Cartel trial jurors hear details of teens' deaths

Friday, January 20, 2012

LAREDO, Texas (AP) — A federal jury heard graphic descriptions Friday of gruesome methods used by Zetas against a rival Mexican drug cartel.

The San Antonio Express-News (Zetas' horrors recited at trial - San Antonio Express-News reports the claims came during the third day of testimony in the trial in Laredo of Gerardo Castillo Chavez, accused of participating in a mammoth drug-trafficking conspiracy run by the Zetas and the Gulf cartel.

U.S. agents who had tapped the telephone of a Zetas hit man heard him speak of toasting the Santa Muerte, a folk saint revered by Mexican drug traffickers, with the blood of one of two teenage victims, said Drug Enforcement Administration agent Chris Diaz.

"They tortured him, and he ended up splitting their bellies open and he poured the blood into a cup and he made a toast to the Santisima Muerte," Diaz testified.

Earlier Friday, former Zetas hit man Raul Jasso Jr. testified that his colleagues believed that Inez Abundo Villarreal, 14, and Alfonso "Poncho" Aviles, 19, worked for the rival Sinaloa Cartel. Their doom was sealed when they walked into a bar controlled by the Zetas near the international bridges in downtown Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, across the Rio Grande from Laredo, Texas, he said.

Jasso said another Zeta hit man hit the young man on the head with his pistol and took him to a friend's house, while Jasso abducted the girl from the bar. Jasso said they turned the teens were turned over to their supervisor but did not remain to witness what happened to them. Later, he heard that Cardona killed the pair, put their bodies into barrels, poured gasoline on them and burned them until only ashes remained.

The teens' disappearances remained a mystery until agents listened in on Zetas' conversations
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The drug war began to leak into Laredo, where 24 homicides occurred in 2006. U.S. successes in shutting down Zetas activity and helped to cut the number of Laredo homicides to eight in 2007.

However, not until the arrest of Zetas hit men preparing for a job at a Laredo motel did the Zetas' plans for U.S. projects become clear, Diaz testified.

"We learned that there was a list of people the Gulf Cartel wanted killed in Laredo. At the time, we believed that list to be about 40 people," he said.

Topping the list was Jesus Maria "Chuy" Resendez, a major trafficker based in nearby El Cenizo, Texas, who had aligned with the Sinaloa cartel.

Resendez and his 15-year-old nephew were killed April 2, 2006, by a crew of eight hit men when they stopped at a traffic light in southern Laredo.

My San Antonio