Thursday, March 01, 2007

"Man shot by agents stashed drugs after he got immunity"

From the Washington Times:
A Mexican national who was shot by U.S. Border Patrol agents after abandoning 743 pounds of marijuana on the Texas border brought a second drug load into the United States while waiting to testify under a grant of immunity against the now-imprisoned agents, according to unreleased federal documents.

U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) documents, which remain under seal, show that Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila was the focus of a drug investigation into his reported stashing of 750 pounds of marijuana in a van at a house in Clint, Texas, in November 2005 -- nine months after he was shot in the buttocks near Fabens, Texas, while running from Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean.
...
The authorities also said the reports show that the homeowner's brother, Jose Ortiz, told agents that Aldrete-Davila had brought the marijuana into the country from Juarez, Mexico, and identified him as "the person who was shot by Border Patrol agents."

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, California Republican, said the DEA reports show that prosecutors misled the public about their "star witness" in the transport of a second load of drugs, adding that U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton knowingly presented a false picture of the drug smuggler "to justify his ruthless prosecution."

He said that under Mr. Sutton's direction, prosecutors characterized the smuggler as an innocent victim, "which is clearly not the case," and when Mr. Sutton's office was told by the DEA of Aldrete-Davila's involvement in a second offense, "chose to disregard the information."

"Sutton's continuous attempts to paint a benign picture of the drug smuggler is not only disingenuous, but amounts to misleading the jury and the public when questioned about the second offense," he said. "Only an unscrupulous lawyer would believe this is an acceptable tactic."

Lemme guess: Osbaldo was just doing the jobs that Americans won't do, right?

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