Mexican facing deportation claims to be DEA spy

Reporter: Tom Ramstack
Washington, DC, United States
August 30, 2011 02:39 pm EDT

A Mexican man who claims to be a former spy for the Drug Enforcement Administration is seeking asylum in the United States as he faces deportation to Mexico, where he says he will certainly be murdered by drug cartels.

Jose Alberto Moreno Ramos says he informed on the drug cartels in Arizona but was turned over to the Immigration and Naturalization Service for deportation when he criticized the DEA for not paying him. He also accuses the agency of corruption.

Moreno Ramos is facing deportation at a time when the crackdown on drug smuggling is taking on more of a bi-national character along the Mexican border.

Mexican police recently started staging raids based in the United States with assistance from U.S. law enforcement agencies.

Moreno, who is being held in a deportation center in El Paso, TX, says he has information about U.S. and Mexican law enforcement operations that would make both sides uncomfortable if it was revealed publicly.

He has been asking for assistance from the news media in El Paso.

“I know many things of interest about how the governments of the United States and Mexico work,â€