, 61 F.3d at 1216. ; see also United States v. Miller, 116 F.3d 641, 682 (2d Cir.1997), petition for cert. Finally, Garcia Abrego contends that admission of the foreign bank records violated Rule 802, which generally precludes the admission of hearsay. Segn su f de bautismo, naci el 1 de septiembre de 1944 en Cameron, Texas. (D)if such record is not the original, such record is a duplicate of the original; unless the source of information or the method or circumstances of preparation indicate lack of trustworthiness. Mr Nepomunicino started by bootlegging alcohol during Prohibition era. 13. children, had nothing to do with the drug cartels and were, in fact, a When Oscar El Profe Lopez Olivares, formerly a valued member of Garcia Abrego's organization, made statements to the press threatening to expose a high-level narcotics operation in Matamoros along with its organizer, Garcia Abrego attempted to have him killed and, through Luis Medrano, enlisted the assistance of Agent DeLaO in this regard. 18 U.S.C. My respects, Kilroy was not Juan's fault. His experience with Valium prescription and patient observation, along with his medical training, formed the basis of his opinion. She added that she doubts that drug traffickers were responsible for the Figueroa family killings. As of this Garcia Abrego also argues that the records were inadmissible because some of them were incomplete. At FindLaw.com, we pride ourselves on being the number one source of free legal information and resources on the web. The content here may be outdated or no longer functioning. The indictment stated that Marroqun-Garca met with Garca Abrego and three The buses made great transportation, as Antonio Ortiz noted, since they were never stopped at the border. never know. This would indicate that the provisions of subsection (b) are meant to facilitate pretrial determinations of the admissibility of foreign records under 3505 rather than establish prerequisites to admissibility under the statute. Thus, to the extent that 3505 largely mirrors the business records exception, we are confident that records admissible under the statute are at least as reliable as evidence admitted under a firmly rooted hearsay exception. Wright, 497 U.S. at 821, 110 S.Ct. As the district court observed, the government certainly [did] not act [] with diligence in giving [the] notice required by 3505(b). Balderas and their three children as they slept in their beds, Balderas is a complicated figure. Francisco Perez testified that he showed Garcia Abrego a newspaper article reporting the Bass Boulevard seizure and that, in response, Garcia Abrego stated that the boys had goofed. Perez also testified that everyone in the drug trafficking organization, including Garcia Abrego, referred to Medrano and Malherbe as the boys. Resendez testified that he had a conversation with Garcia Abrego about the Bass Boulevard seizure. Therefore, the district court properly concluded that the government established by a preponderance of the evidence the voluntariness of Garcia Abrego's statement at the FBI office. See United States v. Torres, 114 F.3d 520, 525-26 (5th Cir. See id. @MX me refera al apellido Crdenas y como hasta el da de hoy los toman en cuenta en Matamoros a pesar de que OCG solt toda la sopa y eso afecto a la compaa. 14. In support of his contention that the government failed to prove that he derived substantial income from the sale of narcotics, Garcia Abrego merely cross-references those portions of his brief arguing that insufficient evidence existed to convict him of laundering money and that the district court improperly allowed the admission of foreign bank records. However, with respect to counts 14 and 15, the record citations that he provides in support of this proposition do not indicate that the funds at issue were not exported to Matamoros, Mexico. bribed officials at all levels of the Mexican government. 98-907, at 2 (1984), reprinted in 1984 U.S.C.C.A.N. HOUSTON . L.Constitutionality of the Criminal Forfeiture. It may, however, be admissible for other purposes, such as proof of motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, identity, or absence of mistake or accident, provided that upon request by the accused, the prosecution in a criminal case shall provide reasonable notice in advance of trial, or during trial if the court excuses pretrial notice on good cause shown, of the general nature of any such evidence it intends to introduce at trial.Fed. [9] In 1994, the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) believed Garca Abrego was making as much as US$10billion per year in profit. ISIS is in Afghanistan, But Who Are They Really? All of this testimony indicates that the killings at issue were in furtherance of Garcia Abrego's drug-trafficking enterprise. simple act of revenge. Based upon this evidence, the jury could reasonably conclude that the drug offense charged in count 5 was committed by Garcia Abrego's coconspirators in furtherance of the conspiracy. The email address cannot be subscribed. However, one of the accounts described in the record was opened in the name of Maria del Carmen Olivella.29 Garcia Abrego concedes that this is his wife's name.30 Furthermore, the other accounts listed Ricardo Aguirre as a beneficiary. U.S. Magistrate Frances Stacy read Abrego a 20-count indictment which accuses him of conspiracy, distributing 13 tons of cocaine into the United States and illegally laundering or transferring some $8.6 million. 