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Official helped enemies

By Sebastian Rotella

Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON -As a high-ranking U.S. antidrug official, Richard Padilla Cramer held frontline posts in the war on Mexico's murderous cartels. He led an office of two-dozen agents in Arizona and was the attache for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Guadalajara.

While in Mexico, however, Cramer also served as a secret ally of drug lords, according to federal investigators.

He allegedly advised traffickers on law enforcement tactics and pulled secret files to help them identify turncoats. He charged $2,000 for a Drug Enforcement Administration document that was e-mailed to a suspect in Miami in August, authorities say.

"Cramer was responsible for advising the (drug traffickers) how U.S. law enforcement works with warrants and record checks as well as how DEA conducts investigations to include flipping subjects,'" or recruiting informants, according to a criminal complaint filed by a DEA agent.

DEA agents arrested Cramer, 56, at his home in Arizona on Sept. 4.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney in Miami said Wednesday that she could not comment, but said cases that begin with complaints usually go before a grand jury.

Cramer's duties as the ICE attache in Guadalajara included serving as a liaison with Mexican police, assisting investigations and gathering intelligence.

But the investigation revealed that Cramer also worked for "a very high-level drug lord," according to federal officials. The 26-year government veteran became a full-time adviser to traffickers after retiring from ICE in January 2007, according to the complaint.

A trafficker "convinced Cramer to retire ... and began working directly for (him) in drug trafficking and money laundering," according to the complaint.

Cramer sold secret documents that he obtained from active U.S. agents, an aspect of the case still under investigation. The charges underscore the corruptive power of the cartels, which have bought off Mexican politicians, police chiefs and military commanders. Drug lords have reached across the international line with increasing ease, corrupting U.S. border inspectors and agents to help smuggle cocaine north. In 2006, the FBI chief in El Paso, Texas, was convicted of charges related to concealing his friendship with an alleged drug kingpin.

Cramer stands out because his rank and foreign post made his work especially sensitive, officials said. Stunned colleagues described him as a well-regarded investigator who spoke fluent Spanish and operated skillfully in the array of U.S. and Mexican agencies at the border when he ran the ICE office in the action-packed border zone of Nogales, Ariz., his hometown.

"It came as a complete shock," said Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada in a telephone interview. "I have been in law enforcement at the border 42 years and I have seen some strange things, but I have never ceased to be surprised. You have to be watchful and mindful. The cartels have touched local, state and federal agencies."

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And on a Separate Note: This will be Headline News Across Canada

Canadian woman stabbed to death in Mexico

Jorge Barrera, Canwest News Service

Published: Friday, September 18, 2009

A Montreal woman was found dead inside her apartment on an island near Cancun, Mexico, local media reported Thursday.

Renee Wathelet, 60, was found Thursday morning stabbed multiple times and with her throat cut when police entered her Isla Mujeres island apartment which faces the Caribbean Sea.

Isla Mujeres sits northeast off the Yucatan Peninsula near the tourist hot spot of Cancun.

Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed early Friday it was aware that a Canadian woman had been killed on that island. No further information was provided, citing privacy issues.

Neighbours alerted police to the scene between 10 and 11 a.m. after they heard screams and then encountered a man carrying a bloodied knife leaving Wathelet's residence, German wire agency DPA and Mexican news agency SIPSE reported.

Local police told the news agencies they arrested a 24 year-old Monterrey man named Jose Joaquin Palacios Garaza in connection with the slaying, described as "brutal" by the local press.

The El Periodico de Quintana Roo newspaper reported police arrested Palacios Garaza shortly after they arrived on the scene.

Cmdr. Carlos Osorio Magana told DPA that, as of Thursday afternoon, they had not been able to interview the suspect because he was "extremely intoxicated."

SIPSE later reported that the suspect told police he was defending himself. SIPSE also said the suspect was not intoxicated, but mentally ill.

Enfoce Radio quoted police saying the suspect had developed a friendship with Wathelet.

Wathelet's body was taken to Cancun for an autopsy, reports said.

According to a Wathelet's blog, En direct des iles, Live from the Islands, she had befriended a man named Jose who she often walked with on the beach, talking about the island.

Wathelet, who described herself as a nomad, appears to have fallen in love with the island. She posted a 41 second YouTube video on Tuesday of waves hitting the shore.

"This is where every morning I sit, looking north, and, smiling, think of all those I love," she wrote describing the video.

On the her last blog entry, which was posted the day she was found dead, Wathelet wrote of her lifelong ritual of early morning walks.

"A few steps ... into the water I watch the sun slowly emerge ... before starting my morning walk, sand, rocks, leaves," she wrote. "When I try to match my breath with the rhythm of the waves I look north, to Montreal - Hello everybody, yes I think of you every morning."

