High Ranking Homeland Security Official Arrested on Trafficking Charges
Sep 4th, 2009 | By Michel Marizco | Category: General News
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THE BORDER REPORT
A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official who headed a major Arizona office and then was assigned to work in Guadalajara for three years was arraigned in federal court Friday morning, accused of trafficking cocaine and selling information about law enforcement operations to a drug cartel.
Richard Padilla Cramer was a federal agent for nearly thirty years, first joining the U.S. Customs Service in 1981. He is accused of negotiating cocaine shipments from Panama to Spain while he was working for ICE out of the Guadalajara office, according to the criminal complaint filed against him by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami.
Cramer was well-known and respected in Southern Arizona where he worked as a local cop and then headed the ICE office in Nogales as the resident-agent-in-charge before leaving to his Mexico assignment. Before becoming RAC, Padilla worked in internal affairs for ICE and once taught ethics courses at the El Paso Intelligence Center. Sources within Homeland Security say Padilla hired two agents to work alongside him in internal affairs for ICE.
Padilla invested $15,000 to $25,000 in one shipment of some 660 pounds of cocaine. He is also accused of selling confidential information from law enforcement databases to an unidentified drug cartel. Charging documents show that he sold one one database query from the DEA for $2,000.
Padilla is well known in the Nogales area. He left Nogales in 2004, said ICE spokesman Vincent Picard. He worked in Mexico until he retire in 2007. Until last week, Padilla was employed by the Santa Cruz County Detention Center. He took the job in May and went through the Correctional Officers Training Academy in Tucson, said Ramon Romo, executive assistant to the sheriff.
“He was given a citation for his professionalism upon his graduation from CODA,” said Romo, adding, “This is very uncharacteristic.”
Romo, who worked with Cramer when Cramer was a dispatcher and later a deputy with the sheriff’s department from 1976-79, said he did not know the particulars of the case.
He said the file obtained by his department on Cramer’s background during the interview process for the detention department “has nothing but good stuff; nothing detrimental.”
“I have mixed feelings; I feel bad for him and for his family. This has to be very hard. I hope he gets out of this one,” Romo said.
Romo said Cramer went to work in September 1979 for the Nogales Police Department and in 1981 joined U.S. Customs.
Sheriff Antonio Estrada said Cramer was “well known and respected. He was a local resident that went on to do well in his career. While he has not been convicted and we are not sure how this will end, there is certainly a feeling of betrayal.
“This just goes to show we all have to be mindful and watchful for the long tentacles of the drug trade, which tend to try to creep into every agency, local, state and federal.”
At his arraignment hearing Friday morning, Padilla’s family tried unsuccessfully to post $7,500 for his bond. One high-priced criminal defense attorney walked out of the hearing when it became evident the family had nothing to pay him with. At least one familymember is also an ICE agent.
A border resident most of his life, Cramer holds dual citizenship in the U.S. and Mexico and the judge denied his release saying Cramer could easily leave the U.S. and revoke his citizenship making extradition back to this country more difficult.
According to the complaint, the case began with four snitches working for the DEA. A snitch within a Mexican cartel, the indictment doesn’t specify which, was negotiating the sale of 660 pounds of coke from Panama City, Panama, to Vigo, Spain. A second snitch reported that Padilla and a fourth man were part of the job and had put up $450,000 to make the run. That second snitch was popped in South Florida and turned over four law enforcement database queries Cramer had given him. At that point, he only knew him as “Richard.” Richard gave him four DEA database queries, one ICE and two California law enforcement queries. Apparently he was giving them confidential informants and had been asking DEA agents to run the queries on their system as part of a drug investigation he was working.
The coke shipments were made to Panama in March 2007 where undercover Panamian police officers observed the transaction. The coke was put on a Greek-flagged ship and sent north, stopping in Georgia, Virgina and finally, the Port of New York two weeks later. The cocaine made it to Vigo, Spain, where five members of the cartel were arrested. (This makes me think Padilla was working with the Gulf Cartel since they’ve been so busy busy in Europe over the past two years.)
Padilla and the head of the trafficking organization had a fight over how the 300 keys were lost in Spain and though he severed ties with that man, he continued talking to another member of the group who was later arrested in the U.S. That snitch, the fourth man, told the Feds he spoke with Padilla by push-to-talk. On Aug. 19, the Feds tracked down the number to Padilla’s home address in Green Valley, Ariz.
