CARTEL FIGURE LASHES OUT

Ex-Informant Held by U.S. Says Drug Corruption Is Rampant

A former informant whose participation in drug-related murders in
Mexico caused turmoil in the U.S. agency that paid him says that
there were more killings than reported and that drug corruption
extends into the U.S. and Mexican governments.

In sworn testimony and in response to questions submitted through his
attorney, Guillermo Eduardo Ramirez Peyro, the man known as "Lalo,"
provided new details about his work as a drug cartel operative and as
a U.S. government informant, and he claimed to have personal
knowledge of extensive government corruption.

Mr. Ramirez also lashed out at his former U.S. employers, saying they
are turning their backs on him after he helped them apprehend dozens
of drug traffickers.

"With the names I provided they were able to arrest more than 50
people, and they took millions of dollars from drug proceeds from
U.S. streets," he said. "In spite of that, I'm jailed here without
any protection and without any guarantee that I will stay in the
United States."

Mr. Ramirez, 35, is being held by the U.S. government at an
undisclosed location in the Midwest, fighting deportation to Mexico,
where he insists he faces "certain death."

U.S. authorities characterize him as a renegade informant whose
independent actions led, in part, to the August 2004 killing of an El
Paso man, Abraham Guzman, outside a hamburger restaurant in that border city.

Mr. Ramirez made his remarks in a written response to questions
submitted through his attorney, Jodi Goodwin. He had agreed to speak
with reporters from The Dallas Morning News, which first reported
about his role in the cartel killings in March 2004; the Mexico city
weekly magazine Proceso; the London Observer; and Narco News, an
Internet blog, but prison officials transferred him hours before the
scheduled interview.

He apparently was moved at the request of Immigration and Customs
Enforcement, the agency he served as an informant for four years, Ms.
Goodwin said.

Implicating Officers

Mr. Ramirez, in confidential memos to ICE, had described how he
infiltrated Mexico's powerful Juarez drug cartel and on two occasions
witnessed cartel-ordered assassinations and supervised disposal of
the victims, including a U.S. citizen. The bodies were found in
January 2004 buried in the yard of a Juarez home.

In his latest comments, Mr. Ramirez said the killings usually were
carried out by night-shift Mexican police officers working for the
cartel and using the nickname "La Linea," or The Line.

"Not all the victims were assassinated at the same house," Mr.
Ramirez said. "Some were left on the streets.They would kill people
all the time, people who were not buried in [the same house], but in
other homes too." He said there were "many more" killings but did not
elaborate.

Mr. Ramirez insists he played no direct role in any killing, but
critics of his role with ICE have said he was not just a spectator,
as agency officials have said.

Reports in The News about his role in the cartel killings rocked the
El Paso office of ICE, where four special agents were investigated
and two supervisors were transferred. ICE is part of the Department
of Homeland Security.

"The U.S. government is afraid of Lalo's mouth," said Ms. Goodwin,
"afraid that Lalo will tell the whole story, which will say that
every step he took, every move he made, was with the full knowledge
of his ICE handlers."

Mr. Ramirez says he would like to be placed in a witness protection
program or sent to Europe.

On Aug. 5, 2005, a U.S. immigration judge granted his petition to
stay, agreeing that he would face danger in Mexico. The U.S.
government, which initially concurred, appealed that decision and now
wants him deported.An appeals court overturned the judge's ruling,
and Ms. Goodwin is now appealing that decision.

"Am I angry at the U.S. government?" Mr. Ramirez wrote. "No. I'm sad,
hurt that after everything I did for ICE they now want to deport me
back to Mexico to face a certain death."

ICE officials had no comment. Spokeswoman Leticia Zamarripa said The
News' request for comment "was going through the normal review
process" and no immediate response was available.

The agency's relationship with Mr. Ramirez was part of an ambitious
undercover investigation aimed at snaring Vicente Carrillo Fuentes,
then reputedly Latin America's most powerful drug lord.

Misconduct Allegations

Critics of the operation have asked whether ICE agents could have
prevented some of the killings across the border, and exactly what
and when the U.S. attorney's office knew about the killings.

Questions have been raised specifically about the roles of Johnny
Sutton, the U.S. attorney in San Antonio, and Juanita Fielden,
assistant U.S. attorney in El Paso.

Sandalio Gonzalez, former Drug Enforcement Administration agent in
charge in El Paso, says Mr. Sutton ignored allegations of misconduct
by ICE and Ms. Fielden that Mr. Gonzalez outlined in a lengthy memo
to the U.S. attorney's office and the ICE chief in El Paso. He says
Mr. Sutton instead used his office to retaliate against Mr. Gonzalez,
who later retired.

"They were not interested in investigating the allegations in my
letter; they were more interested in jamming me for writing the
letter," Mr. Gonzalez said.

Mr. Gonzalez made his allegations against Mr. Sutton and Ms. Fielden
through the Merit System Protection Board in 2004. The News obtained
the document containing his allegation through a Freedom of
Information Act request.

Calls to Mr. Sutton's office in San Antonio were not returned.Ms.
Fielden's office referred questions to Mr. Sutton.

Two years ago, ICE ordered an internal investigation to restore
confidence in the El Paso office. Its findings remain confidential,
but top supervisors Patricia Kramer and Giovanni Gaudioso were
transferred to Washington. Two other agents were temporarily
suspended, and Mr. Ramirez's main handler, Raul Bencomo, remains on
administrative leave.

According to court affidavits, the agents said they were not told of
the killings beforehand.

