Visit megapho It was cool now, but the temperature would climb into the 70s. After crossing the river here, backpackers hike past the old Chambers ranch to the top of the Sierra Vieja, where they look for their U.S. 90 pickup. 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. There, they removed 40 heavy sacks, each marked with a blue polo player, the signature of a Colombian drug cartel. TX 78721-1510 is the last known address for Robert. There was little shade, and he dropped down on a set of steps next to four old campesinos. Log In. Witnessed: Borderlands is a new true-crime podcast from journalist Rob D'Amico, set during the peak of the War On Drugs. Silvino, a farmer with four children, knew the canyons the way urban dwellers know city streets: every rock, cactus, and river bend was a sign. An agent on a dirt bike tore after him as the others scattered. And we posted it on Facebook. In the distance, Rogers noticed a cloud of black smoke rising downriver. He had to run. They both pleaded guilty and were sentenced to life in prison. There was no sewer connection in their trailer, and electricity came from an extension cord that stretched from his grandparents house. Soon he was recruited to run drugs into Texas. He did not respond to a letter sent to him in prison requesting an interview. A little time in the Western District of Texas jail isnt going to keep you from trying to feed your family.. By 2015, the tiny office of the federal public defenders in Alpine was tasked with the second-largest caseload in Texas, behind El Paso. Robert Emmet Chambers Jr. has spent much of his life in the limelight, after entering the public eye as a 19-year-old youngster who was the prime suspect for the death of 18-year-old Jennifer Levin. He also was the first to question the close relationship Chambers had with Thompson. He dreaded telling his client. He was just a phenomenally likeable guy, former District Attorney Richard Barajas said. Four days later, he was ordered held without bond, shocking his supporters. Soon after, his mother was arrested for possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine. February 10, 1946 - March 16, 2019 Tribute Wall Obituary & Events Share a memory Send Flowers Obituary Robert "Bob" Chambers, 73, of Elma, Iowa passed away Saturday, March 16, 2019 at home surrounded by his loving family. I couldnt accept the fact that a man I had worked with and trusted for the last five years could possibly be involved in drugs. Escuder had recently defended a Tarahumara man in his fifties who, they realized, had been in Vegas brickmaking crew. 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 American ultramarathoner Micah True got to know some of the Tarahumara runners in Leadville, and he was so changed by the experience that he later moved to the Sierra Madre. Need an attorney in Chambers County, Texas? But in the nineties, as Mexican cartels rose in power relative to their Colombian counterpartswho preferred to traffic through South FloridaWest Texas became even more essential. Someone said it was like seeing the Marlboro Man go up in flames, he said. Offender is currently in the Parole Review Process The parole review process begins approximately six months before the parole eligibility date for a first review and four months before the eligibility date in additional reviews. At that time Manny told us this guy is involved in the drug business but we didnt believe it, he said. Robert Earl Chambers, Age 115 From there, the runners followed white arrows spray-painted on the ground into a forest of pion pine, juniper, and small oak trees. We know that Earlene Love, Erline Love, and three other persons also lived at this address, perhaps within a different time frame. But besides stamina, rarajipari demanded selflessness and strategy. The case status is Disposed - Dismissed. International runners and film crews descended on the Sierra Tarahumara. He was hanging around with a Texas Ranger and a well-known Border Patrol agent. 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. James Medford Chambers went home to be with The LORD on Saturday, January 7, 2023, at the age of 92. At the Caballo Blanco, both Silvino and Arnulfo proved themselves, and though Jurek passed Silvino near the end of the 47 miles, he couldnt catch Arnulfo. After walking for ten days in the harsh borderland, their guide had abandoned them that morning. Chambers remembers his grandfather watching the Weather Channel regularly, hoping for rain. In the days leading up to the 2015 Ultra Caballo Blanco, an eight-hour battle erupted in a village along the planned racecourse. Still, of the dozens and dozens of clients hed defended, it was Vega, and the plight of the Tarahumara, that stuck with him. Thompson is scheduled to get out April 14, 2018.). 