Padilla is the second scandal ICE has been dealing with
WoW….thats a piece of news. Any one read about the people killed at the rehab center in Juarez?
damn!! that’s some badass investigative work, welcome back, “NIÑO PERDIDO”.
this guy was moving some major weight….
el cardian will now post a comment on how this guy worked for him and that he moved up to El Botas Blankas rank in another organization, and oh cant forget that he’s dating Miss Sonora.
Bank rolling 300 pounds of cocaine and selling information from the ICE database, I guess he did not do a very good job of looking for the snitches which probably means he was not very good at his ICE job.
And Mr. Romo who works for the Sheriff’s Department here in my county hopes Mr. Cramer “gets out of this one?”
Are there others, Mr. Romo?
Corruption is rampant here, according to the local grapevine, which includes “sources” close to the US Border Patrol.
[...] this page was mentioned by Lindsay Beyerstein (@beyerstein), Becky Pallack (@beckypallack) and others. [...]
MICHAEL, CAYO EL RIKIN ESCAJEDA, he’s being accused for the juarez rehab center killings, now that’s hilarious, lol!!!
One person at the center was the reason, they all got it.
Luisillo Paez taken out in Culiacan????
Tony Tormenta and El Cos supposedly caught?
Imagine how many others are with him??? He had to have a few buddy’s in on this and not to mention border patrol on the take, it’s a vicious cycle, I hear about them on the take all the time.The money is the same color, but people die everyday to make it, but who can blame em with the crappy economy’s on both sides it becomes tempting…. You play with fire you eventually get burnt…….
Michael
You need to put the .pdf complaint up
4 Fort Bliss soilders supposedly taken out in Juarez
Only one was an ex-fort bliss soldier, others were mexican citizens
El Rikin is now arrested, watch how this goes down.
According to what I read, it was not a fort bliss soldier, rather an ex fort bliss employee, big difference.
retired fort bliss soldier!
Got a link?
nevermind, just read the updates.
El Paso times says, he was a soldier 6 years ago.
What about that guy that got “picked up” in Horizon last week. Anyone know anything about that?
hate to say it…but that guy is gone for sure
Esele Miguelitro!
It’s sad that AP picked up a flimsy piece by the Star. Other than Marizco, are there no more correspondents from the drug world?
Seemingly, this is the tip of the ICEberg which could soon be exposed from the depths of the underworld. This dude is not a johnny-come-lately and it all begs the question, “How many other lawmen from Nogales did he pull down there with him?” Or should we ask, “Who from Nogales pulled him down?”
Wonder what happens to these guys. Reminds me of Tony Garate ex-DEA operative and self-styled bounty hunter who orchestrated the kidnapping of Humberto Alvarez Machain, the doc involved in the Camarena kidnapping.
what’s with hijacked plane in mexico?
plane HIGHJACKED IN THE DISTRICTO FEDERAL and they want to talk to Calderon
it’s over, that shit doesn’t work in mexico, lol!!!
The guy they kidnapped in El Chuco was found dead last night with both his hands resting on his chest. Love the colors of the EP County Sheriff’s Office website, looks like a fourth grader does their page.
http://www.epcounty.com/CS/blogs/sheriff_news/archive/2009/09/09/update-kidnapping-in-horizon-victim-identified.aspx
lol…your right Ilegal! they dont put up with that shit!
Flaco is right also about some 4th grader setting up that page but here is a much more graphic photo
http://lapolaka.com/notas/nota_20236.html
la polaka is always good, people say Gente Nueva pulled that one out.
Drift is a big Chivo
What is it with this guy storyboy(cardian)? I’m begining to think you have some kind of man crush on me
HE JUST LOST EVERYTHING HIS CAREER GAVE HIM. I DONT BELIEVE HIS FAMILY DIDNT HAVE THE MONEY TO BAIL HIM OUT ITS A PLOY SO THE JUDGE THINKS THEY HAVE NO MONEY!! THOSE INFORMANTS HE SOLD OUT WERE PROBABLY KILLED SAVAGELY.
storyboy and drift/ sitting on a tree/ k-i-s-s-i-n-g! lol!!! …in other news, hoy le dieron fierro a otro de los Tirado en mazatlan, se va a poner feo.
lmao!!!!
i tell you, this guy has the hots for me… not even funny
I thought this thing was supposed to be a blog, thus updated every now and then, but lately Michel has been taking more time off then Mr. Obama. Michel maybe you should just setup a message board!
