Corruption behind agents' conviction

By: BOB KOWELL - Commentary
NORTH COUNTY TIMES
JULY 30, 2007

There are those who have died protecting our border and there are those who are spending needless time in jail for stopping drug and illegal alien trafficking from Mexico.

Case in point are two federal border agents, Jose Alonso Compean and Ignacio Ramos, who are rotting in prison for 11 and 12 years for apparently getting in the way of a drug trafficking operation.

It all started when Agent Compean was assaulted by a drug smuggler, Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, a free man living in Mexico, who was transporting 743 pounds of marijuana across the Mexican border into the United States.


Agent Ramos had been chasing the drug smuggler for five miles. Ramos saw the drug smuggler running toward the river and began chasing him. The smuggler turned and pointed at Ramos with a shiny object that he thought was a gun. Ramos took one shot and the smuggler kept running and got away into Mexico.

The smuggler was wounded by a single bullet fragment to his left buttocks. He was hit at an angle, which gives evidence that he was pointing at Ramos at an angle. This was the testimony of the Army surgeon who removed the bullet. Aldrete-Davila received full immunity from a federal prosecutor, Johnny Sutton, to testify against Ramos and Compean. The drug dealer's testimony was believed over the agents', even though he runs drugs for a living.

By Sutton's reckless actions, the government is telling its agents not to pursue drug dealers or other criminals.

Many of us have asked how the government could do this. Was it an overzealous prosecutor (a la Mike Nifong)?

Sutton has said these agents brought it on themselves and are not heroes. He said the agents covered up the shooting. Maybe they knew they shouldn't have gotten in the way of a drug-smuggling operation.

Maybe they knew that nothing is being done about this and they felt, as good Americans, that they should do what they could to stop criminals. Certainly, Johnny Sutton isn't prosecuting the right people here.

I think these men are heroes and symbols of government indifference to our implication with illegal alien and drug trafficking. Somebody had to get those drugs into the United States to supply the large market here, where lots of money corrupts lots of people.

For those of you who remember the drug-running operations out of Mena, Ark., during the Clinton administration and before, it certainly doesn't end with the election of a new president. There have got to be dirty officials involved in this. Maybe we'll never get to the bottom of this; there will be too many dead bodies by the time we get to the top, wherever that goes.

My personal opinion is that Ramos and Compean should be given medals instead of time in prison. The Murrieta/Temecula Republican Assembly (www.MTRA.com) is going to do something about this at its meeting Friday at Pat & Oscar's in Temecula. Ramos' father-in-law, Joe Loya, will be speaking about the case.

Check-in time for the meeting is 6 p.m. The public is welcome, but make a reservation by leaving a message at (951) 304-2757 or e-mailing me at president@MT-RA.com.

Bob Kowell of Murrieta is president of the Murrieta/Temecula Republican Assembly.

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