RESIDENTS SAY PUSHER TERRORIZES COMMUNITY

Something is wrong when Juarez families ask an El Paso newspaper for help
because of a drug problem in their neighborhood. A representative for
residents in the Colonia Puerto de la Paz, a poor neighborhood in the
northwest end of the city, said a local drug pusher has terrorized their
streets since 1997.

So why not call the police?

"Well, we have, but we suspect police are involved," the representative
said. "The drug pusher and his gang threatened us after some police last
went to his house. We have nowhere else to turn."

The neighbors provided the names of those involved and the unit numbers of
city patrol vehicles that make frequent visits to the drug pusher's home.
Allegedly, the pusher sells cocaine, heroin and marijuana.

Federal police who went to the dealer's house seized weapons and drugs but
made no arrests. Chihuahua state judicial police also seized items from his
home but made no arrests.

Research confirms

The neighbors said they worry that someone will be killed or seriously
injured because the drug dealer's gang likes to play around by shooting off
weapons from rooftops. Gang members accost young women who walk down the
streets and intimidate the longtime residents who yearn for their
once-peaceful colonia.

Javier Arroyo, a research professor in Juarez, conducted a survey and study
a couple of years ago that confirmed the existence of such gangs throughout
the city -- and their connections to police.

"Neighbors, for example, might report certain people to police who were
committing burglaries, and nothing would get done," he said. "They would
mention that police were protecting the burglars in their colonias.
Sometimes rapes were reported, and again, nothing (was done). This was the
pattern in numerous colonias throughout the city."

Picaderos

The White House Office of Drug Control Policy has reported a rise in the
number of drug addicts in Juarez, where drug dealers are finding it hard to
transport drugs across the border. Dealers in Juarez are pushing their
merchandise on the locals through a network of more than 1,000 picaderos
(drug storefronts), and are creating a new generation of addicts. The
ramifications for El Paso are enormous.

Juarez government and police officials publicly acknowledge the picaderos,
which DEA and FBI sources allege are controlled by former Juarez police
officials who work with the Carrillo Fuentes drug cartel. U.S. officials
say the network generates lots of money, and that could be why none of them
are shut down.

Mexican newspapers routinely publish stories and pictures of "Chandokan,"
the city's alleged heroin king, while someone known as "Madonna" is the
alleged cocaine queen. Although residents say they are not hard to find,
Manuel del Castillo, spokesman for the Juarez federal police office headed
by Lorenzo Aquino, could not explain why neither is in jail.