"House of Death" Update

A few weeks ago, I posted about Guillermo Ramirez Peyro's appeal of his pending deportation before a panel of judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. Peyro (also known as "Lalo") is the central figure in the "House of Death" scandal, in which U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are accused of allowing Peyro and members of the Juarez drug cartel to commit as many as a dozen murders because preventing the murders would have disrupted their drug investigation. Peyro is the only non-government witness who knows exactly what happened in that case. If the longtime federal drug informant is deported to Mexico, he'll almost certainly be killed, rendering moot any possible future investigation of the case here in the U.S.

The bad news is that at the hearing, the Obama administration continued with the Bush administration's efforts to deport Peyro. The good news is, the panel of judges appeared to be fairly skeptical of the government's position.

Narcosphere's Bill Conroy has the transcript of the oral arguments.

You can read my interview with Sandy Gonzalez, the DEA agent who blew the whistle on the House of Death case, here.