Pacifica Radio in NYC to air four-part series on House of Death
Beginning Monday, Dec. 5, starting at 5:00 p.m. Eastern, former DEA undercover agent Mike Levine, host of Expert Witness Radio, will begin airing a four-part series on the House of Death mass-murder case. His weekly (Monday) drive-time show is broadcasted live on WBAI 99.5 FM Pacifica Radio in New York City.
The series will include an in-depth analysis of Narco News’ exclusive coverage of the case.
(Web links to numerous Freedom of Information Act and other documents as well as to the more than 20 stories Narco News has published on the House of Death to date are included below.)
Following is a teaser for the Pacifica Radio House of Death series provided by the show’s host, Mike Levine:
EXPERT WITNESS RADIO SHOWMonday, 12/5/05, WBAI, New York City 99.5FM - 5-6pm EST
or live on the internet at http://www.expertwitnessradio.org"THE HOUSE OF DEATH" EXPOSE SERIES - PART 1 OF 4
No one in media media or congress wants to touch this story, the Expert Witness Show will attempt to run with it until someone does notice. We predicted 9-11 on air, we do NOT want to be right again!
The blockbuster story--ducked by mainstream media and congress—that both makes the Valery Plame case look like a violated Cub Scout oath and connects the dots of four decades of barroom commando leadership that led to 9-11 and keeps us more vulnerable to terror attacks than we were on 9/10/01.
1. Would you believe that a Federal Prosecutor and a bumbling, keystone kop Homeland Security Agency have been protecting a federal narcotic informant who ran a horror house wherein scores of people were tortured to death by a Mexican drug and terror ring?
2. Would you believe that while this informant was on the Homeland Security payroll he may have personally arranged for as many as thirty horrific deaths by himself?
3. Would you believe that the US government sponsored house of death and torture only came to an end when this government-salaried-and-protected informant targeted an undercover DEA agent and his family stationed in Mexico, and that the agent, his wife and children were saved from their horrible fate at the last moment by the actions of his fellow DEA agents working against Homeland Security and the prosecutor?
4. Would you believe that when one of the high ranking DEA officers, with 27 years of award winning service, went to congress and then mainstream media to name those in our government responsible for not only blowing the cover of an undercover DEA agent and his family stationed in Mexico but aiding and abetting in their assassination by their stupid, barroom commando bungling, the DEA agent's career was destroyed and he was forced to retire?
5. Would you believe that the blowing of the covers of undercover DEA agents who had infiltrated international drug and terror groups— when these America-hating criminals happen to be CIA assets—has been commonplace for more than three decades?
6. Would you believe that members of congress have been made well aware of all the deadly bufoonery and have promised action, yet have done nothing?
Remind you of the 9-11 Commission?
7. Would you believe that mainstream media not only has ignored this story, but continues its five decade pattern of refusing to depict agencies like Homeland Security, FBI, CIA and others as the Keystone Kops the continue to be?
8. With a penguin-walking media and a congress that for five decades has done nothing but reward ineptitude with even bigger budgets, mushroom clouds of terror now seem inevitable--can we do anything to the kind of professional protectors on the front line that we are paying for?
In this series of shows we will reveal the inside of this story as told by the people who took part in it and those few who attempted to report it. We will connect the dots of covert agency ineptitude that media has failed to do in five decades to show you how 50 years of barroom commando leadership of America led to 9-11 and beyond. We will show you how and why Congress and mainstream media continue to refuse to confront the real causes of 9-11 and the price we are all about to pay for their cowardice and greed.
What you can do:
First step is to alert everyone we can to the truth—that's why you've got an EXPERT WITNESS radio show.
In the House of Death Series we will prove all the above and much, much more. It is YOUR job to pass the word.
You do not want to miss this one.
Audio streams in MP3 format of the shows also will be available at this link.
For those of you who listen to Levine’s coverage and are learning of Narco News for the first time, we are providing the following list of links to Narco News’ complete coverage over the past year and a half of the House of Death case — in which the highest levels of the Justice Department have been implicated in a cover-up of a U.S. government informant’s participation in more than a dozen murders.
