Conroy: New FOIA Records Trace "House of Death" Cover-Up to Upper Levels of the Justice Department
September 12, 2005
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Narco News correspondent Bill Conroy has obtained new internal Justice Department documents through a Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA) request as part of his ongoing investigation into the "House of Death" mass murder case in
Juárez, Mexico. The documents, reports Conroy, show that officials up into the higher levels of the Justice Department
were aware from the beginning of the gristly murders that a DEA/Costoms informant was involved in. Apparently, the
torture and murder of at least twelve Mexicans meant little to these U.S. bureaucrats. In order to avoid bad publicity
but continue with an operation to bring down a drug trafficking organization and a separate cigarette smuggling ring,
Justice began plotting what could only be described as a cover-up.
Conroy writes:
"The stonewalling, deal-making and cover-up strategy allegedly employed by ICE officials and the U.S. Attorney's Office
is all the more disturbing given that DEA officials wanted to arrest Santillan immediately after the first murder at the
House of Death. However, ICE officials and the U.S. prosecutor overseeing the case in El Paso refused to cooperate
because it would have jeopardized their drug-war prosecution against Santillan."
...
"After the dirty little secret of the murders at the House of Death had surfaced within law enforcement circles,
according to the FOIA records, ICE officials and the Assistant U.S. Attorney in El Paso, Juanita Fielden, allegedly
continued to advance the cover-up by obstructing the DEA's efforts to capture Mexican state police commander Loya, the
ringleader of the House of Death hit squad. As a result, Loya and several of his goons vanished and remain at large -
though they likely suffered the same bloody fate as their House of Death victims."
Many of the documents Conroy received were heavily - some might say ridiculously - redacted, with many key names and
dates blacked out. But through meticulous investigation with help from sources within law enforcement, Conroy was able
to fill in many of the blanks.
Read the full report and look at full copies of the documents Conroy received from his FOIA request, in The Narco News
Bulletin:
"Of all the questions that still remain unanswered," writes Conroy, "the biggest one, for me, is where is the outrage
from our political leaders? Have we really become a nation that tolerates, maybe even condones, murder in the pursuit of
career, power and money? That is an ugly thought, but then there is really nothing pretty about homicides."
From somewhere in a country called América,
Dan Feder
Managing Editor
The Narco News Bulletin