FBI tracking rise of violence in Juarez
Juarez shed its reputation for being the murder capital of the world, but the city is back on the list of the most dangerous cities.
The Mexican Citizens’ Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice reported 607 murders in Juarez during 2016 . The independent organization placed Juarez on the list of the most dangerous cities in the world.
The city ranked number 37 out of 50.
The uptick in violence is something the FBI is tracking.
Special Agent in Charge, Douglas Lindquist, of the El Paso’s El Paso Division has been promoted and will be moving to another FBI location. But he spent 3 1/2 years in the Sun City, long enough to know when there is trouble brewing across the border. One man ABC-7 interviewed in Juarez said the rise in violence can be seen in the news and his family is going out less. “We are always concerned about that. Will that have an impact on us? Will that spill over? Will people who are perpertraing that violence cross the border and come into El Paso and then pick up where they left off,” Lindquist said. While the extradition of “El Chapo” to U.S. soil and the sentencing of cartel leader Alfredo Beltran Levay to life in prison are huge wins for the FBI, Lindquist said there is more work to be done. “Barrios (Barrio) Aztecas is an international gang and they cross the border. They are there in Juarez and they are in El Paso. So we want to watch that all the time,” Lindquist said. The Chihuahua State Attorney General’s Office doesn’t agree with Juarez once again being placed on the most dangerous cities list. The state prosecutor’s office claims there were 468 – not 607 — murders during 2016. There is no doubt 2017 is off to a violent start for the city. “We do feel it is related to cartel activity, and the question is: Is it someone new moving into the territory? Is it someone who is coming in and trying to assert their authority over another agency? We don’t know and that’s what we are trying to look at,” Lindquist said.
The Director of the FBI has selected Emmerson Buie, Jr. as the next Special Agent in Charge of the El Paso Division.
SAC Buie, a Chicago native, joined the FBI in 1992 after serving in the US Army. He was assigned to the Denver Division, Colorado Springs Resident Agency. In 1999, he was promoted to SSA in the Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate at FBI headquarters.
From 2002-2006, he served as the Supervisory Special Resident Agent of the Fairview Heights Resident Agency of the Springfield Division. From 2006-2008, Mr. Buie served as an Assistant Legal Attache in London. In 2008, he was selected to be the Criminal and Administrative ASAC in the Springfield Division. In 2014, Mr. Buie was selected as a Section Chief in the Cyber Division. There will also be an interim SAC; Scott Brunner. Mr. Brunner is currently a Section Chief at FBI HQ
