CHURCH, CRIME FIGHTERS EYE DEALERS' HOMES

CHIMAYO - The U.S. Attorney's Office seized houses, cars and even a race
horse after a bust of four local drug rings last year, calling them spoils
of the black-tar heroin trade that has claimed scores of lives in the
Espa Fola Valley.

Now a church and a neighborhood anti-crime group hope some of the seized
property can be donated to help local programs designed to get drug addicts
clean or provide job training for local youth.

Victory Outreach De Santa Fe - a local chapter of an international Christian
organization dedicated to helping drug addicts and alcoholics get sober -
wants to turn convicted drug dealer Josefa Gallegos' former home in Chimayo
into a rehabilitation center.

"The real heartbeat of the evil is right there in Chimayo," Pastor Bobby
Orozco said of the village's large concentration of drug addicts. "We had
always been looking at that area to start a rehab since we first came to
Santa Fe. There is such a need."

The Chimayo Youth Conservation Corps - an offshoot of the Chimayo Crime
Prevention Organization - wants to provide job training and life skills for
local youth from the Barela family compound, a cluster of houses at the end
of a rutted dirt road less than a half-mile south of Chimayo Elementary.

The 6.5-acre compound, which was seized after the bust, had offered " 'an
open air market' for heroin addicts within the Espa=F1ola Valley and was
open for business as soon as the front gate was unlocked in the morning,"
stated a federal indictment of 35-year-old Felix Barela, who it indicated
was the head of the ring, and a dozen other ring members.

"We feel it's a perfect opportunity to turn something bad into something
good," said Bruce Richardson, president of the crime prevention group. "We
need to give the tools these people haven't had to make their lives better."

But federal law, or department policy at the U.S. Attorney's Office, may not
allow donation of the properties, Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Kotz said.

"To date, we have not given forfeited property away to a nongovernmental
agency," he said. "Nobody has ever asked us to do that (before). It would
probably be good for the community, but I'm not sure if we're allowed to do
it."

Former drug dens

Heroin addicts looking for their next fix used to drive to Gallegos' home in
Chimayo, sometimes backing up traffic on N.M. 76. Neighbors said they found
used needles dumped behind her peach stucco house with bars covering the
windows. Gallegos, a 53-year-old mother of three, had posted a painted sign
in her yard that stated, "Please Slow Down. Gracias."

Before dawn on Sept. 29, 1999, federal agents broke open the front door of
Gallegos' home and stormed inside, pushing Gallegos and her 33-year-old son,
Tony Brian Gallegos, to the floor and handcuffing them.

"We were all asleep. We didn't hear the helicopter," Josefa Gallegos said in
an interview in September from the Santa Fe County jail. "(Officers) already
were inside when I woke up."

The Barela compound also was raided that day, along with several other
houses, in the bust of the four drug rings, some of which had ties to an
international black-tar heroin syndicate based in the Mexican state of
Nayarit.

Officers seized cash, guns, cars and the Gallegos and Barela properties.

In July, Gallegos received a six-year prison term and agreed to forfeit her
house as part of a plea deal on a felony conviction of maintaining a
residence for drug trafficking.

Victory Outreach de Santa Fe - which has a church and a yearlong
substance-abuse program with beds for 10 men in Santa Fe - now wants to turn
Gallegos' home into a way station where local drug addicts could be enrolled
and stay a few nights before being moved to the church's residential
treatment programs in Santa Fe or Albuquerque.

The church's yearlong treatment program is based solely on faith and does
not use medical detoxification or any replacement drug therapies such as
methadone, said Orozco, a heroin addict himself before he enrolled a decade
ago in a Victory Outreach program in Bakersfield, Calif.

"The guys come in and commit themselves to a year of staying within the
home=2E They learn how to read the Bible. They learn how to pray," the
46-year-old pastor said. "It can work for anybody, but the person has to be
desperate for change."

Not all local residents are convinced it would be a good idea to house drug
addicts in a former drug den, fearing more burglaries or other problems
could result if addicts relapse or leave the program.

"I don't think it would help," Chimayo resident Jerry Martinez said of
Victory Outreach's plan. "The rehabs should be far away from where it all
started."

Orozco said most addicts would be moved to Santa Fe or Albuquerque after a
few days to remove them from temptations to return to their old lives.