1992 Press Photo Mayor and council members in City Hall chambers, Texas . Paul Chambers was sitting in his Alpine office when he got an email about a new client named Sebastian Vega Genoveva waiting for him in jail. For Silvino, new opportunities eventually arose from the attention generated by the book. Last summer, according to a courtroom interpreter, one witness in a backpacker trial in Pecos said that smugglers in Ojinaga told him they only wanted to work with Tarahumara, because of their strength and endurance. When Chambers arrived at the detention facility, the 39-year-old Vega stood up to greet his lawyer. No one, even back then, would have trusted someone with that quantity of drugs, unless they had a reliable track record. With him were five cousins and a nephew, each shouldering a similar load. They lived in the same indigent neighborhood on the edge of Chihuahua. He became frustrated with the legal system, which he felt was too focused on punishing his family members for their addictions rather than helping them. There, it also became common to see Tarahumara children begging or selling candy and key chains on the streets. Advertisements . While working a job canning chiles, they were told they could earn twice as much at a pecan orchard near the Rio Grande. He had grown up on the ancient tales of men who sprinkled bone dust on the course the night before, thought to induce fatigue in your competitors. Search law firms at FindLaw. Spotting the same vehicle minutes later, still driving dark, the agent recognized it. There was no sewer connection in their trailer, and electricity came from an extension cord that stretched from his grandparents house. Then, with the path hugging a creek, he entered tiny Porochi. I had worked with him through the years on different situations with students and parents, and we always had a very friendly and professional relationship, he added. Cook, a native of Alpine, knew the area well and helped manage the surveillance of Chambers and cultivating their informants. 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. Around the same time, federal defenders in Alpine had represented a pair of Tarahumara teenagers also recruited in Chihuahua. Hed hoped that once there he could stay a short time and workin the Permian Basin oil fields, perhapsand then return home with money for his wife and two sons. He messed up one time. Escuders client had been sentenced to eighteen months in federal prisonsix months longer than others in his group because hed had the misfortune of appearing before a different judge. Rick Thompson, former Presidio County sheriff, and rancher Glyn Robert Chambers received life terms from U.S. District Judge Jerry Buchmeyer of Dallas for shipping the cocaine across the Rio Grande River on Dec. 3, 1991. Three paper bracelets from the race still hung around his left wrist. When he was thirteen, they went to live with his mothers family, in Abilene. 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. Hed told me that sometimes he felt fated to stay in West Texas, and yet he often felt apart from it. Thus began a shocking small-town drama that quickly turned Marfa on its head and sent the sheriff to federal prison. The great size of the load, the property of the Jurez Cartel, raised unsettling questions about what might have occurred earlier. (Robert Chambers was released in 2005 after serving 13 years. A fine salary, but it was an experimental crop: a 64-year-old American named Mickey Mahaffey, who had lived among the Tarahumara for two decades and married Silvinos younger sister, Carmen, struck up a deal to grow eight acres for an energy-bar company based in Richmond, Virginia. Hes a good man and has led a good life, she said to a packed courthouse in Pecos. Thompson became sheriff in May 1973 after Sheriff Hank Hamilton was shot to death. A pair of uncles on his moms side also went to prison for drug offenses, and so did a paternal uncle. Getty Images Robert Chambers, the "Preppy Killer" who murdered 18-year-old Jennifer Levin, released from the Rikers Island jail on $150,000 bond in 1986. Robert Chambers Research Associate Email r.chambers@ids.ac.uk Telephone +44 (0)1273 915723 On this page Academic links Research Opinions Publications Professor Robert Chambers has a background in biology, history and public administration. He knew what an absence like that could do to a family. Corrupt Texas sheriff