The address PO Box 134 Hardin, Texas 77561 Thank you for reading! Growing up, his love for the ranchbouncing over Capote Creek in his grandfathers truck, watching the men ride out with the cattle while mounted on his own ponywas matched by his admiration for the tough people who worked it. A little time in the Western District of Texas jail isnt going to keep you from trying to feed your family.. It was twelve miles north to Candelaria, where you could stand in the middle of town and see all of it: ramshackle trailers and a few adobe houses; Johnnie Chamberss empty schoolhouse; an abandoned church and a corrugated-metal cotton gin. (Courtesy of Presidio County Sheriff's Office) By Brbara Anguiano Thompson helped with two shipments of marijuana in November 1991. Listing provided by TMLS $175,000 4.79 acres lot - Lot / Land for sale 7 hours ago 720 Solomon Rd, Leasburg, NC 27291 ELEVATION REALTY, LLC. It operated along the Rio Grande from El Paso to Alpine, from 1988 to 1992. It was April 2, 2010, and over five days they had traveled roughly five hundred miles from their village of Huisuchi, in the remote Sierra Madre mountains of northern Mexico. The wide, grassy highlands behind us appeared lush compared with the volcanic landscape ahead: canyons and mesas, haystack buttes and dry arroyos, a psychedelic moonscape with no end in sight, where the only color came from the sky. Texas Department of Criminal Justice | PO Box 99 . The Chambers' gift creates the J. Robert Chambers '89 and Kimberly A. He wore two hats, as the sheriff and tax assessor. Soon he was recruited to run drugs into Texas. In late 1991, when Chambers was four, his father was arrested in the largest drug bust on record in West Texas. But racing couldnt alleviate the hardships ravaging the Tarahumara themselves. Carrillo earned the nickname, Lord of the Skies, by bringing airliners packed with cocaine directly from Colombia to Mexico, with some of it bound for Presidio County. After going to law school, in northwest Indiana, he thought hed never return to West Texas, but it was Liz Rogers who persuaded him to come back. DISCLAIMER NOTICE: ALL ARE PRESUMED INNOCENT. Witnessed: Borderlands is a new true-crime podcast from journalist Rob D'Amico, set during the peak of the War On Drugs. Soon after, his mother was arrested for possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine. Find top Chambers County, TX Mergers & Acquisitions lawyers and attorneys. Rogers pulled off on Farm-to-Market Road 2810, better known as Pinto Canyon Road, where the asphalt ended. The object of their intense interest was a red horse trailer parked at the county fairgrounds east of town. The two kept a tight rein on who knew what in their investigation when it became apparent that Sheriff Rick Thompson might be involved with Robert Chambers. Strapped to his back were two homespun burlap packs, one filled with 45 pounds of marijuana bricks and the other with enough burritos and gallon jugs of water to survive another week in the wilderness. They were close now, a few hours from their destination. His late paternal grandfather, Boyd, was a rancher on the Sierra Vieja, a small mountain range that locals call the Candelaria Rimrock, after the nearest town. As Silvino left the San Isidro Lodge, where he had stayed the night, he glanced over at six mangy dogs and cats sleeping next to the embers of a nearby campfire. Like the Tarahumara, the Chambers clan was inexorably tied to their land. Agent Fort identified this Suburban as the vehicle usually driven by the Presidio County Sheriff Richard Dee Thompson, Stinson stated. The downfall of Rick Thompson was such a devastating occurrence for the people of Marfa and Presidio County, that this phenomenon should be addressed, wrote the authors of the two-volume history of the community. The race was part of the budding sport of extreme long-distance trail running, in which race lengths range from slightly longer than the standard 26.2-mile marathon to more than 150 miles. The revelation, he said, left him feeling used, humiliated and dumb.. The only difference is that cops carry badges, he said. AGE 60s Robert Nicklos Chambers Lolita, TX View Full Report Used To Live In Relatives For Silvino, new opportunities eventually arose from the attention generated by the book. The federal Drug Enforcement Administration said in a statement Friday that Chambers has moved about 10 tons of cocaine and 10 tons of marijuana through the Big Bend area since 1986. With him were five cousins and a nephew, each shouldering a similar load. It was amazing. He was back in the chia fields after breakfast. It was still dark when Silvino woke two hours before the big race in Cerocahui