Arrest prompts Border Patrol case questions

An arrest in a drug case involving thousands of pounds of marijuana brought from Mexico into the U.S. is raising anew questions about the prosecution of former Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, who shot at a fleeing drug smuggler in a confrontation in 2005, then were convicted for that shooting and now are serving prison terms of 11 and 12 years.

According to authorities, Cipriano Ortiz-Hernandez, suspected of running a Texas "stash house" where multiple loads of marijuana from Mexico were delivered into the United States, has been arrested and is being held pending trial.

As WND has reported, Cipriano Ortiz-Hernandez already was under indictment on federal drug charges stemming from about 5,000 pounds of marijuana allegedly delivered to his home, mostly in 2005.

Ortiz-Hernandez also has identified Ramos-Compean case witness Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila as the man who delivered 750 pounds of marijuana to that location in October 2005 – while Aldrete-Davila was under a grant of immunity for an earlier drug smuggling operation when he encountered Ramos and Compean, and ended up with a bullet wound.

Those agents chased Aldrete-Davila while he was trying to smuggle a load of hundreds of pounds of drugs into the United States in February 2005, and Aldrete-Davila was injured when the officers fired at him.

He later was granted immunity for that episode by federal prosecutors, and returned to the United States to give testimony that helped convict the border agents, who now are in prison. However, during his testimony, he portrayed himself as someone who had tried to smuggle drugs only the one time because of his financial situation, and the jury never was told that he had been implicated in the second smuggling operation.

"What is the government going to do now?" Joe Loya, father-in-law of Ramos, asked WND. "According to the criminal complaints WND has already published, Ortiz-Hernandez has admitted being involved with Aldrete-Davila in the second drug incident."

"Now the government is in a dilemma,” Loya said. "Is the government going to give Aldrete-Davila immunity again? If the government indicts Aldrete-Davila, they are going to have to admit that prosecutor U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton allowed Aldrete-Davila to lie in the Ramos and Compean trial when Aldrete-Davila said he was not a professional drug smuggler."

"I'll bet you that Ortiz-Hernandez will put the finger on Aldrete-Davila, just like he did in October 2005 when DEA and Border Patrol first interviewed Ortiz-Hernandez at the Fabens, Texas, Border Patrol Station," Loya told WND.

Sutton's office said because of "ongoing investigations regarding this matter," officials couldn't comment.

"However, we have been clear and unambiguous, Aldrete received immunity only for offenses which occurred on Feb. 17, 2005, and has no immunity or protection for any other crimes that he may have committed. As we have said many times, this office will pursue criminal charges where there is prosecutable criminal activity and competent evidence to prove it," the statement said.

"This statement sounds like we're going to be told next that Sutton's office doesn't have enough information to prosecute Aldrete-Davila for the October 23, 2005, offense Ortiz-Hernandez is charged with committing," Loya said. "Why don't we just send Sutton copies of the Department of Homeland Security, Drug Enforcement Agency, and U.S. District Court criminal complaints we have that substantiate Aldrete-Davila's involvement. How is Sutton going to explain those documents away?"

WND has reported that a Department of Homeland Security investigative report filed by Special Agent Christopher Sanchez on Nov. 21, 2005, documents that Ortiz-Hernandez identified Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila was the person who drove the 750 pounds of marijuana to Ortiz-Hernandez's safe house on October 23, 2005.

WND also has published criminal complaints filed in U.S. District Court on March 2 and March 6, 2007, that provide corroboration that Aldrete-Davila was the person who delivered 752.8 pounds of marijuana in a Ford Astro van to Ortiz-Hernandez's home in Clint, Texas, Oct. 23, 2005.

"Let's hope the government investigates the drug smugglers surrounding Ortiz-Hernandez more than they did in the Ramos-Compean case," Loya said. "In Ramos and Compean's case nobody ever investigated the cell phone Aldrete-Davila left in the drug van. We still don't know even today where that cell phone is."

WND has obtained a March 18, 2005, U.S. District Court order of detention issued by U.S. Magistrate Judge Norbert J. Garney mandating that Ortiz-Hernandez remain in custody pending trial because he is a flight risk.

The detention order reads that the preponderance of evidence establishes that "the defendant (Ortiz-Hernandez), a citizen of Mexico, without legal permission to remain in the United States, was arrested for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute over 1000 kilograms of marijuana."

The detention order noted that Ortiz-Hernandez "has strong familial ties to Mexico and has a criminal history which includes a history of failure to appear."

"Now that Ortiz-Hernandez has been arrested and indicted, Ramos and Compean should be released immediately," Loya added. "If Sutton had told the jury about this second October load, the government's case would have been thrown out the window. How would any jury convict Ramos and Compean if the jury knew that Aldrete-Davila, the government's chief witness, was a liar?"

"What the documents show is that Sutton's office let Ortiz-Hernandez operate his safe house for two years after he was first busted for drugs in March 2004," Loya said. "Now it's three years since March 2004 and Sutton is finally getting around to prosecuting him. How many years are we going to have to wait for Sutton to prosecute Aldrete-Davila? How many more loads of drugs does Aldrete-Davila have to bring across the border before Sutton does anything?"

"WND has reported that Ortiz-Hernandez was indicted on March 28, 2007, on three counts of federal criminal drug charges.

