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Forgotten is a production of iHeart Media

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and Unusual Productions Before

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we start. This podcast contains

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accounts which some listeners will find

0:11

disturbing, but without them, the story

0:13

can't be fully understood. Please

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take care while listening last

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time on Forgotten. At

0:24

the beginning, I thought it was a typical case

0:26

of a serial killer, but it

0:29

appeared there was a highly organized group.

0:32

The fact that a lawyer is murdered

0:35

in such a public way or should we

0:37

call ourn execution, indicates that we're

0:40

talking about something very

0:42

big behind these murders. If

0:45

you really want to know the underbelly of what, you

0:48

need to talk to the

0:50

Devil's lawyer, Dan't tell Mas

0:53

Dante, very smart, decided

0:56

to hide this guy Togiment to

0:58

present under false charges under

1:00

a different name. He would always leave

1:02

me with the little titbit, and one of

1:04

them was this guy's alive if

1:08

you're interested. It

1:13

was two thousand and three and Alfredo Coccado

1:15

was in Huires with an assignment from the Dallas

1:17

Morning News find out who

1:20

was killing the women and why. Alfredo

1:23

had been asking everyone he could think of, but no

1:25

one seemed able to give him answers. Finally,

1:29

Este Javascano introduced him to Dante

1:31

Almaras, the so called Devil's lawyer,

1:34

and Dante did not disappoint. He

1:36

had a drug dealer on the run hidden

1:39

in the Juires prison who claimed

1:41

firsthand knowledge of the killings. The

1:46

fact that you had an eye witness was

1:48

incredibly important, he alleged,

1:50

and I had no reason to not

1:53

be looon, but alged to be part of the cartel.

1:56

And it finally worked out where I was able

1:58

to visit this person under what someone

2:00

was an alias. But

2:03

we talked long and long, and

2:06

I kept asking, so why are these women being

2:08

killed? Alfredo was apparently

2:11

on the verge of getting the story, but

2:13

just like Dante, the source didn't give

2:15

up all his information at once. And

2:18

the thing that really kind of caught my eyeways

2:20

said, you know, these are women who

2:23

are coming from other parts of the country, who

2:26

if they go miss him for a day or two or

2:28

a week, no one's going to miss him immediately.

2:31

And so you know, little things started clicking.

2:36

So here was Alfredo sitting

2:38

in a jail cell in Juarez, when,

2:41

to his surprise, this alleged cartel

2:43

member started giving him specifics.

2:46

I had a night witness who alleged

2:49

that he had been at these parties where

2:51

these women would be brought into and

2:54

I mean they would turn into orgies or rapes, and

2:56

eventually the women would be killed because

2:58

they knew too much. Alfredo

3:03

was shocked, although more so when

3:05

the witness went on to explain that the women

3:07

were taken off the streets to celebrate successful

3:10

drug runs to the US. So

3:14

this was the first time that I might targuing to

3:17

someone Facebook phase and

3:19

he's given me an account and

3:22

I witness account, and we're like, there's no way

3:24

we can report that unless

3:27

we really get as much evidence

3:30

as possible. Alfredo

3:34

had a shocking but potentially plausible

3:37

explanation for what was happening to the women

3:39

in wires, but could he

3:41

trust the information. After

3:43

all, he'd heard the account from a drug

3:45

dealer who wants to save his own skin, who

3:48

he met through an underworld lawyer,

3:50

himself openly on a quest for

3:52

revenge. At times, you feel

3:55

like an American journey. I feel like everybody's sort of playing

3:57

you, you know. But if

3:59

it was true, it opened up all

4:01

kinds of new questions. How

4:04

could the men act with such brutality

4:06

and impunity, who else

4:08

knew what Alfredo had just been told and

4:11

who might be complicit in covering

4:13

it up. I'm

4:15

as Voloshi and I'm Monica. This

4:18

is forgotten the women acquires

4:27

Barama LOI

4:33

you know? So

4:38

do you know? Ma se

4:51

Hala Felicia? So

5:01

just months earlier, Monica,

5:03

Alfredo's in DC interviewing

5:05

presidents and ambassadors, and

5:08

now he's in a jail cell in

5:10

Juarez interviewing a drug

5:13

dealer with Dante by his side.