last October. In the Tarahumara, the cartels found literal drug runners, who not only could cover incredible distances but were desperate enough to do it. Federal and state drug enforcement agents arrested Glyn Robert Chambers and the popular sheriff of Presidio County, Rick Thompson, after an informant tipped them off to a red horse trailer containing 2,400 pounds of cocaine on the fairgrounds in Marfa. Family and friends are welcome to send flowers or leave their condolences on this memorial page and share them with the . His people, an indigenous tribe of roughly 70,000 known as the Tarahumara, had originated on the lush plains east of the mountains. Barajas still recalls the general reaction when Thompson was implicated in the cocaine seized at the fairgrounds. Jackson was a regular, and he later devoted most of a chapter in his book One Ranger to a tortured examination of their relationship. At approximately 1:15 a.m., Agent Fort observed a green Chevrolet Suburban driving east on the Fairgrounds Road with the lights off, DEA Agent Dale Stinson testified at a later court hearing. Competitors from all over the world, electrified by Born to Run, made the pilgrimage to the Tarahumara homeland. In one week, he could make what usually took three months of labor in the Sierraand there was little work. Standing well over 6 feet, before putting on his hat and boots, he cut an imposing, even intimidating figure. Rick was a more honorable person to Robert than he was to his constituents. Scanning his new clients arrest report, Chambers expected the details to coalesce into the usual pattern, but he noticed an anomaly. After razing the corn and bean fields, they planted poppies instead. He claimed $1.5 million in narcotics seized when in fact $5,000 was seized. Not again, he thought. He took money in exchange for information about law enforcement activities, helping Chambers to smuggle more than 20 tons of cocaine and marijuana through the Big Bend, according to the DEA. In time, the backpackers shed come to represent were known to ask for her by name. (He starred in a public service announcement TV ad urging people to call in and help lock up smugglers.). Chambers was well acquainted with smugglers from Mexico and eventually became close to Pablo Acosta, the drug lord of Ojinaga. In 1977, on a highway south of Marfa, Presidio County Sheriff Rick Thompson, far right, posed for Texas Monthly with his crew (left to right) Jailer Robert Guevara, Deputy Gary Painter, and Deputy Roger Brito. Search our database of over 100 million company and executive profiles. His wife, Hilda, begged him not to go, but he felt he had no choice. Thompson acknowledged his guilt and agreed to cooperate with federal investigators. Ryan Goldberg is a freelance journalist based in New York. MLS# 22079698. I caught a load of pot the other day. When Chambers was still in law school, in 2012, Rogers had helped introduce him to the federal courts that were handling the influx of people and drugs, Vega and his family had fled the canyons to find work in Chihuahua, and though he got a job as a brickmaker, it barely sustained them. No one, even back then, would have trusted someone with that quantity of drugs, unless they had a reliable track record. In these rugged gorges, they developed a unique running style that eventually brought them fame. Thank you for reading! Thompson became sheriff in May 1973 after Sheriff Hank Hamilton was shot to death. We drove up a small bluff, and Rogers led me to the grave of Boyd Chambers. After his release, it took Silvino two months to get home. He went to prison for life. Robert Leroy Chambers Obituary It is with deep sorrow that we announce the death of Robert Leroy Chambers of Victoria, Texas, who passed away on June 21, 2022, at the age of 66, leaving to mourn family and friends. Now 56, he lives in El Paso. The course turned toward Cerocahui on a footpath built by drug traffickers to carry out their crops. A day before the race, however, Jurez hit men stormed the police station, seizing two officers and a teenager, and American organizers called off the race. Chambers thought about how Vega wouldnt be there for his two sons as they grew into their teens. See the links below for more info. It was big news, from the Big Bend Sentinel (The Marfa Coke Bust, it blared) all the way to the New York Times. Silvino, with his farmland afflicted by unrelenting drought, was one of the desperate ones, so he signed on to tote drugs. Rick Thompson had charm. He glanced over his right shoulder at the river that snaked through the canyon of the same name. We hadnt seen another car in two hours. PECOS, Texas (AP) _ A former county sheriff and a rancher were sentenced to life in prison Friday for supervising a midnight haul of cocaine worth $48 million last December. 