Although this list of links will be helpful to those of you who are new to Narco News (and we hope serve as a jumping off point for you to explore the other excellent journalism available through the site), it also should be valuable to anyone who is interested in learning more about the House of Death or to those authentic journalists out there who want to use the reporting and research already done by Narco News to help advance the story.
The story links below are arranged in descending order – starting with the most recent story on the House of Death published by Narco News. If you want to get a good baseline for the series, though — including an introduction to the major players — I suggest you begin by reading the first investigative article, called The House of Death.
And stay tuned to Narco News for continuing coverage of the developments in the House of Death case.
Remember, the truth will set you free – and bring all sorts of new ”friends” to your door.
House of Death investigative series to date
House of Death informant linked to murder of U.S. citizen
Posted on Wed Oct 26th, 2005 at 12:23:29 AM EST
This homicide, allegedly involving an El Paso man, predates the dozen murders the informant helped carry out, with the knowledge of U.S. law enforcers, between August 2003 and January 2004.
Those murders, which took place in a home in Ciudad Juárez (dubbed the House of Death) have become the subject of a major cover-up within Homeland Security and the Department of Justice — a cover-up hatched to conceal the complicity of U.S. law enforcers, who allegedly allowed the murders to occur in order to make a drug case.A U.S. government informant who was overseen by Homeland Security agents and a U.S. prosecutor in El Paso appears to now be implicated in yet another murder.
Another document, dripping with blood, surfaces in House of Death case
Posted on Sat Oct 22nd, 2005 at 11:54:02 PM EST
The administrator of the DEA, Karen Tandy, in court testimony confirms that she briefed then Attorney General John Ashcroft on the murders and the participation of a U.S. government informant in those homicides.
Recently, current Attorney General Alberto Gonzales confirmed that he, too, is aware of the mass murder case but declined to confirm whether any investigation has been launched into the complicity of federal agents and a U.S. prosecutor in those deaths.Earlier this month, Narco News reported that a cover-up of a mass murder case in Mexico goes all the way to the top of the U.S. Department of Justice.
Ballroom drug warriors peddle `trust' in shadow of the Alamo
Posted on Fri Oct 14th, 2005 at 11:10:16 PM EST
The two attorneys general held a press conference in an up-scale downtown hotel to lay out to the assembled media a new program of “bilateral cooperation” that is designed, according to Cabeza de Vaca, to put a “chokehold” on the violent criminal activity afflicting the major narco-corridors traversing the border.
But as with most state-sponsored programs built around the pretense of the supposed war on drugs, there seemed to be more hype than substance presented at this press conference — which served as the penultimate public moment of a conference of bureaucrats held in an opulent hotel, on the taxpayers’ dime no doubt.
For those law enforcers present at this spin conference — those who truly are dedicated to stemming the violence spawned by prohibition — well, they must have been looking toward the ceiling as the attorneys general spoke in doublespeak in two languages to media gatekeepers in a plush ballroom at the St. Anthony-Wyndahm Hotel – which is located only a few blocks from the Alamo, the scene of a still famous occurrence of bilateral border violence in another century.U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and the attorney general of Mexico, Daniel Cabeza de Vaca, blew into San Antonio, Texas, earlier this week to announce a new “compadre alliance” between the two nations in the assault on narco-violence along the border.
U.S. Attorney General briefed on House of Death murders, DEA Administrator admits
Posted on Sat Oct 1st, 2005 at 11:23:17 PM EST
These documents, pleadings from an employment discrimination case filed in U.S. District Court in Miami, show that the U.S. Attorney General himself was briefed on the House of Death case.
This latest evidence reveals that the trail of this cover-up of a U.S. government informant’s participation in mass murder extends from the federal agents who handled the informant, to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Antonio, to the administrator of the DEA and top officials within the Department of Homeland Security, to the top gun in the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C.