5:15

How does he get here? Something

5:18

to remember here is that Alfredo

5:21

ended up in this jail cell out

5:23

of naivety more

5:25

so than astute planning. He's

5:28

convinced that all of Mexico's

5:30

problems will disappear now

5:32

that it has free and fair elections,

5:36

and he's on his way to Mexico City to cover

5:38

this progress. Wattis was

5:40

only supposed to be a pit stop.

5:44

He's now waited into the nether

5:46

world and Dante was

5:49

his link. And how do you make

5:51

sense of this nether world where Dante

5:53

Evidendee operates and where he's

5:56

did Alfredo? Well, that's

5:58

a big question. In Mexico,

6:01

there are these two parallel universes

6:04

that coexist, the one that's visible

6:06

on the surface and the one that's

6:08

not. And it's that invisible

6:11

universe that operates completely

6:14

outside the rule of law. It's

6:16

the one everyone knows exists but

6:19

nobody talks about. To

6:21

talk about it openly is

6:23

to ask for trouble because this

6:26

realm is ruled by organized

6:28

crime, and this is where

6:31

Alfredo's witness operates.

6:34

But Alfredo's mission is to

6:36

find out who is killing the

6:38

women of Hoats, and to answer

6:40

that question, you really have

6:43

no choice but to tread into the

6:45

hoddas underworld as a

6:47

reporter who's been relentlessly asking

6:49

who's doing this, who's behind the murders,

6:51

who's responsible. What do you

6:53

think Alfredo's thinking

6:56

when he was hearing this testimony. Well,

6:58

I'm certain that Alfredo feeling

7:00

a mix of giddiness and fear

7:03

because you're starting to tread

7:06

past an invisible line where

7:09

you go from the traditional,

7:12

reliable sources

7:14

into this grayer world. And

7:17

I mean, as you might imagine, he's blown

7:20

away by this account, but he

7:22

knows that as a good journalist, he

7:24

just can't take this account and put it in the newspaper.

7:27

Everyone you interview will have an agenda,

7:30

probably most especially a drug trafficker.

7:33

So you can't just take a witness account

7:36

at face value. You have to

7:38

get confirmation from

7:41

multiple sources. Alfredo

7:45

had a potentially huge break about the

7:47

connection between the women's murders and

7:49

organized crime in Huirez, but

7:52

he couldn't go to print without verifying

7:54

the information was true. And in that sense,

7:56

Alfredo's journey was just beginning. I

7:59

mean, he wasn't the only person who

8:02

was still asking questions about who

8:04

was responsible for the murders of women in Huarez.

8:07

By this point, Paula Flores had been trying

8:09

to establish who was responsible for her

8:11

daughter's murder for five years,

8:14

and they've been long years. Paula

8:17

was prepared to tell Sigorio's story again

8:19

and again to keep her memory alive and

8:22

in the hope it might bring her closer to the

8:24

answer she craved. She got

8:26

increasingly involved in activism with

8:28

the mothers of other victims. But

8:31

back when Sigario first went missing, Paula

8:34

told us her son Cheuie took it very

8:36

hard.

8:40

Before she disappeared, she had bought a cassette

8:42

of Los Demidradios and we had a van

8:44

An aerostar that they bought between themselves.

8:48

In those days, she would insist that Julie play

8:50

the cassette in the van because she didn't know how

8:52

to work it. And she would tell Julie

8:54

play the cassette, play that the Mederios cassette,

8:57

and Juie would say, quit being a pest, We'll

8:59

put it on a second. He

9:01

would stall and not do it. After

9:06

she disappeared, my son would lock

9:08

himself in that van with the cassette

9:11

and he would play that music and just cry

9:14

because it reminded him of her. Before

9:22

moving to Juarez, Paula has sent letters

9:25

to her husband Jesus, asking

9:27

if the city was safe for their six daughters.