>>No, but he is being treated just like any other person in prison, no better, no worse.<<

And how would you know that? You are assuming that our correction officials have no axe to grind? If they were “just like any other person in prison” why did DHS lie about the case to congress? If you think it is just that Ramos is not allowed to read books, I wonder if you have the ability to look beyond laws and rules to see if something is right or wrong.

Did you notice that Alberto Gonzalez is involved in a scandal concerning improper political influence?

In the big picture, the government’s actions included some illegal lying (DHS), some lying that was probably just unethical (Sutton and prison officials), and a lot of excuses for doing the wrong thing. Even some of those who think the jury verdict was correct do not believe Ramos should be in prison.

Unfortunately, the whole truth probably will not be known. I agree that R&C are not blameless, but neither is the government.

Well then I suggest to you and everyone that the next time some politician is out pandering for votes by putting on his “gettin’ tough on crime” act and is trying to sell some new mandatory minimum sentence to make them liberal judges give people real time, you should tell them that you don’t support it. As it would seem that you think that the mandatory minimum 10 year sentence is something that you disagree with here. If it weren’t for that, the judge probably could have taken into consideration other factors at sentencing and they probably could have been given a much more lenient sentence. Just a suggestion.

Jury members said they gave no weight to OVD’s testimony...the cover up and inconsistent testimony of R&C was what convicted them.

Well, if they gave no weight to OVD's testimony then there was no case against Ramos and Compean. They said they saw what they thought was a gun in Davila's left hand which he pointed at them. No other persons were involved in the final moments of the encounter.

Second, what inconsistent testimony of R&C? Compean was not involved in the car chase and Ramos lost sight of Davila and Compean when he jumped into the ditch. So are you going to bring up the fiction of Ramos testifying that Compean was flat on the ground?

>>Well then I suggest to you and everyone that the next time some politician is out pandering for votes by putting on his “gettin’ tough on crime” act and is trying to sell some new mandatory minimum sentence to make them liberal judges give people real time, you should tell them that you don’t support it.<<

Agree, and also think that part of the problem is that, in general, legislators are too lazy to write laws carefully (or in some cases they may intentionally write bad laws), and we end up with something that is too easy to abuse.

However, I am not opposed to all mandatory minimum sentences. I can’t think of any mitigating factors that should lessen the sentence of a legally sane adult who rapes a child under the age of 14, for example. And there are judges who are very lenient about that.

“And what bearing could someone have on a trial by saying things to congress after the trial has ended????” —This was said before the trial for the sole purpose of steering the 3 Congressmen away from interfering with the Nifonging of R & C. Not to mention it goes to the creditability of their agenda & investigation.

“They were tried and convicted by 12 of their peers while being represented by competent counsel. This wasn’t a banana republic show trial.”— It’s not what was said or brought into trial that convicted them. It was the evidence that was not aloud into trial.

>>“And what bearing could someone have on a trial by saying things to congress after the trial has ended????” —This was said before the trial for the sole purpose of steering the 3 Congressmen away from interfering with the Nifonging of R & C. Not to mention it goes to the creditability of their agenda & investigation.<<

Check your dates. All the DHS lying to congress I know of occured after the trial. Did DHS stall congress because they needed to shred documents? It is a fact, though, that Mexican inmates almost killed Ramos after DHS told congress that they “wanted to shoot a Mexican.” In my opinion this was a despicable act by DHS.

Your right, I stand corrected. My dates were wrong. That does not change the fact that Sutton used, at best, contrived testimony from admitted liar BG’s who changed their stories so many times they were fired or resigned, allowed smugglers to escape indictment twice for smuggling hundreds of pounds of contraband into The US. And at some point DHS lied to Congressmen about the case. Why would they lie? If everything was kosher, why would they lie?

>>If everything was kosher, why would they lie?<<

IMO Bush, directly and indirectly, has done a lot of damage to the conservative cause. I remember defending him to some university people in Edinburgh, Scotland, just after he was elected. I think now that some of my confidence in him was misplaced.

I honestly don’t intend this to sound racist, I might get flamed for it. But why is it that it seems that the majority of border patrol agents I have read about in the news have mexican sounding names??? Ramos, Compean, Ramirez, and on and on and on. Isn’t that kinda like asking a Gambino, or Gotti, or Luciano, or Genovese to be in charge of going after the Mafia???? Just what percentage of the BP is of mexican descent??? Just an observation.

What evidence???? Have you read the transcripts of the trial??? I did. They got a fair trial. If anything, they should have just kept their teeth together from the beginning and not testified. They didn't do their cause any good.

Now common sense tells me that if the illegal had a gun, was a tough seasoned drug runner, and was on the receiving end of a hail of bullets, that he would have returned fire, at least a round or two. Instead the only shell casings found were from the 2 BP agents. It is illegal to shoot a fleeing, posing no threat, person, period, the US Supreme Court has ruled on that. They admitted they shot at him and one of them hit him. They hid evidence of the shooting and tried to sweep it under the rug. They admitted all of this themselves. From their own lips. No conspiracy, no cover-up, no GWB evil plan. In technical terms they "screwed the pooch". And it was exactly what was said and brought into trial against them that convicted them. They sealed their own fates. Read the transcripts.

>>But why is it that it seems that the majority of border patrol agents I have read about in the news have mexican sounding names???<<

Well, being able to speak Spanish and being born into a Hispanic family might be a plus for BP agents, so they could have insights into what would be going on. Some Anglos, like me, do speak Spanish, but most do not, few of us Anglos really understand the culture that well.

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