D.W. Payne Resources

Payne, D.W. (1997, July 27). The drug lords of maverick county: Under siege by drug runners coming across the river, the ranchers of eagle pass, texas, are selling their land and getting out. Guess who’s buying? The New York Times Magazine, pp. 30-33.

OVERVIEW

Sonny Wipff, 57, has lived on his ranch all his life. His grandfather settled the property in 1882. When Sonny used to see foot prints in the sand along the banks of the Rio Grande his property fronts, he would assume they were from groups of illegal immigrants escaping poverty; now there are bicycle tracks:

The bicycles are something new...trail bikes and 10-speeds...leading from the river toward the paved roads that branch out from the border town of Eagle Pass...he suspects they are evidence of bikes modified to carry 100-pounds of marijuana, which are transferred to vans and trucks for the three-hour run up to San Antonio and the US drug markets beyond...The network of highways on both sides of the border here, connected by an international bridge that joins Eagle Pass, and its sister city, Piedras Negras, makes the area the ideal corridor for smuggling.

In two-week’s time Wipff has had a house in which his 92-year-old uncle was sleeping ransacked... and a gun and ammunition stolen from the trailer where he and his wife live. He says Bud Natus just down the river has had it worse. Another rancher looked across the river through his binoculars to see what was going on with several vans and saw a man aiming a rifle with telescopic site back at him. When asked about this the rancher said:

The feeling here is that it’s just about hopeless on this river. It’s getting worse every day, and nothing’s being done about it.

Border Patrol seems engaged in a losing battle. Some ranchers feel they are just burned out. It was in 1996 that the drug dealers began firing at Border Patrol and 33-year-old agent, Jefferson Barr was shot dead.

In April (1997) the windshield of a Border patrol vehicle was shattered by a rifle shot. A few weeks before, agents were fired on from a small island in the river. When the agents pulled back, the traffickers pursued them across the river to the American side and fired again.

Ray Richard, a 22-year veteran with Border Patrol, says:

They’re just outright attacking now. They know we only have handguns. They must be laughing at us over there.

The Border Patrol says it must use its resources to intercept sizable transfers at the highways, but "where does that leave us?" asks the ranchers. "Sooner or later they’re going to get the idea they can just roll through here in armed convoys." Being bilingual they also talk to Mexican ranchers on the other side of the river. One Mexican rancher was willing to talk to the writer of this article on the promise of anonymity.

He says that one of his properties is often occupied by heavily armed traffickers who escort him off it at gunpoint when drug shipments are under way. Near another of his spreads he sees twin-engined planes unloading drugs on public roads blocked off by units of the Mexican Judicial Police, Mexico’s equivalent of the FBI. ‘Our police run the show,’ and adds that Mexican cowboys sing about the drug planes in corridos, the Mexican folk ballads you hear in cafes and on street corners.

There is also growing worry about corruption on the U.S. side:

• In 1996, a Maverick County sheriff’s deputy was convicted on conspiracy charges of using his squad car while on duty to transport a load of marijuana.
• Another deputy and two country officials were also indicted for reselling drugs seized from traffickers (though charges were dropped because of compromised testimony of a key witness).

With fences being flattened, robberies being endured, bike and even small truck traffic going through their property, being shot at and threatened, and without adequate police protection—it is understandable that some ranchers of Eagle Pass are putting their property up for sale. And it is drug traffickers themselves who are buying some of these properties.

An Eagle Pass propane businessman, Doug Fletcher, knows the ranchers well.

(The drug trafficking) has just torn their world up. This is about a failure of Government on both sides. Mexico’s worst enemy is its own Government, and ours seems completely at a loss...The demand (for drugs) that’s the biggest thing. Maybe the U.S. itself should be decertified (an unpopular action whereby the U.S. government declares Latin American countries failures in the war against drugs.)

The Mayor of Eagle Pass, Rogelio Flores owns a used-auto-parts business. He is a "strapping man in his early 40s, wearing well-cut jeans and a spotless cowboy hat." He is not willing to admit any crisis:

I deny that the drug problem is at a level that many people say...(I want to) accentuate the positive about Maverick County...I’m trying to market this city, and all this negative publicity doesn’t help.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

1. How well do you think the war against drugs is going? What is your analysis of the problem?
2. What would you advise these ranchers to do? What would you like to see the Border Patrol doing?
3. How do you see the problem facing poverty stricken Mexicans living just south of a country as rich and with as much opportunity as the U.S.? What can a poor man be expected to do for his family and children?
4. What is the best way to fight drugs: attacking it as its source, trying to control its routes of entry and distribution, bringing down the drug lords, convicting local users and drug dealers, or trying to dry up a country’s hunger for drugs by way of effective prevention?

IMPLICATIONS

1. The U.S. consumes more illegal drugs than any other country.
2. Much of this consumption takes place among young people.
3. Drug production and distribution is one of the most lucrative businesses in many places of the world. Huge profits all along its journey from production to consumption provide opportunities for corruption. Despite all the cost in funds and lives, the war against drugs does not seem to be any closer a conclusion now than when it was begun.
4. Along with fighting illegal drugs, we must diminish the demand. The public has demanded punishment for drug dealing so that criminal justice and prison costs (of carrying out these sentences) is skyrocketing. Prevention is not nearly as costly, but taxpayers and many politicians do not see such programs as such a critical need.