9:30

She'd heard about the murders there and was

9:32

concerned about cholos or gang members

9:34

in the neighborhood. Jesus

9:37

replied that there weren't any, just a boy

9:39

who hung around with his sister. And

9:41

after the family moved to Juarez, they

9:43

got to know this boy. He was called

9:46

Mamuelio. He

9:49

was a boy about sixteen years old.

9:52

Actually felt sorry for him because he had no

9:54

family. He had nothing here. He

9:56

was abandoned by his mother when he was very young.

9:59

Ma Leo became friends with Paula's son,

10:01

Chewy, and started to spend time with the family,

10:04

even sharing meals with them.

10:08

My son and he'd known us since we moved

10:10

here. Always

10:12

noticed that he liked Sa Gradio. But

10:15

manual Leo was far from being a

10:17

desirable suitor. He

10:19

was what's known as a coyote.

10:23

We arrived here in ninety five. He was working

10:25

smuggling people into the United States.

10:28

Not only did he cross people, but he also crossed

10:30

drugs and all. Paula and

10:32

her family lived in Lomas de Pouleo, which

10:35

at the time was only separated from

10:37

the US by a barbed wire fence, so

10:40

smuggling was an appealing line of business

10:42

in the area. For a teenager like Manuelo.

10:45

It seemed to offer better prospects than working

10:47

in a factory for less than seven dollars

10:50

a day. Often

10:53

came to my house asking for water because he

10:55

was crossing the US border. Never

10:57

refused to give him water. While

11:02

Paula was concerned about Mamulio's

11:04

connections to the Huire's underworld, she

11:07

also understood his circumstances. He

11:09

was as poor as the Flora's family, and

11:12

even more vulnerable because he didn't have

11:14

any family of his own, so Paula

11:16

helped him out where she could. A

11:19

few weeks after Sir Gario's body was discovered,

11:22

Mammolio paid her a visit. Paula

11:26

was at home grieving, tending

11:28

to an altar commemorating her daughter. Flowers

11:32

letters are Winnie the Pooh, stuffed

11:34

toy from the micheler, and

11:37

something about this visit seemed off. Maybe

11:41

has asked me for water. I told him

11:43

go ahead, filled the gallant that

11:46

time he saw me crying and he said, you

11:48

cried too much. You stopped crying for her. These

11:51

were words that did not seem appropriate

11:53

to the situation, and the angered

11:56

Paula tugging at a suspicion

11:59

she already felt, yes, you will

12:01

be turned around and said, you know what, I'll

12:03

always curse my daughter's killers because

12:05

she didn't deserve to die that way.

12:08

And he told me nervously, don't say

12:10

that, and they said, yes, that's

12:13

what I asked all the time. I curse them.

12:19

After a few tense moments, Mamoi

12:21

Leo left with his gallon of water and

12:24

Paula returned to the altar. By

12:26

this point, she and her family had searched frantically

12:29

through the night, posting fliers

12:31

and trying to track down any leads. She'd

12:34

yelled Sagrario's name desperately into

12:36

the night. She'd even broken into a

12:38

government meeting and begged the Attorney

12:40

General on her knees for help, and

12:44

she'd prayed and prayed. I

12:49

would ask God to let my daughter come to

12:51

me and tell me who had harmed her, who

12:53

had taken her. At

12:55

night in bed, I would turn my back to my husband

12:58

and face the corner looking for my daughter. Speaking

13:02

to God, I told him I'm not

13:04

good enough to see my daughter, but allow her

13:06

to come to me, even if it's in my dreams. Let

13:09

her tell me in my dreams.

13:14

Don't know if I was asleep or awake, but

13:16

I heard a voice, a

13:19

voice talking to me softly like la.

13:23

She said baola day

13:27

when she spoke without moving, not knowing

13:29

if I was asleep, I asked her, is

13:32

that you said? But I

13:34

say a very clear voice. She told me yes.