Since the beginning of 1995, more than 90 people have died of drug overdoses
in Rio Arriba County, according to state figures. The county leads New
Mexico in per-capita drug overdose deaths, while New Mexico leads the
nation.

Barela compound

The Barela family compound sits behind a large gate and is bordered by the
Rio Santa Cruz, which has been sullied by the rusting hulks of car bodies
dumped in the river.

Convicted of maintaining a residence for drug trafficking, Felix Barela was
sentenced in August to 61/2 years in prison, the stiffest sentence delivered
so far from plea deals for most of the 35 drug-bust defendants.

As part of his deal, Barela surrendered a .25-caliber semiautomatic handgun
and $423 in cash that was seized. He also agreed to submit an affidavit
stating that part of the family compound was purchased or improved with drug
money.

The U.S. Attorney's Office also seized a race horse named "Red Hot Mag," one
of at least 19 quarter horses owned by Barela. The horse won almost $42,000
in races between 1998 and 1999 and is worth about $25,000.

Before the bust, the Chimayo Crime Prevention Organization had compiled a
list of suspected drug-dealing locations and spurred law enforcement to take
on drug dealers. With hopes of keeping local kids away from drugs, the
organization now wants to house the Chimayo Youth Conservation Corps at the
Barela compound, Richardson said.

The corps, which will have members aged 16 to 24, hopes to break the
intergenerational cycle of drug abuse that has plagued many Chimayo families
by providing educational and vocational opportunities to at-risk youth,
Richardson said.

The compound borders U.S. Bureau of Land Management land and the Rio Santa
Cruz, so corps members could work on trail maintenance, forest conservation
and river restoration projects, Richardson said.

Alternatively, the compound could be used as a home for the Chimayo Boys and
Girls Club and as an outdoor classroom for Chimayo Elementary students.

=46orfeiture cases

The U.S. Attorney's Office does not yet have clear title to the Gallegos or
Barela properties, or the race horse, as the forfeiture cases wind their way
through U.S. District Court in Albuquerque.

=46ederal law allows forfeiture of assets if it can be proven the assets
were gained from drug-dealing profits. In court filings seeking the
forfeiture of Red Hot Mag, Kotz wrote that Barela's income primarily from
race-horse winnings and selling firewood from 1993-99 could not cover his
total expenses unless he had made more than $160,000 in illicit income
during that period.

Even if the forfeitures are finalized, the possibility of any property being
donated to the local projects does not look promising. Department policy at
the U.S. Attorney's Office requires that any forfeited proceeds go to a
governmental entity, Kotz said.

Seized vehicles are auctioned, and forfeited property is usually sold
through a real-estate broker, with proceeds almost always benefiting local,
state or federal law enforcement, Kotz said.

"It allows a state or local law-enforcement agency to have things they
otherwise could not afford," such as new equipment or more overtime, he
said.

In rare circumstances, forfeited property has been donated for local
programs, but those programs always have been run by a local governmental
entity, Kotz said.

In Las Cruces, the E&J Lounge, which was purchased with drug money, was
deeded to the city for use as a youth center. In Columbus, another bar
bought by drug traffickers has become a community library, Kotz said.

But Chimayo is unincorporated, with no local government that could supervise
the projects.

Richardson said he does not know of any area governments that deserve to
receive the seized properties. With the Rio Arriba and Santa Fe county line
cutting through the village, jurisdiction questions have posed problems in
fighting the drug trade, part of the reason for the federal drug bust.

Kotz said he will speak with U.S. Justice Department officials about any
ways the local programs can be helped. For now, it is a waiting game.

"At this time, I am not certain that we can do what is being asked of us,"
Kotz said.

=46orging ahead

While both Victory Outreach and the Chimayo Youth Conservation Corps want
the seized properties, officials with both programs say their efforts will
continue regardless.

Pastor Orozco said Victory Outreach plans to open a rehabilitation facility
in Chimayo even if the church has to buy some property.

The youth corps will use donated office space if it cannot obtain the Barela
compound, said Suellen Strale, the corps' executive director.

The corps has received a $24,000 grant for start-up work from the McCune
Charitable Foundation and hopes to begin work with an initial group of about
10 youths in March, said Strale, who expects the program to expand rapidly.