Loosely translated: Police, Judge, Jury, and Executioner.
Mexico seems to have multi-tasked their "police" force.
Victim was 'go-between,' police say
Daniel Borunda and Louie Gilot
El Paso Times
An El Paso man who was fatally shot in a South El Paso Whataburger parking lot last month was sent there to pick up money by a U.S. government informant, said homicide detectives who have linked the case to four drug-related executions in Juárez.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement informant and drug cartel member known as "Lalo" witnessed the fatal shooting of Abraham Guzman on Aug. 25, said acting Cmdr. George McBain, head of the El Paso police Crimes Against Persons unit.
"We are saying he was there at the scene. He was not with the victim. ... He is considered a witness along with his (Lalo's) girlfriend," McBain said.
Guzman, 27, was parked in a 1998 Lincoln Navigator waiting to pick up drug money intended for Lalo when he was shot multiple times at about 11 p.m. Aug. 25 at the restaurant at 2120 E. Paisano, police said. Guzman, an oil lube shop manager, was the father of 2-week-old boy.
"Guzman, we know, was a friend of Lalo and Lalo's girlfriend. ... Guzman was simply used as a go-between to pick up the proceeds," McBain said.
Lalo, who in January led authorities to the bodies of 12 men in a Juárez back yard, is in the protective custody of the U.S. Marshals Service, police said. Lalo was interviewed on several occasions by detectives who linked the informant to executions in Juárez, including that of a father and son from El Paso.
"They were associates," McBain said. "We have confirmed Lalo had been talking to them prior to Guzman's murder."
Fernando Santibañez Gutierrez, 54, and son Jose Santibañez Salaih, 20, were found in the trunk of a Hyundai with Texas plates on Aug. 31 in the Chamizal park on the Mexican side of the Bridge of the Americas. They had been strangled.
The next day, the bodies of another associate, Jesús Laredo Aguilar, 35, and an unidentified man were found in a gray Chevrolet Suburban with Chihuahua plates parked outside a store on López Mateos avenue.
An investigation involving the FBI and Chihuahua State Judicial Police continues, and police are looking for the gunmen, who fled in a 1990s blue and tan Ford Bronco.
"Some potential suspects may have been executed in Mexico after (Guzman's) homicide," McBain said.
Anyone with information may call Crime Stoppers at 566-8477.
http://www.borderlandnews.com/stories/borderland/20040923-172424.shtml
---- What's interesting too --- many of these border crossers --- who use it for drug smuggling and murder --- have received the laser visa to make their crossings very legal and very easy. Some background check ---- but that's what we've been duped into believing is done.