If you don’t know the story of the two border agents being jailed you’ve been under a rock, but just in case a quick synopsis is one night on the Texas border two border agents were chasing someone that jumped out of a van full of marijuana and started running toward the border. One agent struggled with the suspect on the ground while his partner was coming up from behind.

The suspected drug dealer escaped from the agent and was running toward the border again as the two agents met, the suspected drug smuggler “turned with something shiny that appeared like a gun” according to the agents and the agents fired at the drug smuggler.

Thinking they missed, because the drug smuggler escaped across the border. Other agents and a supervisor arrived at the scene. What seemed like just another non-incident on the border, they did their oral report to their supervisor and picked up their empty brass, then went on with their patrol.

A Border Patrol friend of the Drug Smuggler

Later, the drug smuggler’s mother in Mexico was talking to one of her friends in the States that her son was shot in the butt by the border patrol. A border patrol friend of the drug smuggler (huh?) reported to the Department of Homeland Security who sent someone to Mexico and found the wounded drug smuggler, brought him back to the States for medical attention and gave him immunity to testify against the border patrol agents.

He’s smuggling drugs to help his sick mother

It gets more complicated from there. The bottom line is that the jury believed the story from the US Attorney that the drug smuggler was only smuggling drugs to help get money for his sick mother and this was his first time ever doing something like that, he never carried a gun and the border agents shot an unarmed man and tried to cover it up. Why would the jury believe the word of a drug dealer found a few days later, of course he’s going to say he was unarmed. You would think our law enforcement would be given the benefit of a doubt and believe some scumbag drug smuggler, even if it was his first time.

US Attorney Protecting the Innocent Drug Smuggler against the evil Border Patrol

The US Attorney went out of their way to make the drug smuggler into a saint and our border patrol agents into racist (they’re both Hispanic), Mexican hating and they were out to kill a Mexican and went to extreme measures to cover up their crime. The US Attorney even coerced the other agents at the scene to testify against their fellow agents.

Truth is that the drug smuggler is a career criminal with one of the major drug cartels and according to his mother, never takes a shipment without his gun.

One of the questions a lot of people had was why the US Attorney’s office had such a vendetta against the border agents. Also, why was a gun charge with a minimum sentence of 12 years used for the first time against law enforcement? Of course law enforcement is going to have guns. When the agents were convicted by a jury, the judge had no choice but to sentence the agents to 12 years in jail. The jury later said they felt pressured and wouldn’t have convicted had they known the sentence was so severe.

Even if there was a cover-up of some sort, at the very most it should have been taken care of within the Border Patrol, with suspension or something administrative. At the very, very worse, fired or even a couple years, but not 12 years in prison, that was an insane sentence and everyone knew it.

A Partial Appeal but not for the gun charge

An appeal was upheld by the Fifth District and the only hope was that President Bush would pardon or commute their sentences. Since the US Attorney in Texas and the President went back to the old days in Texas and the President always seemed to bend over for anything Mexico, a pardon wasn’t going to happen.

Bush might have a conscience

Thank goodness for a commutation of their sentences at the last minute. They are still convicted felons and can never be in law enforcement, but at least they are out of jail. Ignacio was in solitary for his own protection because he was beaten by prisoners in general population.

This is one of the first interviews Ignacio has given and it is extremely sad to hear him talk about being in solitary for the two years and being with his family again. It’s a sad story of how the agent dealt with solitary and meeting his family again after his release.

Link: Agent Ramos.com

[audio:http://obscuremania.com/blog/wp-content/jose.mp3]
[audio:http://obscuremania.com/blog/wp-content/ignacio.mp3]

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