404(b). Tony Ortiz testified that he collected $60 to 70 million on behalf of the organization in New York and Houston and shipped it back to Matamoros. He was then placed on a Mexican airplane occupied by only Mexican officials and flown to Houston Intercontinental Airport. The foreign records were also plainly relevant to the money laundering conspiracy count because they evidenced financial transactions of large sums of money that the jury could reasonably conclude constituted proceeds from the sale of narcotics. Hay un reporte de la DFS que dice que El Cacho se ali Rafael Chao Lpez y otros cabrones que no aprobaba Guerra y que por eso le dieron cuello. He was given a five-year probation Marroqun-Garca drove the vehicle to Thereafter, he would pay $1 million per year until the contract price was paid. "Reputed drug kingpin fights for citizenship", "Federal Bureau of Prisons Inmate Locator", "Matamoros Journal; Canaries Sing in Mexico, but Uncle Juan Will Not", "En los pasados seis aos, el Crtel del Golfo introdujo cerca de 750 toneladas de cocana pura a Estados Unidos", United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, "Transnational Narco Corruption and Narco Investment: A Focus on Mexico", "Mexican Drug Fugitive Named To FBI's "Most Wanted" List", "International Drug Trafficking Organizations in Mexico", "At Drug Trial, Mexican Suspect Faces Accuser", "U.S. Jury Convicts Mexican on Drug Charges", "Accused Mexican Narcotics Trafficker Is Said to Offer to Answer All Questions", "A Drug Figure Is Said to Offer To Surrender To Mexicans", "Drug Wars in Tamaulipas: Cartels vs. Zetas vs. the Military", "Mexico drug gang rift spurs new burst of killings", "Cocaine King: FBI and Customs documents piece together a profile of the elusive Juan Garcia Abrego", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Juan_Garca_Abrego&oldid=1148829566, This page was last edited on 8 April 2023, at 15:43. In White v. Illinois, 502 U.S. 346, 112 S.Ct. Criminal convictions are supported by sufficient evidence if a reasonable trier of fact could conclude that the elements of the offense were established beyond a reasonable doubt, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the jury's verdict and drawing all reasonable inferences from the evidence to support the verdict. United States v. Mmahat, 106 F.3d 89, 97 (5th Cir. The transfer of the $108,000 to Vega clearly constituted a giving over to the care or possession of another, and thus a transaction for purposes of establishing a money laundering offense. Juan Garcia Abrego is escorted from FBI headquarters in Houston in 1996 after his arrest in Mexico. In the mid-1980s, Carlos Resendez, who had begun working for Garcia Abrego full time, set up a meeting between Garcia Abrego and Fernando El Aguacate Martinez, another drug trafficker who sought permission from Garcia Abrego to move cocaine through the Matamoros area. From this evidence, the jury could reasonably conclude that the drug offense described in count 3 was committed by Garcia Abrego's coconspirators in furtherance of the conspiracy. The admission of the foreign business records does not violate the Confrontation Clause so long as the records bear[] adequate indicia of reliability. Ohio v. Roberts, 448 U.S. 56, 66, 100 S.Ct. Francisco Perez testified that, while Garcia Abrego was in hiding in Chicago, he told Perez that he had instructed Aguirre to move $25 million from Monterrey to the United States. U.S. Attorney Robert Guerra. Garcia Abrego contends that, even if the pervasiveness of the government's practice of compensating its witnesses monetarily and otherwise did not of itself violate his right to due process, the district court nonetheless erred in refusing his proposed jury instruction pointing out the non-reciprocal nature of such compensation (i.e., the fact that only the government could offer witnesses incentives such as motions for downward departure and reduction of sentence) and indicating to the jury that the government's witnesses who obtained benefits in exchange for their testimony had a motivation to lie. Failure by a party to file such motion before trial shall constitute a waiver of objection to such record or duplicate, but the court for cause shown may grant relief from the waiver. Insufficient evidence supported Garcia Abrego's conviction of conducting a CCE. were unable to get a hold of him for more than a decade. Section 846 provides as follows:Any person who attempts or conspires to commit any offense defined in this subchapter shall be subject to the same penalties as those prescribed for the offense, the commission of which was the object of the attempt or conspiracy.21 U.S.C. See McNeil v. Wisconsin, 501 U.S. 171, 176, 111 S.Ct. 3505, the Confrontation Clause, and a number of the Federal Rules of Evidence. @MM: According to Ioan Grillo's book (2011, pg. During the flight, Garcia Abrego drank some tequila. A particular transaction constitutes a financial transaction if it in any way or degree affects interstate or foreign commerce [and] (i) involv[es] the movement of funds by wire or other means or (ii) involv [es] one or more monetary instruments. 18 U.S.C. El Cachos business model was nonetheless fruitful. Rather, he contends that due process', fundamental fairness and an accused's meaningful right to some parity in the compulsory process of witnesses will [not] tolerate a system that permits only one side of the adversary process to utilize non-reciprocal incentives to entice witnesses. This court rejected a virtually identical argument in United States v. Thevis, 665 F.2d 616 (5th Cir. The fact that the evidence offered by the government consisted only of out-of-court statements accompanied by no physical evidence of murder merely goes to the weight of the evidence rather than its admissibility.22 We therefore conclude that the district court did not abuse its discretion in admitting testimony regarding Garcia Abrego's involvement in murders. At Borderland Beat we do this for our readers and it's always nice to hear their appreciation. In order to avoid the strictures of Rule 404(b) [regarding the admission of character evidence], all the government need do is suggest a logical hypothesis of the relevance of the evidence for purposes other than to demonstrate [the defendant's] propensity to act in a particular manner. United States v. Krout, 66 F.3d 1420, 1431 (5th Cir.1995).

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