Yet, to date, no one, not the Congress, not the U.S. Courts, not the White House, not even the mainstream media has sought to expose the cover-up in this mass-murder case. Instead, as of this writing, only a lone whistleblower within DEA has been punished — his reputation tarnished by a negative job-performance review in retaliation for trying to expose the cover-up.Yet another layer of deceit in the House of Death cover-up is now being brought into the sunlight with the surfacing of more public documents.
Special to The Narco News Bulletin
September 12, 2005
The murders were carried out as part of a criminal enterprise overseen by Heriberto Santillan-Tabares, who U.S. prosecutors claim was a top lieutenant in Vicente Carrillo Fuentes’ (VCF’s) Juárez drug organization.
The reason we know this is because federal agents with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office in El Paso had an informant inside of Santillan’s criminal syndicate. The federal agents, along with a U.S. prosecutor in El Paso, were using the informant to snare Santillan.A dozen people were tortured and murdered between August 2003 and mid-January 2004 in a house in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, just across the border from El Paso, Texas.
National whistleblower group calls on Congress to probe House of Death
Posted on Thu Sep 8th, 2005 at 11:33:55 AM EST
A national organization representing government whistleblowers has stepped forward to back a former DEA official who is demanding a congressional investigation into the House of Death mass-murder case.
Special to The Narco News Bulletin
August 31, 2005
Raul Loya, a Dallas civil rights attorney who is representing the family of House of Death murder victim Luis Padilla, recently filed litigation in federal court in El Paso on behalf of the family of the first known murder victim in the House of Death case, Mexican attorney Fernando Reyes.
The litigation accuses the informant known as “Lalo,” and his U.S. government handlers, of violating Reyes’ civil rights. Lalo allegedly supervised Reyes’ murder in August 2003, according to the lawsuit.
Several agents and supervisors with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) who oversaw the informant, as well as an assistant U.S. prosecutor, are named as defendants in the lawsuit.The attorney representing the family of one of the murder victims in the House of Death case has filed yet another civil lawsuit targeting U.S. law enforcers as well as a government informant who allegedly participated in the homicides.
Another Travesty of Justice in "House of Death" Case
Posted on Thu May 5th, 2005 at 12:08:02 AM EST
Loya, along with Heriberto Santillan-Tabares, who U.S. prosecutors claim is a top lieutenant in Vicente Carrillo Fuentes’ Juárez drug organization, had been facing murder and drug-trafficking charges in relation to the torture and slayings of a dozen people found buried in the backyard of a house in Ciudad Juárez, which is just across the border from El Paso, Texas.
… So Loya and his henchmen escaped justice once with the help of federal law enforcers in El Paso, and federal prosecutors in San Antonio have once again given him a free pass on murder.The U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Antonio has done it again. In what can only be seen as an effort to tie off all the loose ends in the cover-up in the House of Death mass murder case, U.S. federal prosecutors have decided not to pursue Mexican state judicial police comandante Miguel Loya Gallegos.
U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, who allegedly retaliated against a DEA supervisor who blew the whistle on the ICE agents’ complicity in mass murder, cut the deal that let Santillan off the hook, and he again rubber stamped the get-out-of-jail-free card for Loya.
Special to The Narco News Bulletin
July 5, 2005
The DEA official, Sandalio Gonzalez, is pointing the finger squarely at Johnny Sutton, the U.S. Attorney in San Antonio, Texas. He claims that had Sutton taken action sooner in the case, more than a dozen people might still be alive today. As a result, Gonzalez says Congress must act now to get to the bottom of what Sutton knew, and when he knew it.
“Unless some Congressional committee subpoenas Sutton to answer questions about this, the cover-up will continue,” Gonzalez said, in an exclusive interview with Narco News.A recently retired, high-ranking DEA official is calling on Congress to investigate the role played by a U.S. Attorney in the cover-up of an informant’s participation in mass murder in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico.