118 Oak Shadows Cv Hawkins, TX 75765 2324 Saddlebrook Ln Rockwall, TX 75087 1651 Airport Rd Rockwall, TX 75087 460 County Road 2375 Saltillo, TX 75478. He found a friend to front him enough to get to Janos, the first town on his route back. McNamara reported extensively on Sheriff Thompsons role in the multi-county drug task force that spent an enormous amount of money producing minor drug busts. People who know me, know Im not that kind of person, Dominguez said. International runners arrived to find armed gangs in the streets of Urique, while local government officials assured the competitors there were no problems. Silvino remembered the women in Huisuchi who used to weave baskets out of the pine needles. There was little to give away his roots. He was 36, but people still remembered him from the summer of 1986 when he was 19. At his sentencing hearing May 10, Thompson apologized and his wife made a final plea for leniency. Rick stays in jail because he believed in certain things, he said. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate, Former Presidio County Sheriff Rick Thompson. There was no sewer connection in their trailer, and electricity came from an extension cord that stretched from his grandparents house. Silvino flung his bags into the sand and began to run. Mahallah Escoe seeking her brother Robert Cofield Southwestern Christian Advocate (New Orleans, LA) February 14, 1884. Currently, he is at the Sullivan Correctional Facility, where fellow inmates include the infamous Ronald DeFeo Jr., whose crimes are the basis of ' The Amityville Horror '. In 1986, Chambers led a raid on the municipal jail in Ojinaga, kidnapped an inmate wanted in the United States for rape, brought him back to Texas and chained him naked to a tree for authorities to find, according to popular lore. Best described as a muckraking journalist, McNamara launched a scrappy newspaper, The Nimby News, in Alpine to cover stories often left out of the local newspaper, and later wrote a column for the Big Bend Sentinel in Marfa. As the cartel war ricocheted from one canyon to the next, Urique became one of the last towns to be engulfed by intense violence. When they neared the San Isidro Lodge, Silvino was in fourth but still in range of the leaders. After his death, Chambers briefly served as The Plaza before Amado Carillo Fuentes took control of distribution with the Juarez Cartel. Meanwhile, as ultramarathons surged in popularity, American runners began crushing previously held records. He left three years later as a sergeant. A m me vale, Silvino told his wife. Robert Conrad Photo, Robert Horton Photo, Springfield Trapdoor, Council Tool Collectible Axes & Hatches, Leaded Lamp, Thus began a shocking small-town drama that quickly turned Marfa on its head and sent the sheriff to federal prison. It seemed that everyone profited except the Tarahumara. , Now here he was, with six members of his own familynearly a year after, Then, all at once, they saw the spotlights. $13.99 . In the days leading up to the 2015 Ultra Caballo Blanco, an eight-hour battle erupted in a village along the planned racecourse. The loss of a hero harms a communitys ability to believe in anything anymore, wrote the historians, Louise OConnor and Cecilia Thompson, no relation to the sheriff. He dreaded telling his client. During the day, they slept beneath frayed creosote bushes, concealing their bags nearby, and at night they trudged north toward the freeway, avoiding rattlesnakes, coyotes, and most of all, la migra, the Border Patrol. International runners and film crews descended on the Sierra Tarahumara. He knew what an absence like that could do to a family. Learn more about your ad choices. Running was in his blood. Many Tarahumara were forced to grow these crops, their wages docked and their land stolen. He moved swiftly. But on the afternoon of March 6, Border Patrol agents found him and five others sleeping in the brush west of Marfa. I thought about Silvino, and I told Rogers about his case. Silvino felt the pressure of what hed come to donot just for his own survival but for the survival of his people. The cartels were not letting up. Helping clients like Vega affirmed his decision, though it also generated no shortage of heartbreak. While Thompson, 72, is unlikely to return to Marfa, the painful story of his fall from grace soon will be told here again. Forced to grow these crops, their wages docked and their land was! Inexorably tied to their land stolen developed a unique running style that brought! 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