Wathelet said in an MSM Travel interview posted Tuesday that she discovered the island about 10 years ago through a friend and now lived in "alone in a small apartment facing the Caribbean Sea."

Wathelet left a life working in the finance industry to become a "nomad" and a freelance social media consultant, according to her resume posted online. She worked as an investment adviser until 2008.

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Wathelet left a life working in the finance industry to become a "nomad" and a freelance social media consultant, according to her resume posted online. She worked as an investment adviser until 2008.

Hmmmm. If the article did not mention they had a suspect I would have thought her previous career, as an investment advisor, would have established a motive. There are a lot of those folks who have left the country in the past couple of years. I wondered how many have shown up in Mexico, a country where it is not easy to collect on foreign civil judgements.

Sad for her freinds and family.

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Hmmmm. If the article did not mention they had a suspect I would have thought her previous career, as an investment advisor, would have established a motive. There are a lot of those folks who have left the country in the past couple of years. I wondered how many have shown up in Mexico, a country where it is not easy to collect on foreign civil judgements.

Sad for her freinds and family.

The article says that a suspect, seen leaving the scene of the crime with a bloody knife, is in custody.

What an incredible leap to assume that as the victim was an "investment advisor" this produces a motive for the crime - truly amazing.

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A corrupt official. A murder of a foreigner. I`m sorry but these things happen every single day, all over the world. Why are we surprised or feel the need to comment? Do these things make us less safe here at lakeside? I for one do not feel less safe because these things have happened. Nothing new in the history of the world.

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Hmmmm. If the article did not mention they had a suspect I would have thought her previous career, as an investment advisor, would have established a motive. There are a lot of those folks who have left the country in the past couple of years. I wondered how many have shown up in Mexico, a country where it is not easy to collect on foreign civil judgements.

Sad for her freinds and family.

Are you for real?? What a totally insensitive thing to say. Why would it have anything to do with her having been an investment advisor from Montreal, Quebec Canada??? Bon chance...you'll need it with your attitude.

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For those who think this story has no bearing in other parts of Mexico are wrong. This story is on the front web page of Canada's major newspapers two days in a row. It's all those small nails in the coffin so to speak that slowly whittles away at Mexico's tourism. Fortunately, those of us living here know the truth and we in general feel as safe here as anywhere. I would prefer to be in Ajijic or San Miguel than Jane / Finch in Toronto.

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For those who think this story has no bearing in other parts of Mexico are wrong. This story is on the front web page of Canada's major newspapers two days in a row. It's all those small nails in the coffin so to speak that slowly whittles away at Mexico's tourism. Fortunately, those of us living here know the truth and we in general feel as safe here as anywhere. I would prefer to be in Ajijic or San Miguel than Jane / Finch in Toronto.

Some how comparing "little olde" Lakeside with Toronto is like comparing a mouse with a elephant!!!

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Some how comparing "little olde" Lakeside with Toronto is like comparing a mouse with a elephant!!!

He's not comparing it to Toronto. He said the Jane/Finch area, also known as the Jane/Finch corridor. It's a suburb of Toronto (North York) and a small area in that suburb of a few miles by a few miles. Smaller than the area at Lakeside. I wouldn't walk the streets there even in the daylight.

Before you make a crack about Toronto, it might help to know what you're talking about. :)

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He's not comparing it to Toronto. He said the Jane/Finch area, also known as the Jane/Finch corridor. It's a suburb of Toronto (North York) and a small area in that suburb of a few miles by a few miles. Smaller than the area at Lakeside. I wouldn't walk the streets there even in the daylight.

Before you make a crack about Toronto, it might help to know what you're talking about. :)

Wow hold on...I did not see any crack about Toronto, I was thinking of size comparison..for example Lakeside is not a suburb of Guad

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The article says that a suspect, seen leaving the scene of the crime with a bloody knife, is in custody.

What an incredible leap to assume that as the victim was an "investment advisor" this produces a motive for the crime - truly amazing.

Guess I was not very clear... that did sound unkind. I did say the incident was sad for her friends and family, it is very tragic. I did acknowledge they had a suspect.

What I omitted was that is would seem being a former investment advisor could be a clue in a murder where there was no suspect. The papers in Canada this week are full of articles about the third, large, international ponzi scheme that is impacting thousands of people. There are also many unregistered and registered investment advisors that are no longer in business and they expect that thousands of people in the Canada and US may be victims of mismanagement and fraud by some of these smaller, independent firms. There are also very many legitimate investment advisors who have angry clients. This poor victim was probably a lovely lady who did a great job for her clients.

Point being: this is a category/profession where there are many, many angry clients. If I read about an investment advisor that had been murdered... an angry client is something that would come to mind as a possible suspect.

Did not mean to be disrespectful.

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