U.S. prosecutors cut deal to bury the House of Death
Posted on Wed Apr 20th, 2005 at 11:43:51 PM EST
U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton in San Antonio, Texas, announced earlier this week that his office cut a plea bargain with Heriberto Santillan-Tabares, who U.S. prosecutors claim is a top lieutenant in Vicente Carrillo Fuentes’ Juárez drug organization.
Santillan had been charged with cocaine and marijuana smuggling along with five counts of murder. His case was slated to go to trial this May in federal district court in San Antonio.
The plea deal caps more than a year-long effort by federal prosecutors and ICE officials to keep a lid on the U.S. government’s complicity in multiple murders in the Mexican border town of Ciudad Juárez.U.S. Department of Justice officials have taken the predictable path in the House of Death mass-murder case. They have allowed the snake to swallow its tail.
Special to The Narco News Bulletin
April 3, 2005
The letter exposed federal agents’ complicity in multiple murders in the Mexican border town of Ciudad Juárez. The homicides were tied to an investigation into Heriberto Santillan-Tabares, who U.S. prosecutors claim is a top lieutenant in Vicente Carrillo Fuentes’ Juárez drug organization.
… Following are links to the actual Freedom of Information Act documents that have brought this whole matter out of the shadows and into the light of day for everyone to see. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) supervisor Sandalio Gonzalez fired off a letter in February 2005 to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in El Paso, Texas, that blew the whistle on an alleged cover-up within the U.S. justice system.
Watchdog agencies asleep at the House of Death
Posted on Sat Mar 26th, 2005 at 11:06:53 PM EST
The blowback came at him through a legal case he has pending against DEA. In 2002, Gonzalez filed a discrimination lawsuit against the agency in federal court in Miami. The case, which is still pending, stems from a stash of cocaine that came up missing after a 1998 raid of a house in suburban Miami.
Prior surveillance of the house indicated there should have been about 32 kilograms of cocaine on the premises, but the total amount accounted for after the search fell 10 kilos short of that mark.
Gonzalez suspected foul play. He says the same Miami-Dade Police team involved in the raid was responsible for “compromising three prior drug cases.”The first major sign that DEA supervisor Sandalio Gonzalez had hit a nerve with his letter of protest over the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s handling of the House of Death murders materialized in May 2004.
Former DEA supervisor's letter opens new door on House of Death
Posted on Wed Mar 23rd, 2005 at 02:34:12 AM EST
Following is the list of government agencies who don’t want you to know this secret, and which have to date, to one degree or another, contributed to keeping it covered up: The U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Antonio, the DEA, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and at least two agencies charged with investigating corruption in federal law enforcement -- the U.S. Office of Special Counsel and the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General.Narco News has uncovered a well-kept secret through a recent Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.
House of Death exploded by former DEA supervisor's revelation
Posted on Fri Feb 18th, 2005 at 12:28:42 AM EST
Former DEA agent Sandalio Gonzalez drops the bombshell on the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Antonio in one short paragraph tucked into the pleadings of an employment discrimination case he has pending against the Department of Justice.
Gonzalez, who, until his retirement last month, oversaw the DEA’s El Paso field office, makes the following assertion in a motion filed earlier this week in federal district court in Miami:A startling claim has surfaced in a document filed in federal court by a former DEA supervisor. The claim raises serious questions about a U.S. Attorney’s handling of evidence in the case of accused murderer and drug-trafficker Heriberto Santillan-Tabares.
Connecting the dots in the House of Death
Posted on Thu Dec 30th, 2004 at 07:59:38 PM EST
Santillan is charged with cocaine and marijuana smuggling along with five counts of murder allegedly carried out as part of a continuing criminal enterprise – a crime that can get him a death sentence in the U.S. justice system. A confidential informant, who allegedly had attained high standing within the Juarez organization, played a critical role in snaring Santillan.
The informant’s name is Jesus Contreras, who is also known by the nickname “Lalo.”
