The UR-Busted Files Drug Busters |
and northern New Mexico, USA |
Updated 2002
Operation Overdose
March 2000
Chimayo, New Mexico USA
By Sherwood C. Ensey
On September 29, 1999, a massive drug raid was conducted by several combined Federal law enforcement agencies and the New Mexico State Police, in the Chimayo valley and other parts of northern New Mexico. Absent from this particular raid were local city, Rio Arriba, and Santa Fe County law enforcement officials, who in the past have botched up literally every drug raid that they have conducted in Chimayo and northern New Mexico. Thirty two individuals were arrested in the pre-dawn raid, dubbed "Operation Overdose," by the DEA. Most of the individuals arrested remain locked behind bars, but it is now doubtful that those arrested will remain locked up very much longer.
So far two of those arrested have been found mentally incompetent to stand trial. It is very unlikely that these individuals will spend any more time behind bars for there part in the drug operations.
It also appears that the Fed's have so little usable testimony and worthwhile evidence against many of the others arrested, that most of those arrested will escape with no more than a one or two year sentence, which for many of those arrested will probably mean a sentence of time they have already served.
Operation Overdose appears to have been no more than a quick sell political band-aid to appease the concerns of the people in Chimayo and northern New Mexico. The Fed's apparently thought that the scanty and tainted evidence from the DA's files that they had obtained, and the voices of still drugged up and unreliable snitches would be enough to get a conviction. What the Fed's ended up getting, is a situation and a problem that they are only now realizing, is both tainted and fixed in favor of the drug dealers.
Getting and gathering new evidence to continue the hard drug investigation in Chimayo and northern New Mexico, from this point forward for the Fed's, is going to be an uphill battle that is very likely to cost much more than it would have if the investigation had been done thoroughly and correctly the first time around. Now that the local drug lords, like Jose Martinez and Jesse Martinez, and their defense attorneys know that they can manipulate the Fed's and make fools out of them at every legal corner of the investigation, then the battle to get the drug lords is only going to be that much tougher. The element of surprise for the Fed's is gone, and as a result the drug lords are just that much wiser. The real losers in all of this, is the good people of Chimayo and northern New Mexico.
The drugs are starting to flow freely once again, but thanks to the New Mexico State Police [NMSP] in the area, not as freely as they have flowed in the past. The NMSP in District 7, and throughout the State, continue to do more to help the people clean up the crime, cocaine, and heroin, than all of the other agencies combined, but that may come to an end very soon if the New Mexico State Legislature has there way with the new State Budget. But after all, it is in the best interests of the State Legislator's to watch out for the cash cow keeping the Legislator's, their associates, and friends, in wealth and opulence.
That is the way of those in power in a Federalist Run State;one smaller class take's the majority of the wealth and makes the rules, while the larger class get's whatever is left over after the first class takes their fill and fixes the rules so that the larger class will have to follow the purpose of the one smaller class which has the majority of the power and wealth! Federalism is the greatest con-job ever perpetrated, conceived, and carried out on the masses of people. Note: Please read the FREE book, FEDCON: Death of the American Republic, at http://www.oocities.org/ensey_in_2000/ecne1.html, for the full story on what Federalism [the US Federal Government] really is, and that a Federal Government [what the US Government currently is] is not a "true" Republic as established and constituted by the United States Constitution.
Hopefully the New Mexico State Legislature will reconsider the budget for the New Mexico State Police, and give the NMSP a larger budget that will better keep pace with the increasing criminal activity that is a part of the illegal drug trade in New Mexico. What we are talking about is protecting and preserving the General Welfare of the people, and it is the General Welfare of the people that should be budgeted to first and above all else. That is one of the primary purposes of a legitimate form of government.
I don't know who or what Operation Overdose has protected best so far. With many of the primary drug dealers escaping any sort of severe punishment for their crimes, and one of the drug lords getting "government rubber stamped" for Social Security Disability Benefits, it looks as if the criminals interests have been protected far better than the interests of the good people in Chimayo and northern New Mexico.
If we are not going to have a government, a judicial, and legal system that stands firmly behind it's so called commitment to the War on Drugs, then we as a Nation and a people, need to rethink our ideas on the good that this War on Drugs is doing. From the current perspective that I and many others have in Chimayo and northern New Mexico, the War on Drugs in our area, in the way of Operation Overdose, is a failure that has only made the drug dealers more resolute in their position, and the people more insecure in their position.
The pitiful results of Operation Overdose is sending the wrong message to the drug lords and their dealers in Chimayo and northern New Mexico. Other than the Fed's all but shutting down the Barela Family drug operation and basically taking everything that the Barela family members owned, the Fed's have still have not sent a strong enough message to the drug lords and drug dealers about using Chimayo and northern New Mexico as a base of operations. The only message that the area drug lords and their dealers are getting, is that they need to tighten up on their security to better protect themselves. That very wrong message has all sorts of dangerous implications for the individuals and groups who have been fighting to clean up the area. That message also means more prolonged misery for the people and the communities, which these drug lords and their dealers continue to cause pain and suffering on. No, Operation Overdose sent the very wrong message to the area's drug lords and their dealers.
2002 - Drug raids continue in northern New Mexico, but the drug dealers continue to be one step ahead of Law Enforcement most of the time. Why? Because of the extreme political and police corruption in New Mexico. Until that corruption is put to a halt, then drug dealers and the Mexican Mafia will continue to have a free reign in New Mexico, and wherever they are operating.