Blowing the Whistle on the House of Death

DEA dissenter Sandy Gonzalez reveals the drug war's complicity in torture and murder south of the border.

Radley Balko from the May 2009 issue

(Page 3 of 6)

Gonzalez: Even after the threats, ICE didn’t drop him right away. When we heard of the threat against federal agents, we asked to make Lalo available to the Mexican authorities so that they could gather probable cause to go search the house. ICE and the U.S. Attorney’s Office still refused. They would not allow him to talk to any Mexican investigators because they didn’t want to blow his status as an informant. We lost a couple of valuable days there. Eventually the Mexican authorities accepted the declaration from ICE agents that had talked to Lalo, and they used that as probable cause to go dig up the bodies.

I think it took two weeks—maybe longer—for ICE and the U.S. Attorney’s Office to acquiesce. They were working together to obstruct the whole thing. Eventually they allowed a Mexican prosecutor to come up to Dallas to interview Lalo. The Mexican government had asked for a DEA agent to be present in that interview. ICE and the U.S. Attorney’s Office refused.

Eventually ICE was forced to make Lalo available to DEA, and when that happened, they put a caveat on the interview. They said that DEA could only ask him questions about what happened on January 14 and afterwards but not before. In other words, they could only ask him about the threats to federal agents—nothing about the murders he committed while working for ICE. I suspect that’s because they didn’t want the questions asked that would have revealed that U.S. agents knew about the murders before they took place.

reason: If ICE had handled the situation properly after they learned of the first murder, do you believe the subsequent murders could have been prevented?

Gonzalez: Oh, absolutely. I mean, after the first murder, they had all the evidence they needed. At the time that first murder took place, we already had a prosecutable drug case against Santillan. And then we had the murder on top of that.

reason: After all this, the main target of the investigation, Santillan, was only charged with drug trafficking. He pled guilty and received a 25-year sentence. U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton dropped five murder charges against him—all related to murders committed at the House of Death. Do you think Sutton was afraid of what would come out in a trial where Lalo and Santillan were called to testify?

Gonzalez: There’s no question about that. No way they could afford to put Lalo on the stand and have him testify to all of this.

Remember, we had a prosecutable case, a drug case, on Santillan when the first murder took place. That’s the case that he pled guilty on. The murders had to be dismissed because the government’s star witness and informant, Lalo, would have had to testify that he took part in them. At that point, any defense attorney worth his salt would have gotten out of Lalo that he was reporting these murders to federal agents before they happened.

reason: The DEA administrator at the time, Karen Tandy, admitted in a deposition read into the record at your trial that she gave you the only poor performance review of your career because of your letter calling for an investigation into the murders. So you were punished. Have any of the ICE officers who handled the Lalo case been held accountable—criminally, professionally, or otherwise?

Gonzalez: I doubt it very much. I would have heard about it. See, they have never acknowledged anything. I’ve learned that this is the sure sign that the government is hiding something. It’s when they have no comment, when they won’t acknowledge that there’s even an issue. Johnny Sutton refuses to talk about it. When The Washington Times did their story, he wouldn’t talk about it. And no one is holding his feet to the fire. Not the Justice Department’s inspector general, not the Office of Special Counsel, not Congress. No one talks about it, so it goes away. If the executive branch doesn’t investigate, that’s the end of it, unless Congress steps in. (Note: Since this interview, ICE agent Raul Bencomo has been fired, in part due to his handling of Lalo.)

reason: Have you had any indication that Congress might step in? Have you talked to anyone on Capitol Hill?

Gonzalez: Back in 2005 I went and briefed the senior staff of two senators.

reason: Which ones?

Gonzalez: [Sen. Charles] Grassley [R-Iowa] and [Sen. Patrick] Leahy [D-Vt.]. I think what happened is one of the members of Leahy’s staff was a Justice Department officer who was on loan on a detail to the senator’s staff. I think she knew Johnny Sutton. She worked out of the Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys. She knew Sutton personally, and throughout the whole interview she was antagonistic.

reason: You eventually won a lawsuit and a settlement from the federal government. Explain the basis for your suit.

Comments

Divorce Lawyer|4.27.09 @ 12:49PM|#

Gonzalez called for an internal investigation, and was shortly thereafter transferred to El Paso, a move he describes as a demotion in retaliation for speaking out.

I can assure you that a transfer from Miami to El Paso is a demotion. A major demotion. Welcome to your new home.

Paul|4.27.09 @ 1:44PM|#

I think it was a combination of those two things. They were also using him in some huge cigarette smuggling case.

I uhh... never mind.

|4.27.09 @ 2:20PM|#

I have no interest in, or sympathy for, this gung-ho drug warrior of three decades. He's just the flip side of the Casa de la Muerte. Fuck him.

Paul|4.27.09 @ 2:37PM|#

I think what Widow White says has some merit to it. The first thing I thought while reading this article wasn't that Gonzales has a problem with the drug war, he's just got a problem with drug war procedure.

Randall|4.27.09 @ 2:38PM|#

"he's just got a problem with drug war procedure."

I thought that too.

Justen|4.27.09 @ 2:57PM|#

The big question is how many times has this happened without a whistleblower? It's clear that several agents were involved in this one situation and of them only Gonzalez had the slightest shred of integrity and humanity needed to find this outrageous. That puts the rest of them at the level of, I don't know, psychopathic zealots with sadistic streaks. It seems to be the norm for the DEA, doesn't it?

Bluto|4.27.09 @ 3:08PM|#

"Part and participle."

Sense and sensibility.

This is fun!

BTW Anne Hathaway was one hot Jane Austin.

Bluto|4.27.09 @ 3:09PM|#

Fuck! Cross-posted.

wayne|4.27.09 @ 3:14PM|#

Drug warrior spin: "Having the DEA engaged in a conspiracy with drug cartels and murdering people is a sign that the war on drugs is working."

|4.27.09 @ 3:29PM|#

Reading this I get the image of a bunch of government lawyers doing some killer blow on South Beach and then maybe only 9.7 kilos makes it way to a clandestine DEA op.

Atheist in Hell|4.27.09 @ 3:48PM|#

See, and this is why I wish I could be ignorant like the rest of this country.

johnl|4.27.09 @ 3:58PM|#

When was Raul Bencomo fired?

|4.27.09 @ 11:47PM|#

narconews.com http://www.google.com/custom?q=HOUSE+OF+DEATH&sa=Go&cof=+T%3Awhite%3BL%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fnarconews.com%2Fgfx%2Fnewlogo1_sm.gif%3BGFNT%3Agrey%3BLC%3Ayellow%3BBGC%3Ablack%3BAH%3Acenter%3BGL%3A2%3BS%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fnarconews.com%3BGALT%3Ared%3BAWFID%3Aabcde338c7ad74f8%3B&domains=narconews.com&sitesearch=narconews.com&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8 THIS STORY HAS BEEN OUT FOR YEARS