ICE Informant Linked To Juarez ‘House of Death’ Freed
A former Mexican law enforcement officer who became a drug informant for the United States has been freed from a federal detention center in New York.
Guillermo Ramirez Peyro, also known as “Lalo,” won a legal victory last month when a Justice Department immigration board ruled against efforts to deport him to Mexico. The board said he would be tortured and possibly killed.
Ramirez Peyro was being held outside Buffalo in Batavia. His attorney, Steve Cohen, says he was put on a plane Thursday night over his objections. He lawyer wanted Ramirez Peyro to remain in New York while he tries to get a green card.
Court testimony revealed Guillermo Ramirez Peyro’s real name was Jesus Contreras. Agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement called him SA-913.
According to federal investigators, Border Patrol agents at a Las Cruces checkpoint arrested Contreras with more than 100 pounds of pot in June of 2003. He was released a few days later when his case was dismissed in a magistrate court. At the time, law enforcement officials in Las Cruces told ABC-7 federal agents were supposed to have filed charges against Contreras for the marijuana possession.
When Contreras was freed from the Dona Ana County Detention Center, he began to work as an informant for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under the name of Ramirez Peyro. He infiltrated the Juarez Drug Cartel and befriended a top lieutenant in the organization known as Heriberto Santillan-Tabares. Federal officials said his work as an informant infiltrating the violent Juarez drug cartel for ICE led to the arrest of 60 “violent” people.
Ramirez’s career as an informant ended in January of 2004 after the discovery of a mass grave outside a middle-class Juarez home that became known as the “House of Death.”
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said Ramirez had supervised the murder of a Juarez cartel associate and participated in a series of other murders.
Ramirez denies killing anyone but acknowledges being present during killings to maintain his cover. His attorney said that he tried to prevent deaths by informing U.S. authorities when they were to occur but that the U.S. failed to intervene. “There’s very disturbing inaction on their part,” said Cohen, who became involved in the case a month ago.
One of the bodies discovered in the home was that of Luis Enrique Padilla, an American citizen who lived in Socorro, Texas. The family of Padilla later sued the U.S. government claiming that Contreras was under their payroll when he allegedly participated in the Juarez murders.
According to court documents, Ramirez Peyro’s made sworn statements admitting to participating in several killings. This included a murder that took place while U.S. Federal agents listened over a cell phone.
Ramirez Peyro’s statements also described how police officers in Juarez allegedly wrapped duct tape around a man’s head and then choked him with an extension cord. When the cord tore, a plastic bag was placed over the victim’s head. Contreras was forced to restrain the man when he began to kick his legs.
One of Ramirez Peyro’s duties, according to federal investigators, was to prepare the house in Juarez where members of the Juarez cartel would interrogate, torture and kill people. He would spread plastic sheets across the floor and assist in the torture and disposal of the bodies, according to federal investigators.
Soon after the bodies were found in the backyard of the Juarez home, Ramirez Peyro’s friend and alleged cartel associate, Santillan-Tabares, was arrested during a traffic stop in El Paso. Santillan-Tabares was later charged with drug trafficking and with the murders at the Juarez home.
After the arrest, Ramirez Peyro was placed under the witness protection program and moved out of town. He applied for asylum in the U.S. because he claimed that he would be killed by the Juarez Drug Cartel if he was to be extradited back to Mexico.
He reportedly returned to El Paso to set up a drug deal and recruited Abraham Guzman, a former friend, to assist him in the deal, according to sources.
Guzman was sent to collect the money for the deal at a local Whataburger but was instead gunned down in the restaurant’s parking lot. Investigators with the El Paso Police department said the shooting was related to drug trafficking and that Ramirez Peyro was present at the scene.
To this date, no arrests have been made in connection to Guzman’s death. After the incident, federal agents took Contreras into custody and imprisoned him at a county jail in Minnesota. While in custody, Ramirez Peyro filed for political asylum and was later transferred to the federal facility in New York.
Eventually, a federal immigration board granted Contreras asylum stating in its decision that he should not be returned to Mexico because he would be tortured “either directly by government agents or indirectly by government agents turning him over to the cartel.”
ICE has since overhauled its guidelines for handling confidential informants. The decision not to extradite Ramirez Peyro could be overturned if officials in the U.S. determine future conditions in Mexico are safe for his extradition.