Narco News published a major exposé in late April of this year (called The House of Death) that revealed Contreras, as part of his role in infiltrating the Santillan organization, was implicated in a series of murders in Ciudad Juárez -- located just across the border from El Paso, Texas.U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued a press release earlier this month announcing a plea agreement had been reached with an accused cigarette smuggler, Jorge Abraham. What the press release does not mention is that the Abraham case is linked to another major smuggling case involving Heriberto Santillan-Tabares, who, U.S. prosecutors allege, is a top lieutenant in Vicente Carrillo Fuentes’ Juárez drug organization.
House of Death is starting to rot
Posted on Sat Nov 13th, 2004 at 12:32:09 AM EST
Between August 2003 and mid-January of 2004, a dozen people were murdered and buried in the yard of a house in Ciudad Juarez, a Mexican border city of 1.2 million people.
Santillan (an alleged leader in the Vicente Carrillo Fuentes’ Juarez drug organization) and his cronies controlled the house. This group included the informant, known only as "Lalo," who was on the payroll of the U.S. Immigration and Customs (Enforcement) agency....
... The informant, “Lalo,” say the law enforcement whistleblowers, even brought the tape and the lime used to help dispose of the bodies. The law enforcement sources believe that he was at the death house during up to nine of the 12 murders known to have taken place there. Most of those killed were allegedly Mexican drug dealers, except for one individual, who was a U.S. citizen – "some kid from Socorro, Texas, just south of El Paso," says one law enforcement source.
What the Narco News story didn’t mention in its April story was the name of the murdered “kid” from Socorro. He was Luis Padilla. He left behind a wife and three small kids.In April of this year, Narco New brought you a gruesome story about corruption and murder along the Texas border. The story began as follows:
Another murder is linked to the House of Death case
Posted on Thu Sep 9th, 2004 at 10:46:55 PM EST
Between August 2003 and mid-January 2004, about a dozen people were tortured, murdered and then buried in the yard of a house in the Mexican border town. The informant, according to sources, participated in many of those murders.
The informant’s handlers, agents with the El Paso office of the federal Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), were allegedly fully aware of the informant’s complicity in the murders, yet did nothing to stop the killing for fear of jeopardizing the cases that they were trying to make with the informant’s help.
The informant, who goes by the nickname Lalo, worked for a drug trafficker named Heriberto Santillan-Tabares, who, U.S. prosecutors allege, is a top lieutenant in Vicente Carrillo Fuentes’ Juárez drug organization.
Now it appears Lalo’s shadow is over yet another murder, this time on the U.S. side of the border.Narco News published a major exposé in late April (called The House of Death) that revealed an informant for the U.S. government was implicated in a series of murders in Ciudad Juárez -- located just across the border from El Paso, Texas.
Web of deceit widens around House of Death
Posted on Thu Aug 19th, 2004 at 09:03:10 PM EST
In late April, Narco News published a major exposé (called “The House of Death”) about an informant for the U.S. government who was implicated in a series of murders in Juárez -- located just across the border from El Paso, Texas.
The informant’s handlers, agents with the El Paso office of the federal Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), were allegedly fully aware of the informant’s complicity in the murders, yet did nothing to stop the killing for fear of jeopardizing the cases they were trying to make with the informant’s help.
The recent story in the Dallas Morning News (ID required) reports the following concerning the ongoing investigation into the case involving that informant, who is known by the alias Lalo:The Dallas Morning News has come out with yet another story updating the investigation into the “House of Death” in Juárez, Mexico. The current story, like prior media stories on the case, reaffirms Narco News’ original reporting on the whole sordid affair.
House of Death plot continues to unfold
Posted on Thu Jul 29th, 2004 at 01:07:02 AM EST
“An unusual narcotics slaying in neighboring Juarez, Mexico, last summer has law-enforcement officials here and in Washington, D.C., asking serious questions about the role of government agencies in handling undercover informants.”
Narco News reported in-depth on this story in April. The story revealed that an informant for the U.S. government was implicated in a series of murders in Juárez, Mexico -- located just across the border from El Paso, Texas.