de la polaka…EL PASO – El Gobernador Rick Perry anunció este día en Houston el más reciente programa de la administración estatal para mantener la seguridad en la frontera con México. El Gobernador anunció que equipos de Texas Rangers altamente entrenados, serán enviados a las zonas de más alto tráfico e índices de criminalidad para paliar la amenaza creciente en la frontera de Texas con México. Así también anunció la aprobación de dos millones de dólares en fondos de Justicia Criminal del Estado, para continuar el programa de vigilancia con cámaras de video en la frontera, apoyando así a la Coalición de Sheriff de la Frontera. El Gobernador Perry aprovechó su visita al Departamento de Seguridad Pública del Estado en Houston, para solicitarle al Presidente Barack Obama que mande un millar de tropas de la Guardia Nacional para ayudar a las fuerzas locales a proteger la frontera. Cerca del 73% de los más de dos mil kilómetros de frontera de Texas es poseída por particulares, lo que da lugar a constantes amenazas y extorsiones de grupos criminales, que se dedican a pasar drogas, personas y armas de manera ilegal de un país a otro. Para mantener la seguridad operativa, El número específico de Rangers y su localización no fue especificado, sin embargo, se hizo especial énfasis en la frontera de El Paso con Juárez, donde han asesinado a más de mil quinientas personas en el lado Mexicano en lo que va del 2009. Esta declaración se registra a pocos días que un comando armado del cártel de la droga en México entró a una comunidad del Condado de El Paso, sacó por la fuerza a un sujeto de su vivienda y se lo llevó secuestrado a Ciudad Juárez, donde apareció su cadáver días después con las manos mutiladas.
Izme,
This guy retired from the Feds in 2007. It looks like the bulk of the case against him was when he was working in Mexico from 2004 – 2007. It doesn’t look like anyone from Nogales is involved in bringing him down. I also doubt that he will be given the opportunity to bring anyone else down with him. He is a big enough fish for the headlines, and God knows who he might name (higher ups in U.S. and Mexico) if given the opportunity. But we’ll see…
Hey pendejo, esa foto es de mi comandante Salas de Torreon, porque pones la foto de el en esta pagina.. estupido, quita esa foto. Quien te dio permiso perro.
Yo le di permiso!! Si no te cai te me largas a la verga!! Ya ni la chingas guey, si fuera otro guey de otra banda no te molesta verdad….. no manches solo anda reportando lo que esta pasando, es el trabajo de el, por favor!!!
hey REPORTERO, reporta esto: chingas a tu madre pinche valevergas envidioso…en otras noticias mas importantes que tu, un oso se cago ayer en el bosque (tambien reporta eso).
Clay…Bill Clay.
Yippie kay ye mother fucker……..
Que pedo con este “reportero?”
Maybe they will clean up the DEA office in Sierra Vista, crooked agent RT
Richard P. Cramer, Gerardo Chavez (another former ICE top manager) were assigned to work for the Legacy US Customs’ Internal Affairs…both did tours in Mexico. Chavez became the Customs Attache in Venezuela. They both worked for James “Breck” Ellis who suddenyly retired in lieu of getting federally indicted for lying and making false statements; Traci Lembke who in 1999 was a “rookie” Customs IA became the DIRECTOR of ICE’s Office of Professional Responsibility at ICE-HQ. The old US Treasury’s OIG and later DHS-OIG were told about corruption at the Customs and ICE top management level but they ignored such reports. DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano is sending 100 ICE special agents to work in Mexico? Janet Napolitano needs to revamp ICE now starting from the top….or soon we will see more headlines news of other ICE top managers getting arrested. No wonder no other federal law enforcement agency in the USA trust ICE.
Please if anyone knows the name and contact inofrmation of the federal public defender attorney representing retired ICE special agent Richard P. Cramer, be kind and post it in this forum. I need the name, mailing address and telephone number of the attorney. I used to work with Richard Cramer. This guy needs some help. I don’t know what’s happening lately but hardly a day goes by without reading about some DEA, FBI, and ICE’s current and retired Special Agents in Charge getting federally indicted and arrested for corruption related offenses. I hate to bring politics into this subject but the Barack Obama administration promised us to have a transparent and clean government. The only changes I am seeing is that certain federal agencies are out of control such as the Internal Revenue Service. Nogales, Arizona and Nogales, Sonora for years have experienced public corruption at all levels of governments, but the El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juarez, Chiu., Mexico are experiencing the worst and The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is in the middle of the mess. Can someone connected with U.S. Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi and U.S. House of Representatives’s Speaker of the House, take a closer look at U.S. Rep. Silvestre “Silver” Reyes, and his family ties to certain questionable people. Sorry but I cannot be more specific at this time.
Michele Marizco needs to give us an update on the Richard P. Cramer. I am sure Michele can call Alonzo Pena, the acting Deputy Assistant Secretary at ICE-HQ and get some some unformation available for publication.
Keep up the good work Michele!