Drug Smuggler Gets Less Time Than Political Prisoners Ramos and Compean

Posted by Wendi Medashefski on August 7, 2008

by Wendi Medashefski

Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean have been stymied yet again by the powers-that-be. On July 28, 2008, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals refused to admit the firearms charge under which the two heroes were sentenced to mandatory 10+ years in prison was contrived and not the intent of those who wrote the legislation to use it against law enforcement officers.

This fiasco begins on February 17, 2005, when Ramos and Compean were performing their duties as US Border Patrol Agents in the Fabens, Texas area. They happened upon an illegal alien, Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, who was attempting to smuggle 743 pounds of marijuana in a van into the United States. Aldrete-Davila ran from the agents, abandoning his hefty drug load, and headed back to the Mexican border. Agent Compean caught up with him; they scuffled briefly, but Aldrete Davila broke free. As he continued running back to Mexico, Agent Ramos gave chase, and soon saw what he believed to be a weapon in the smuggler’s hand aimed back at the agent himself. Agent Compean, bruised up from the altercation, caught up with his partner and both of them fired at Aldrete-Davila, who fell, but got back up and kept running until he was in the clear.

Several other border patrol agents soon arrived at the scene along with a few supervisors. The shell casings were gathered and discarded, under the assumption that the drug smuggler had not been hit by any shots. A report was filed about the recovered van and its illegal contents, but not on the gunfire.

Three weeks later, Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila reported that he had been shot in the buttocks during the drug smuggling effort in February. Rather than extradite this criminal back to the US to face the consequences, he was instead given full immunity, a taxpayer-funded hospital bed for the removal of the bullet, and a free pass to enter into the US anytime in exchange for his testimony against the agents.

US Attorney Johnny “Satanâ€