![]() ![]() Franky Palacios was killed because he knew too much, they say.Īll three of the Luna men, plus two others who worked at the tire shop, have each been charged on four counts, including capital murder and drug trafficking. Douglas Young for The Texas TribuneĬameron County authorities have a simple theory: Luna and his two brothers - Fernando and Eduardo- operated a criminal enterprise centered on drug trafficking, partially run out of Veteran's Tire shop. border end up in an orange jumpsuit potentially facing life in prison? The Veterans Tire Shop in Edinburg where the alleged murder of Jose Palacios-Paz took place. How did a decorated Iraq War veteran sworn to protect the U.S. Still, even hardened South Texas lawmen long accustomed to cartel violence were surprised by Luna's indictment for murder - a cartel-inspired beheading no less. ![]() While that's a tiny fraction of the total number of agents, report after report has suggested the known cases may be the tip of the iceberg. Customs and Border Protection have been caught in alleged acts of mission-compromising corruption - often by letting drugs, undocumented immigrants or both into the country - over the past decade. If the indictments are to be believed, he participated in it instead.ĭirty cops and dirty Border Patrol agents are nothing new. Joel Luna, a 6-year Border Patrol veteran, was supposed to protect the country from drug trafficking and spillover violence. Garcia, Joel Luna's lawyerĪll of which would sound familiar to anyone versed in Gulf Cartel etiquette had it not been for one late-breaking and quite unexpected development: the alleged involvement and eventual arrest of a U.S. “We believe this is a clear case of 'you've got the wrong guy.' ” - Carlos A. With fall trials expected, authorities say they have turned up the familiar markings of mafia muscle and hardball tactics experts have come to associate with 21st century cartel warfare - complete with a severed head supposedly secreted off to Mexico to prove a snitch was dead. And by last summer, they had arrested four of Franky's tire shop associates on murder and drug trafficking charges. Over the ensuing weeks, the investigation led authorities on a meandering journey through the Gulf Cartel's internal bloodletting, featuring tales of a supposed double-crossing cartel hitman, a U.S.-born narco turned folk legend and a major mafia capo nicknamed "Commander Pussy" now locked up in a federal prison in Houston, Texas. It's where they think Franky - about to rat out a drug trafficking operation with links to the powerful Mexican Gulf Cartel - met his end. In no time, authorities came to suspect that tire repair wasn't the only thing going on there. Homeland Security Investigations, police quickly matched the prints to Jose Francisco Palacios Paz.īefore he was found naked and decapitated days after his 33rd birthday, Palacios Paz - "Franky" to his friends - worked at Veteran's Tire Shop in Edinburg, one county over. Using a portable fingerprint reader from U.S. "It's just kind of the way that they handle people," he said. Mexican drug cartel payback often comes at the end of a fine, sharp cutting instrument, Lucio observed. Investigators couldn't find the man's head, and there were other suspicious cuts on the body. "We're just across the border from Matamoros," he said. That was an early theory, but Cameron County Sheriff Omar Lucio, with more than a half-century in law enforcement, sensed something more sinister. Maybe one drank too much, fell in the water and collided with the wrong end of a propeller-driven barge? It was March 16, 2015, the frenzied start of Texas Week, when thousands of spring breaking college students descend on Padre to guzzle from beer bongs and get rowdy. ![]() The grisly discovery came at a busy time on the island. It looked to him like the head "had been cut off with one swift motion with a fine sharp cutting instrument." He dialed 911 and told the South Padre Island Police Department what he'd found: "a headless body floating in the bay."īlood was still dripping from the neck when Cameron County Sheriff's Deputy Ulises Martinez arrived, he would later report. At least, that's what the man who spotted it while boating with his two daughters would tell police.īut when he poked the floating mass with a pole, he discovered otherwise. SOUTH PADRE ISLAND - It looked like a crab trap floating in the calm waters of Laguna Madre, just off South Padre Island. law enforcement corruption, which has undermined efforts to secure the border. The Texas Tribune is taking a yearlong look at the issues of border security and immigration. ![]()
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