13:45

I started dreaming of her. In Durango was

13:49

a place where water trickles out of stones,

13:52

and we collected water to drink from there,

13:54

and I saw her kneeling down washing

13:57

some clothes. There. I

13:59

went down to her and the first thing I did

14:01

was caress her hair and moved it off her

14:03

face. Her hair was long,

14:06

black and wavy. The

14:09

first thing I told her was who

14:11

took you? My daughter? Who hurt you? Who

14:13

took you? Tell me who took you? She

14:16

told me it

14:18

was Manuelillo. In

14:29

the depths of her grief, after weeks

14:31

of searching for Cigario with no answers

14:33

and no help from the authorities, it

14:36

seemed to Paula like her prayers had

14:38

been answered. She had a name,

14:41

and even though it came from a dream, it seemed

14:43

plausible. Mammalio's

14:45

life as a coyote brought him into contact

14:47

with dangerous criminals, but

14:50

he was someone who Paula knew, who

14:52

Cigario had known. They'd invited

14:55

him into their home and thought of him as

14:57

a friend, so the next time

14:59

he showed up in search of water, Paula

15:01

challenged him. At first,

15:04

Mamoilio denied all knowledge, but

15:07

Paula had a relentless conviction in her dream,

15:10

and ultimately Mamuoilio confessed

15:12

that he did know something about her daughter's

15:14

fate. Medico,

15:17

he told me, you know what the narcos from Elvaya

15:19

did it? Asked him, what could

15:21

the narcos from Elvaio have to do with my daughter?

15:27

When they're like a girl, they find her

15:30

no matter the cost. Paula's

15:33

dreams seemed to have revealed something to her

15:36

that she already felt. Mamoelio

15:39

knew something about Sigario's murder.

15:42

But who were these other narcos drug

15:44

traffickers from elvae? How

15:46

were they involved? When

15:48

we come back? Mamoelio appears

15:51

poised to answer those questions. Before

16:08

the break, manuel Leo told Paula

16:10

that narcos were responsible for Sir Gario's

16:12

murder. Paula now felt

16:15

she had something to go on. The

16:17

authorities had been unhelpful

16:19

even after her protest before the Attorney General,

16:22

but now she had new information to share

16:24

with them, and so she went to the Special

16:26

Prosecutor's office in Juarez to

16:28

ask them for help. At

16:31

first, Paula was treated with the usual

16:33

dismissive attitude, especially

16:35

when she told them that the lead began with a

16:37

dream. But Paula persisted,

16:40

and ultimately manuel Leo was

16:42

arrested and he gave the authorities some more

16:44

details about his part in

16:46

Sir Gario's fate. In the third

16:48

class normal statement, he names

16:50

two other people the class. He states that

16:52

he was paid five hundred U s. Dollars for

16:54

taking them to my daughter's workplace. They

16:59

brought him people to cross illegally, but he

17:01

also crossed drugs for them. This

17:03

all seemed to be taking Paula closer

17:05

and closer to the answer she craved. But

17:08

then Manuelo retracted his statement,

17:12

and in fact he entered a new testimony

17:14

before he was sentenced, saying that

17:16

he had acted completely alone. Paula,

17:19

Jesus, and two of their children went

17:21

to the sentencing hearing to challenge him.

17:25

I faced him, I told him, tell

17:27

the truth once and for all. You didn't

17:29

act alone. Julie

17:31

approached him and said how many times

17:33

did you stab her? At least? And then he got

17:35

scared and he said no. He went

17:39

quiet and said like three,

17:43

I believe my daughter had six. Manuelo

17:48

didn't even know how many times Sir Garrio

17:51

had been stabbed, and Paula

17:53

didn't believe a word he was saying in

17:55

front of everyone. She pressed him to

17:58

him, he used to feel dio along with my

18:00

daughters. Due to meet with my children,

18:03

I said, why don't you tell us the truth

18:05

at once? Who are you covering up for? That's

18:12

how he called the state police. He

18:15

said, it's just that they told me that I should just accuse

18:17

myself for all of this to be over. Why

18:22

would Mamoilio paint himself as a murderer

18:25

when in fact he was likely a scout. Why

18:28

would he be prepared to take the fall for these

18:30

other smugglers, and why would

18:32

the authorities pressure him to do so? The

18:35

process of scapegoating was familiar

18:38

Sharif the so called Rebelde's

18:40

gang, the bus drivers Manuelio.