"What's clear is, Lalo will haunt us for a long, long time," said an
ICE official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Right-Hand Man

Guillermo Eduardo Ramirez Peyro is a native of Mexico City and a
former highway police officer in the southern state of Guerrero. In
the late 1990s, he turned to the drug trade, developing schemes to
help smuggle cocaine into the United States. In 2000, he started
working as a U.S.-paid drug informant. He says that he earned
$224,650 over a four-year period and that ICE still owes him $200,000
for various cases.

For an agency eager to bring down Mr. Carrillo Fuentes, Lalo was a
major find. He was the right-hand man of Heriberto Santillan Tabares,
considered a top operative in the Juarez cartel.

Among the scores of traffickers he helped bust was Mr. Santillan, who
was sentenced to 25 years in prison in a plea bargain with U.S.
prosecutors. In the deal, murder charges against Mr. Santillan were dropped.

Mr. Ramirez said he played the role of drug trafficker to help the
U.S. government dismantle the cartel. He said he was in constant
contact with his American overseers, talking to them three or four
times a day. He said he occasionally briefed other U.S. agencies,
including the FBI, the DEA and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,
Firearms and Explosives.

El Paso FBI spokeswoman Andrea Simmons said, "We don't confirm or
deny whether we talk with certain people or whether we had any
briefings with those people." ATF did not return calls seeking comment.

Mr. Gonzalez said DEA agents met with the informant for briefings but
were not told of his role in the killings.

Mr. Ramirez also alleged, in the responses through his lawyer, that
some U.S. Customs inspectors and some members of the DEA had links to
the drug cartel.

He said he turned over to his minders recordings of conversations in
which Mr. Santillan talked about connections between the cartel and
the "three letter" agency - which he took as a reference to the DEA -
and the fact that "Vicente Carrillo Fuentes had absolutely no worries
about the DEA."

David Monnette, DEA spokesman in El Paso, said: "We hold our
workforce to the highest ethical standard, and we regard the ethical
performance of duty as our first priority. We take very seriously any
allegation of misconduct, abuse of position, or criminal action, and
we continue to ensure the fair and impartial administration of
justice and uphold the integrity and reputation of our outstanding workforce."

Mr. Sandalio, the former El Paso DEA chief, said: "That's entirely
possible that the cartel had a hook in DEA. I'm not going to sit here
and tell you there is no corruption in our government. Obviously there is."

'They Knew Everything'

Regarding the Abraham Guzman case, Mr. Ramirez denied that he engaged
in any freelancing that would have resulted in that slaying.He said
that while he was in protective custody in San Antonio, his
supervisor, Mr. Bencomo, implied that he should return to the border
to help on a case involving a corrupt customs inspector.He said he
was told the agency needed him to collect $25,000 owed to the
inspector. Mr. Ramirez said he instead sent Mr. Guzman, who was shot to death.

"They knew everything," he said. "For them to say I acted on my own is false."

Mr. Bencomo's attorney, Mary Stillinger, rejected that version of
events. "That is absolutely not true," she said. "Agent Bencomo had
no idea he [Lalo] was coming to El Paso. He was specifically told not
to do that."

In his written responses, Mr. Ramirez also rejected assertions Ms.
Fielden made in an affidavit that it was only in late January 2004
that she knew the extent of the informant's role in slayings in
Juarez. And he said that far from telling him to stop participating
in such criminal activity, his ICE handlers had only one request:
that he not tape any future killings.He said he had used hidden
microphones to record cartel activities.

The former U.S. informant also impugned authorities in Mexico, saying
he worked with corrupt local, state and federal officials, as well as
members of the military.

"The Mexican government, the police, the military," he said. "They
are the cartel."

In a sworn statement dated Aug. 11 and filed in federal court in
Bloomington, Minn., Mr. Ramirez said he was told that the office of
the Mexican president had an arrangement with a cartel. He said that
Mr. Santillan "explained to me that President [Vicente] Fox took the
position to arrange, consult with, the cartel from Juarez. ... He was
going to attack the enemy cartels, being from Tijuana and from the
Gulf, and then the cartel from Juarez would be operating ... without
the government being ... on top of them."

Mr.Ramirez said he personally made arrangements with Colombian drug
traffickers to transport drugs with the help of the Mexican navy and
federal agents.

The Mexican government flatly denied the allegations.

"Obviously there is no substance to what this man is saying," said
Ricardo Cabrera, assistant to the government's top organized crime
investigator, Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos. "We have been lauded by
the U.S. government for our continuous fight against all drug
cartels. This person is saying these things, making allegations of
corruption, to save his case and fight deportation to Mexico."

Attorney: ICE Prevented Interview

The former U.S. drug informant who is the subject of this report was
moved to an undisclosed location shortly before he was to be
interviewed by a group of U.S., Mexican and British reporters.

Jodi Goodwin, the attorney for the former informant, Guillermo
Eduardo Ramirez Peyro, said he was moved because Immigration and
Customs Enforcement, the U.S. government agency for which he had
worked, didn't want him to talk with the media.

She said ICE was angry that her client had appeared in a news report
in August on WFAA-TV (Channel 8). She said that Mr. Ramirez didn't
know he was being interviewed or taped for a television report and
that a hidden camera was used.

Michael Valentine, WFAA executive news director, denied that. "We
never had a hidden camera," he said. The WFAA reporter, Mark Smith,
couldn't be reached for comment. ICE declined to comment on the
reason Mr. Ramirez was moved.