Heath Haussamen
New Mexico has seen lots of government corruption exposed in recent years that involves stealing money from taxpayers. But the recent weapons-smuggling case involving Columbus village officials takes government corruption to a more egregious level.
The (now former) mayor, police chief and a city councilor were involved in a ring that helped smuggle firearms to the La Linea cartel in Mexico and also provided it with ammunition and tactical gear.
In other words, public officials in a tiny border town in New Mexico used their jobs to help arm a cartel in Mexico, where the drug war and other lawlessness have claimed tens of thousands of lives in recent years.
Is it a stretch to say that former Columbus Mayor Eddie Espinoza, Trustee Blas Gutierrez and Police Chief Angelo Vega enabled the killing of people in Mexico? I think not.
Public corruption that enables killing, in my view, dwarfs the thefts of millions of dollars that we’ve seen in some high-profile public corruption cases in recent years.
As the Las Cruces Sun-News has reported, the 15 defendants in the case allegedly bought about 200 guns – including AK-47-type pistols and 9mm pistols – from a gun store in Chaparral and smuggled them to the Juárez-based cartel.
Dozens were intercepted by law enforcement before they crossed the border, but most apparently were not. Three were found on dead individuals in an SUV in Juárez.
Vega, who last week became the final of the former public officials to plead guilty in the case, “conducted counter-surveillance, used a village-owned Ford F150 truck to transport firearms from the country, pulled over a car of ATF agents at La Linea’s request, and tried to get ATF agents to return firearms to Gutierrez after they were seized,” the Sun-News reported.
He also bought tactical gear, including a bulletproof vest for a La Linea leader.
Situation may ‘doom Columbus entirely’
Espinoza, Gutierrez and Vega were working to arm La Linea, not manage and keep safe the Village of Columbus. Their abuse of their jobs and neglect of the city they were supposed to be serving has had serious consequences. As the New York Times reported this weekend, the situation may “doom Columbus entirely.”
“Ms. (Nicole S.) Lawson, who was appointed to replace the arrested mayor, has found the village’s books in such disarray, with hints of huge debts and reckless spending, that she fears that Columbus may soon lose its incorporation status and be taken over by Luna County.
“… To save money, the village has disbanded its six-person police department, which had had eight police chiefs over the last five years, and contracted with the Luna County Sheriff’s Department for law enforcement.
“… The village also wiped out its code enforcement, animal control and recreation departments because it lacked the money to operate them.”
“We’re dangling on the edge,” Lawson was quoted by the Times as saying. “We try not to look over. We try to climb back up. But I don’t know if we can survive.”
These men have all but destroyed the town they were supposed to serve.
Send a message
Vega’s attorney, Jess Lilley of Las Cruces, said at Vega’s plea hearing that his client has “done a lot for the communities he’s worked in. He’s obviously made a few poor choices. Those poor choices don’t make somebody a bad person. He’s ready to move on.”
He added that Vega “doesn’t want to make any excuses for the poor choices they made.”
Good. Vega, Espinoza and Gutierrez get kudos from me for manning up and pleading guilty. But that doesn’t change the fact that their actions are among the most egregious I’ve ever seen from public officials.
In spite of their plea agreements, they should receive the maximum punishment allowed by federal law. Think Columbus is the only town whose government has been infiltrated by the Mexican drug cartels? I think not.
We need to send a message that we won’t tolerate this sort of government corruption in the United States.