18:45

Except Manuelio likely wasn't innocent

18:47

in Sagario's disappearance. He

18:49

had initially confessed that he was an accessory

18:52

to a larger crime. Since

18:55

two thousand and five, he has served a twenty

18:57

nine years sentence. You always

19:00

all the authorities if he's getting other people

19:02

involved, he didn't just make them up.

19:04

They said that the emblematic case of Sagardio

19:07

has been solved. Er

19:09

was in jail already, and all I've

19:12

always said the opposite. But he's not

19:14

the only one, and that the authors of the crime

19:17

are still Freelona.

19:22

Who are the authors of the crime, and

19:24

how do they remain free? These

19:26

are questions Paula is asking twenty

19:29

years after her daughter's murder. But

19:32

the suspicions and hints we'd heard that there

19:34

was a network of scouts in Juarez identifying

19:37

women to be murdered by other men were

19:40

starting to seem more and more plausible

19:45

to me. Hearing about Paula's dream

19:48

why she sees Sagrario again in

19:50

their hometown in Durango is

19:53

one of the moments in our reporting that sticks

19:55

with me the most. But Monica,

19:57

you told me that hearing these kinds of dreams

20:00

from family members something

20:02

I've experienced before. Yes.

20:05

So it was the aunt of

20:07

a young woman who went missing in

20:09

twenty ten, and she also describes

20:12

a dream very similar to Paula's

20:14

dream, in which she's invoking

20:18

her missing niece and imploring

20:20

her to please tell her where are you?

20:23

Who did this to you? Help me solve

20:25

this crime. And

20:30

I think those dreams are born out

20:32

of desperation, just the sheer

20:34

desperation and impotence that

20:37

these families feel not

20:39

being able to rely on

20:42

the authorities whose job it is

20:45

to find those responsible. And

20:47

yet even if the authorities don't

20:49

want to acknowledge it. Once

20:52

you hear this story about Mamma Leo alongside

20:54

Alfredo's story, the

20:56

connections seem hard to dispute. I mean,

20:58

there's these chilling parallels

21:00

between what Manuelio tells

21:03

Paula and what this drug

21:05

dealer witness tells Alfredo.

21:08

Manuelo was just an adolescent,

21:10

a young man, and really, I

21:12

mean, the way these drug traffickers recruit

21:15

young men like him is they say, hey,

21:17

look, this is all you have to do. They make it seem very

21:19

simple, here's what you have to do, and here's what we're

21:21

going to pay you. And for

21:24

a lot of these immigrants in Watts

21:26

who don't necessarily have the

21:29

family ties that they used to back

21:31

in their hometowns in the interior

21:33

of Mexico, joining a gang

21:36

or the drug cartel offers

21:38

that connection of family that they may

21:40

have lost. But the trade off

21:42

is he has to then answer to

21:45

the underworld. There's no

21:47

justice system in drug trafficking.

21:49

If you run a foul of the cartel, that's

21:52

typically a death sentence. Manuelio

21:56

most certainly knew this, so when he

21:58

got orders in you that

22:00

his choice was either to follow those orders

22:03

or kiss his life goodbye, and

22:06

of all people, it feels like Paula Flores

22:09

understood this. That was something very

22:11

remarkable to me, is

22:13

that there's a part of her that

22:15

pities him, that feels sympathy for

22:18

him being in this impossible situation.

22:23

As of today, Manuelio is in jail,

22:25

and his official confession states that he

22:27

acted alone, that as

22:29

a sixteen year old, he abducted and

22:31

killed Sagrario, the daughter of the family

22:34

who gave him water as he smuggled people

22:36

through the desert. The

22:38

authorities never followed up on his initial

22:40

confession to Paula about the narticles

22:42

from Elvae. Rather than

22:44

acknowledging a potential network, they

22:47

preferred to blame individuals, and

22:50

despite mounting evidence pointing to organization

22:53

behind the murders, there was an enduring

22:56

suspicion on both sides of the border

22:58

that a serial killer was at work in Huirez.

