{"id":18809,"date":"2010-06-28T08:08:32","date_gmt":"2010-06-28T14:08:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=18809"},"modified":"2010-12-20T11:36:15","modified_gmt":"2010-12-20T18:36:15","slug":"federal-official-says-martinez-has-taken-on-cartel-members","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2010\/06\/federal-official-says-martinez-has-taken-on-cartel-members\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal official says Martinez has taken on cartel members"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Susana Martinez<\/p><\/div>\n

The head of the federal agency that coordinates the fight against drug trafficking in New Mexico says Susana Martinez\u2019s<\/a> claim that she has \u201ctaken on members of the most violent Mexican drug cartels\u201d is accurate.<\/p>\n

Ernesto Ortiz, director of the New Mexico High Intensity Drug Traffic Area<\/a> (HIDTA), said the battle against cartel drug smuggling doesn\u2019t happen without local and federal law enforcement officials cooperating, and Martinez\u2019s office plays an integral role. Martinez, Do\u00f1a Ana County\u2019s district attorney, is also on the HIDTA board.<\/p>\n

Ortiz\u2019s comments follow a Santa Fe New Mexican article<\/a> that stated that, because nearly all drug cases prosecuted in state court don\u2019t involve high-level cartel members, \u201cthe cartel members (Martinez has) taken on are relatively small fish.\u201d That led to an accusation from the state Democratic Party that Martinez is exaggerating her record.<\/p>\n

Martinez, the Republican gubernatorial candidate, has made the claim that she\u2019s taken on cartel members in two TV ads (here<\/a> and here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Law enforcement agencies in the New Mexico HIDTA region are involved in Operation Up The Ladder, which is aimed at stopping cartel drug smuggling by catching those The New Mexican called \u201csmall fish\u201d and working its way up through prosecution, intelligence sharing and other efforts.<\/p>\n

The seven district attorneys in the area Ortiz oversees \u2013 including Martinez \u2013 partner with the U.S. attorney and prosecute cases referred to them by task forces made up of local and federal law enforcement officials. Most are smaller cases, though some involve the state\u2019s top marijuana charge, trafficking over 100 pounds.<\/p>\n

Ortiz said Martinez\u2019s office has been involved in additional efforts to disrupt cartel activity, including prosecuting other cartel-related crimes that have been committed in Do\u00f1a Ana County such as homicides.<\/p>\n

He said such cases could include instances in which \u201cenforcers\u201d \u2013 local gangs recruited by cartels to carry out punishment on this side of the border \u2013 kill someone for losing a drug shipment or money owed to a cartel. He said Martinez\u2019s office has \u201cabsolutely\u201d prosecuted such cases.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere may be somebody that is murdered or somebody that is kidnapped or beaten to death \u2013 things like that in retaliation for either losing a drug load or losing money that was supposed to go back to the organization,\u201d Ortiz said.<\/p>\n

Not identifying cartel-related cases<\/h3>\n

<\/p>\n

Ortiz, like Martinez, would not identify specific cases that prove Martinez has taken on cartel members. Martinez\u2019s failure to do that for The New Mexican article prompted the state Democratic Party to accuse her of \u201cexaggerating her record.\u201d A party news release stated that Martinez \u201ccan\u2019t\u201d name cartel members she\u2019s taken on.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew Mexicans are tired of the empty rhetoric, exaggerations and political double-speak from Susana Martinez,\u201d said the party\u2019s executive director, Scott Forrester. \u201cSusana Martinez should come clean and admit that she\u2019s been exaggerating her record in order to create a tough-on-crime persona.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ortiz and the Martinez campaign both said there\u2019s good reason Martinez won\u2019t name specific cases. The information agencies add to the shared intelligence database \u2013 including identities of cartel members \u2013 is confidential, both said.<\/p>\n

Letting cartel members know that law enforcement knows a case is cartel related could help cartels identify informants and kill them and their families, Ortiz said. Martinez, through campaign spokesman Adam Deguire, said it could jeopardize ongoing cases. In addition, sometimes the safety of a police officer or prosecutor could be compromised if defendants in cases are publicly identified as cartel members, Ortiz said.<\/p>\n

In response to the Democratic Party\u2019s attack, Deguire had harsh words for the Democrats\u2019 candidate for governor, Diane Denish<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are numerous reasons law enforcement does not publicly highlight specific criminals as being members of particular cartels, and only someone truly ignorant of law enforcement operations, like Diane Denish, would be calling for the release of this specific intelligence to the public as part of a political campaign,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that Diane Denish would even question that members of these cartels are operating in New Mexico\u2019s largest border county, and therefore running into law enforcement in a myriad of cases ranging from misdemeanors to violent felonies, demonstrates a stunning lack of understanding about the situation taking place along the border, and serves as further proof she should not receive a promotion to governor this fall,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth noting that Denish and her campaign haven\u2019t said anything publicly about Martinez\u2019s claim that she\u2019s taken on cartel members. There may only be a technical difference between Denish\u2019s campaign and the state Democratic Party, but it is a difference.<\/p>\n

Cartel activity in New Mexico<\/h3>\n

Federal officials say cartels are operating in Southern New Mexico and specifically in Las Cruces. Even though there\u2019s no definition in state law that allows a case to officially be identified as cartel related, or even gang related, a 2007 report<\/a> to Congress on Mexico\u2019s drug cartels cited the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in stating that the Ju\u00e1rez Cartel has a presence in Southern New Mexico. The report also cited the 2007 National Drug Threat Assessment as saying there is a cartel presence in Las Cruces.<\/p>\n

NPR<\/a>, citing \u201cfederal, state, and local law enforcement reporting\u201d from 2006 to 2008, says there is cartel activity in Las Cruces, Deming, Columbus and Albuquerque.<\/p>\n

The 2009 HIDTA report<\/a> gives an example of a cartel-related murder committed in New Mexico:<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 in 2008 a teenage boy who had smuggled illicit drugs from Mexico into New Mexico on behalf of the Sinaloa Cartel was lured by another teenage boy into a remote area of New Mexico and shot to death on orders of the (drug trafficking organization) for which he worked; he allegedly owed the cartel money.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The report states that \u201cmany\u201d drug trafficking organizations \u201calso engage in other crimes, including alien smuggling, auto theft, kidnapping, murder, and weapons smuggling to further their criminal enterprises and generate illicit proceeds.\u201d Some of that violence \u201chas already spread into New Mexico,\u201d the report states, giving another example:<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 in January 2009, members of a rival (drug trafficking organization) shot and killed a drug trafficker in a remote area of Silver City, New Mexico, for failure to pay a drug debt. The wife of another drug trafficker who owed a drug debt was also murdered; her body was discovered a week later near that same location.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cMany of these violent traffickers obtain firearms by burglarizing businesses, private homes, and vehicles in the New Mexico HIDTA region,\u201d the report states. Those are crimes that, if committed in Do\u00f1a Ana County, would be prosecuted by Martinez\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

Las Cruces is also a hotbed for money laundering. According to the HIDTA report, there are more than 200 \u201cfinancial institutions\u201d located in Las Cruces. Many of them \u201coperate from private residences, are uninsured, and are used solely for laundering drug proceeds.\u201d<\/p>\n

But money laundering is a federal crime Martinez\u2019s office has no jurisdiction to prosecute.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The head of the federal agency that coordinates the fight against drug trafficking in New Mexico says Susana Martinez\u2019s claim that she has \u201ctaken on members of the most violent Mexican drug cartels\u201d is accurate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[108,142,195,107],"class_list":["post-18809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-2010-election","tag-crime","tag-mexicos-drug-war","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18809\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}