The informant’s handlers, agents with the El Paso office of the federal Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), were allegedly fully aware of the informant’s complicity in the murders, yet did nothing to stop the killing for fear of jeopardizing the cases they were trying to make with the informant’s help.
The recent Washington Times story also pulls the following out of the air:
“Some ‘bad blood’ between ICE and the DEA remains, sources told The Washington Times, because Contreras was once involved in an aborted attempt to kill two DEA agents in Juarez. Some DEA agents think ICE was aware of the scheme.”
Again, Narco News reported the whole sordid affair in April. Here’s a teaser:The Washington Times breathlessly reported the following from El Paso, Texas, earlier this week:
Posted on Fri Jun 4th, 2004 at 07:36:01 PM EST
The informant’s handlers, agents with the El Paso office of the federal Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), were allegedly fully aware of the informant’s complicity in the murders, yet did nothing to stop the killing for fear of jeopardizing the cases they were trying to make with the informant’s help.
In the wake of the Narco News story, there has been a major shakeup at the El Paso ICE office.In late April, Narco News published a story about an informant for the U.S. government who was implicated in a series of murders in Juárez, Mexico -- located just across the border from El Paso, Texas.
Special to The Narco News Bulletin
April 22, 2004
Several of his associates disappeared, too, vexing law enforcement agents who say their mysterious disappearance – and consequent unavailability as potential witnesses to multiple murders – could prove very convenient to U.S. prosecutors and a confidential informant under their protection.
U.S. law enforcement agents, coming forward on the condition of anonymity, believe that the comandante – the U.S. Attorney indicted him in Texas as part of an alleged drug-smuggling organization – was witness to up to nine murders committed by a confidential informant while that informant was on the payroll of the federal Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Those same law enforcement sources don’t know if Loya is dead or alive, but they fear he is probably dead: If he were alive, they say, the comandante’s testimony linking the informant to the murders could derail two high profile, priority, cases currently being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
But the commander was last seen in the Mexican city of Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas, and his assistants, are nowhere to be found.Mexican state police Commander Miguel Loya Gallegos disappeared in January.
The Paper Trail
Below is a list of Web links to Freedom of Information Act documents, administrative-proceedings records and court pleadings related to the House of Death case that have been obtained by Narco News.
SHOOTING THE MESSENGERGonzalez’ Feb. 24, 2004, letter to ICE and the U.S. Attorney’s Office
Unredacted version of Gonzalez’ Feb. 24, 2004, letter
Gonzalez’ Sept. 9, 2004, complaint to the U.S. Office of Special Counsel
The OSC’s responses to Gonzalez’ complaint
Gonzalez’ Feb. 15, 2005, complaint to the Merit Systems Protection Board
Gonzalez’ May 2, 2003, DEA performance appraisal record
Gonzalez’ Aug. 20, 2004, DEA performance appraisal record?
Gonzalez’ Aug. 27, 2004, request for a review of his DEA performance rating
THE COVER-UP
Aug. 6, 2003, ICE memorandum regarding informant
Aug. 25, 2003, ICE informant debriefing report
Aug. 15, 2003, Customs Attaché’s letter to the Mexican government
DEA Timeline of Events Surrounding Evacuation of Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, Resident Office
March 4-5, 2004, Redacted Department of Justice e-mails
March 5, 2004, Unredacted Version of Second Department of Justice e-mail (DEA Administrator Tandy)
July 7, 2005, Motion to Compel Discovery in U.S. Merit Systems Protection board case
July 7, 2005, U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board case pleadings
Excerpt of DEA Administrator Tandy’s deposition related to House of Death
Mexican government’s debriefing of the House of Death informant
LAWSUITS
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Broadcast pre-empted but show goes on -- online
Submitted on December 12th, 2005 by Bill ConroyHowever, the show is available on the Expert Witness Radio Web site in MP3 format for your listening enlightenment at this link.
The third show in the series is slated to air via radio and over the Internet next week at 5:00 pm Eastern.
Turn on, download, and drop into the House of Death.....