23:01

That's what brought Candice Scrophic there in the nineteen

23:03

nineties. She's a forensic criminologist

23:06

at Fresno State University. I

23:11

was trained by FBI

23:13

profilers in Quantico, Virginia

23:15

as a psychologist. My background

23:18

is consistent with the kinds of things that

23:20

the agents are learning about

23:23

mental disorders, various forms of psychopathology,

23:26

and how they may leave clues at

23:28

crime scenes. But basically

23:31

it was drilling down case

23:33

after case trying to identify

23:35

patterns of behavior that

23:37

could be reflective of the kind

23:40

of person that would perpetrate

23:42

that kind of crime. Candice went

23:44

to Juarez with her friend and colleague,

23:47

Robert Wrestler. He was a retired

23:49

FBI agent who had helped create the bureau's

23:51

Behavioral Science Unit. He was

23:54

one of the world's top experts on serial

23:56

killers. In fact, he's credited

23:58

with coining the term. Candice

24:00

and Wrestler were in Juarez at the invitation

24:03

of an American public safety advisor

24:05

to the huire's authorities, so

24:08

Candice got access to the case files.

24:11

I saw all the homicide photographs, I

24:13

went through all the autopsy reports and things,

24:15

and without doubt in my mind,

24:18

there was one serial murderer operating

24:21

who was getting the little girls and

24:23

the young adolescent girls in terms of patterns

24:25

of behavior. As

24:28

Candice reviewed the case files, it became

24:30

clear to her that there was a serial killer

24:32

operating in Juarez, someone

24:34

praying on very young victims. But

24:37

the murders of Cigarrio and Lili Alejandra

24:40

didn't match that pattern and not died

24:42

many others. What stun

24:44

Candice was that there was clearly something else,

24:47

bigger going on in the city as

24:49

well, something on a scale

24:51

she'd never seen before. Were

24:54

most of these hundreds of murders

24:56

were they attributed to serial killers?

24:58

While not in the tradition a sense, there

25:01

was one crime scene, in particular the canvas

25:03

examined, which confirmed to her what

25:05

was happening in Juarez was unlike anything

25:08

else she'd ever encountered, and

25:11

as a warning, her description is very upsetting.

25:15

Well, one of the bodies was left

25:17

on the outskirts of Warez, and

25:20

they had clearly driven her. They

25:22

because of the numbers of footprints, they

25:24

had abducted her, driven her, got

25:27

out of the truck and made

25:29

her walk without her shoes into

25:32

the semi desert area, where

25:35

presumably they raped her repeatedly and

25:38

strangled her and just

25:41

left her exposed nude,

25:46

legs spread open, just

25:51

just showing their

25:53

their their disgust of

25:56

her. So

26:00

the first person that would walk upon the crime scene

26:02

as it were, would be met with

26:07

her legs open. Candice

26:17

was deeply shocked. Despite her years of

26:19

experience investigating serial killing

26:22

and sexual crime. In fact,

26:24

even Robert Wrestler was taken aback. I

26:27

asked Agent Wrestler about that, because he has

26:29

more experience and homicide

26:31

and his little finger than I have in

26:33

my whole body. And I said, Bob,

26:36

have you ever seen anything like this in

26:39

your career when your experience And

26:41

he said, no, I haven't. The

26:45

men that I study mostly

26:47

they operate alone. I mean,

26:49

I think about it. If I were intent upon

26:52

killing a number of people as long as

26:54

I could, I don't think i'd wanted anybody

26:56

watching me do it. Certainly they

26:58

could turn me in. How would I know I could

27:00

trust them with this? So

27:02

I started thinking, how

27:04

could all of these men trust each other?