soon to be released from prison. Thank you for reading! He passed fields with corn stalks as tall as the cabins beside them, and a few loose cows and goats. They said the sheriff of that county was La Puerta, (the door), that he controls everything, he noted. A few months later, Sinaloa won control of the areanearly a dozen planes flew out of the town of Urique in one day with the remaining Jurez fightersbut conditions worsened. Robert Chambers grew up on the border in south Presidio County, where his mother taught in a small school in Candelaria. Muy ligero, he told himself. His wife, Barbara Jean, worked at the Marfa National Bank. The address PO Box 134 Hardin, Texas 77561 Thank you for reading! I think its worth it. He enticed locals to enter by promising food vouchers to anyone who finished. Traditionally they ran as a form of religious ritual, such as to celebrate the harvest, in two-team races called rarajipari. That year, he was paid $22,657 for both jobs and he had several small side businesses. It was big news, from the Big Bend Sentinel (The Marfa Coke Bust, it blared) all the way to the New York Times. Rick Thompson was widely admired by Marfa residents and was a shoe-in for his upcoming election to a fifth term as Presidio County Sheriff. A reception will be held in her honor at St. Mark's United Methodist Church, Baytown, Texas from 4-6 pm on Saturday, January 21. It was amazing. A landmark in Marfa, the old Presidio County Courthouse housed Rick Thompsons tax assessors office. The cartels were not letting up. He grew up believing hed never see him again outside of prison. But racing couldnt alleviate the hardships ravaging the Tarahumara themselves. All I know is I worked for five months for him. . See the links below for more info. He and his cousins would be paid 15,000 pesos ($825) apiece. In the days leading up to the race, competitors ground corn for an energy drink called pinole (and set aside a fermented version as their post-race celebratory beer, tesgino). Robert Stanley Chambers August 10, 1952 February 4, 2022 Robert Stanley Chambers, of Talty, Texas, passed away on February 4th, 2022, at his home in Talty. They had a huge drug bust, but the end result was they got a tiny amount of drugs from college kids, cooks and drifters, McNamara recalled. The thick old-growth trees had been chopped down long ago and sent to the sawmills of nearby Bahuichivo. Last summer, according to a courtroom interpreter, one witness in a backpacker trial in Pecos said that smugglers, It was the eighth-annual ultramarathon here, and 120 runners, mostly Tarahumara, were going to set off from its plaza. His mother had been a running champion in her day, and one of her sisters was the mother of Arnulfo, his greatest competitor. The drug lord known as El Zorro de Ojinaga (The Ojinaga Fox) was a mentor to Chambers and played a significant role as The Plaza who controlled all drug movement through the region into the U.S. Acosta, who was gunned down in 1987 by Mexican federales (with the assistance of the FBI) is featured in the recent Narcos Mexico series and the book Drug Lord, by former El Paso Times reporter Terrance Poppa. The white stucco walls were empty; his diplomas were stored at his fiances house. Hed hoped that once there he could stay a short time and workin the Permian Basin oil fields, perhapsand then return home with money for his. Rick had such good favor. They were more optimistic souls in a long line of people who have tried, often futilely, to farm the floodplain. Remote and rugged, West Texas, along with much of the southwestern United States, has long been a key drug-smuggling corridor. Rather than face starvation, Silvinos cousins had approached him with an idea: they could go on a drug-running mission across the border. We hadnt seen another car in two hours. The smell of charcoal-grilled chicken filled the air. Robert Chambers is a resident of Austin. Now, 26 years after Thompson was sent to federal prison, his troubling shadow lingers over Marfa. Now here he was, with six members of his own familynearly a year after Born to Run had become an international best sellerstriding through the dark up the boot heel of New Mexico. Silvino, a farmer with four children, knew the canyons the way urban dwellers know city streets: every rock, cactus, and river bend was a sign. Light-footed. Read more:Elvis performed in San Antonio several times in his heyday. Silvino, with his farmland afflicted by unrelenting drought, was one of the desperate ones, so he signed on to tote drugs. About three hours later, the agents moved in to inspect the trailer, parked with the sheriffs other equipment. His grandfather served as a Presidio County commissioner and was often asked to resolve border disputes privately. Ten minutes after six, the runners approached the starting line, adjacent to the, three-hundred-year-old red-earthen, yellow-domed Jesuit church, and took off. Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading. Running was in his blood. If I dont take the risk during a race, then I dont get any reward.. Mounds of melon-size rocks blanketed every grave. Chambers grew up on the border. Leave a sympathy message to the family in the guestbook on this memorial page of Robert Leroy Chambers to show support. He found a friend to front him enough to get to Janos, the first town on his route back. Volunteers were on hand to offer cheese sandwiches, bananas, and oranges. In the summer of 2016, drug traffickers moved on the town of Basihuare, near Chvezs hometown of Rejogochi, stealing the funds from the towns ejido, a government-supported agriculture cooperative. He was in third place. The villagers had danced, and their children had tossed handfuls of water toward the sky, asking their god Onorame for help, but relief had not come. For months, Huisuchi had been cursed with drought. In 2003, Robert Chambers walked out of prison, after 15 years, a free man, still pursued by his own infamy. Eagle Realty Group & Associate, (573) 336-0003. Barajas still recalls the general reaction when Thompson was implicated in the cocaine seized at the fairgrounds. Either barefoot or in sandals (called huaraches) made from old tire treads and goat hide, they were able to traverse seemingly super-human distances. After the fairgrounds drug bust, he cut a deal to testify against the sheriff. Rogers pulled off on Farm-to-Market Road 2810, better known as Pinto Canyon Road, where the asphalt ended. Chambers, who cooperated with the DEA, got life also but was released after serving 18 years. Listing provided by TMLS That summer, he saw around four hundred cases come through the Alpine office, and within a few years its annual caseload had more than doubled. Lookup the home address, phone numbers, email address for this person. McNamara often battled to obtain public records from officials and sued the U.S. Department of Justice in federal court in an attempt to acquire records in the Thompson case. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents left him in Jurez without enough money for a bus ticket home. Amid the tall gray peaks and dry basins, hed be harder to catch. The female racers wore their everyday clothes: skirts full of reds, yellows, pinks, and blues, and matching head scarves to block the sun. There has to be a better way to deal with this, she said. He had run one hundred miles. Thompson was president of the Sheriffs Association of Texas, headed a multi-county drug task force, and was prominent in working with federal officials in the war on drugs. Finally, after a few hours, Vega asked the translator if she could speak more slowly. I still wanted to see the town where he had spent time as a boy-where many backpackers make their crossing todayso instead, I went with Rogers. Of course, drug traffickers also know this. He passed fields with corn stalks as tall as the cabins beside them, and a few loose cows and goats. But racing couldnt alleviate the hardships ravaging the Tarahumara themselves. It had once served as an outpost for tourists exploring the natural beauty of the surrounding canyons, which helped keep it relatively tranquil until a Sinaloa bosss nephew was murdered there, in late 2014. When I visited Chambers at his office in January, his desk was makeshift: two long folding tables down the hall from a few other lawyers in a one-story brick building on the main street. He was conditioned to navigating switchbacks. Dominguez said he also has a troubled relationship with the DEA, and that he, too, is whispered by some as being corrupt. He wanted to thank his lawyer for helping him. Mahallah Escoe seeking her brother Robert Cofield Southwestern Christian Advocate (New Orleans, LA) February 14, 1884. Silvino, a farmer with four children, knew the canyons the way urban dwellers know city streets: every rock, cactus, and river bend was a sign. Chambers testified he and Thompson hired more than 20 armed guards to protect the Rio Grande shipment and split $1 million for helping move the drugs. There was little shade, and he dropped down on a set of steps next to four old. , Barbara Jean, worked at the detention facility, the first on... 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