Lawyer: Consulate killings suspect [possibly] working with U.S.
Jesus Ernesto Chávez Castillo, believed to be the mastermind behind the slayings of a U.S. Consulate employee and her husband in March, is creating the veil of secrecy from U.S. government officials reserved for informants of terror suspects.
A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office will not even acknowledge that his case exists. Neither will the U.S. Department of Justice.
But his former lawyer from El Paso thinks the secrecy surrounding Chávez may be because he is cooperating with U.S. authorities on the slaying of El Pasoans Lesley Enriquez Redelfs and her husband, Arthur Redelfs.
Mexican police arrested Chávez, an Aztecas gang leader also known as “El Camello,” on July 2. On Friday, Chávez appeared in a federal courtroom in San Antonio but all records related to the proceedings have been sealed and no one will talk about him.
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Chávez also is suspected in the massacre of 15 students in Juárez earlier this year. Mexican officials said the Aztecas attacked the students because they thought they were rival gang members.
Local immigration attorney Carlos Spector, who represented Chávez in 2003 after Chávez illegally entered the U.S., said he didn’t believe Chávez was extradited from Mexico to San Antonio last week. Instead, it’s possible U.S. officials paroled Chávez and allowed him to enter the country because Chávez is cooperating with their investigation into the consulate killings.
Spector said Chávez might have been given an “S” visa, which is often given to people assisting U.S. law enforcement.
A provision creating “S” visas was passed by U.S. Congress in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist acts. The provision allows immigrants with critical information on criminal or terrorist organizations to come into the United States in order to provide information to law enforcement officials.
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