Thread: Kin: Smuggler shot by agents captured with trick

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Nov. 22, 2007, 12:13PM
Kin: Smuggler shot by agents captured with trick


Associated Press


EL PASO — An admitted Mexican drug smuggler shot by Border Patrol agents who went to jail for the shooting was arrested after being lured to waiting authorities on a promise of Christmas money for his children, a family member said.

Osvaldo Aldrete Davila was shot in the buttocks before fleeing back to Mexico during an alleged smuggling attempt nearly three years ago.

Former agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean were convicted last year of violating Aldrete's civil rights and of tampering with evidence because they did not report the shooting and because Compean picked up his shell casings.

Aldrete was living in Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, and had said he wasn't planning on returning to the U.S., where law enforcement officials indicated they were investigating him on drug charges. But he came to one of El Paso's international bridges last week and was arrested.

"They told him they were going to give him money for Christmas for his kids," Maria Montoya of El Paso said Wednesday. Montoya said she is a cousin of Aldrete's wife.

Officials with the U.S. Attorney's Office said they could neither confirm nor deny Montoya's claim.

Aldrete, 27, was charged with two counts of conspiracy and two counts of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute. The charges stemmed from incidents in the summer and fall of 2005, several months after Aldrete was shot by Ramos and Compean.

The former agents' convictions and sentences — 12 years for Compean and 11 for Ramos — were roundly criticized by lawmakers and anti-illegal immigration activists. President Bush has been asked to pardon Compean and Ramos or commute their sentences.

At a short hearing Wednesday, Aldrete's lawyer, Ruben Hernandez, asked U.S. District Judge Richard P. Mesa to postpone the bond hearing because he needed more time to prepare. The hearing was rescheduled for Nov. 29.

Montoya and her mother were the only members of Aldrete's family at the hearing.

"We're supporting him," Montoya said. "We'll try to do anything."

If convicted, Aldrete could face five to 40 years in prison and up to $2 million in fines.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5322598.html

hmm so we have another story in this case.
i read that he was asked to come to take care of an american visa.

Four indictments on drug smuggling. June 2005. September 2005.
twice in October 2005. and the US attorney's office kept this way
from the jury... who are the real crooks in this case.

Ramos and Compean need to be freed immeadiately

He's just a trashy dope pusher that should have been in a Mexican jail and never have crossed our border.

Dixie