27:07

What if one of them goes to the bar

27:10

and start shooting his mouth off about their latest

27:12

victim. And then I

27:15

realized he's not going

27:17

to be doing that, because

27:19

there is a pact. If it's not

27:21

spoken, it's certainly unspoken that

27:23

if you start turning any of

27:26

us in, pointing any fingers in any of us,

27:30

we think you love your family, and

27:33

we'll kill them first. What

27:38

Candice was describing went beyond

27:40

killing for pleasure. It was

27:42

killing as a bonding ritual, a

27:45

new definition of serial killing. According

27:48

to our analysis, one of the key reasons

27:50

why so many women were murdered in Juarez

27:53

was to create a code of loyalty

27:55

and silence. The murders

27:57

were not a side effect of cartel islands.

28:01

They were a crucial part of how

28:03

it worked. But

28:05

if this was apparent from the crime scenes

28:07

and even from the testimony of lower level

28:10

cartel affiliates, why

28:12

didn't the authorities not take more decisive

28:14

action. Well, Candice

28:17

and Robert Wrestler traveled to Juarez

28:19

as private individuals, but

28:22

not long after their trip, the FBI

28:24

launched an official operation in

28:26

Juarez to learn more about

28:28

how the cartel operated. It

28:30

was led by Frank Evans, who was Assistant

28:33

Special Agent in charge of the FBI's

28:35

El Paso office from nineteen

28:37

ninety eight the Sagrario went missing

28:40

to two thousand. My

28:43

name's Frank Evans, and while

28:45

I was in the FBI, I had the opportunity

28:48

to work violent crimes, kidnappings,

28:51

extortions, organized crime, of

28:54

course, drug investigations or what ultimately

28:56

brought me to the FBI office and or person.

28:59

So when interested the El Paso FBI

29:01

in the Howadast cartel. Well at that

29:04

time, obviously, the Warrist cartel was a

29:06

major mover of contraband in the

29:08

United States, any kind of drug

29:10

that could be moved, marijuana, cocaine. The

29:13

cartel control they called the

29:15

Warres Corridor. Wires's

29:18

position across the border from El Paso

29:20

made it one of the world's most sought after drug

29:22

trafficking routs, and the

29:25

cartel acted with extraordinary violence

29:27

to protect their turf. And

29:29

this violence didn't respect nationality. So

29:32

in nineteen ninety nine, the FBI received

29:34

a tip that a number of American men

29:37

had been killed by the cartel in Mexico.

29:40

If they could prove these murders of American citizens,

29:43

they could secure an indictment for the leader of the Juires

29:46

cartel, Vicente Cario Fuentes.

29:48

The FBI wanted to have him arrested and extradited

29:51

for trial in the US, and they

29:53

were given unprecedented jurisdiction by the

29:55

Mexican government to cross the border

29:58

to recover and analyze the

29:59

BOD. The mission was called

30:02

Operation Plaza Sweep. I mean

30:05

we crossed in with food,

30:08

water, portable toilets,

30:10

heavy machinery, forensic equipment.

30:13

We actually had an entire

30:16

forensic morgue in the

30:18

FBI space here in El Paso, and

30:22

the scale of the investigation was

30:24

extremely large. You

30:27

know, the cartel didn't have taqua stands

30:29

waiting for us, and you know called drink stands.

30:32

They were truly shocked that you

30:34

now have one hundred and twenty FBI agents

30:37

with equipment coming into Mexico.

30:40

How did you know there was shocked on their

30:42

behalf. You know, Berties told

30:44

us listening, you

30:47

know, potentially one

30:53

of Frank's goals when he arrived in Juarez was

30:56

to evaluate how evidence was connected

30:58

and stalled, and he discovered

31:00

some fundamental problems. Many

31:02

of the crime scenes were contaminated.

31:05

In some cases, the bodies were

31:08

discovered and you

31:10

know, okay, guys, when you discover one,

31:14

don't touch it. Let your forensics

31:16

people come in. Well, then the forensics

31:19

people come in, they turn the body over and there's fresh

31:21

cigarette butts under the body.

31:23

Well, when you check into it and you find out the

31:26

cigarette butts belonged to the

31:29

detective that was there first. Well,

31:31

wait a minute, you didn't touch the body. No, no, I didn't

31:34

touch the body. Well, how did your cigarette butts get under

31:36

the body. Oh, you know, the media wanted

31:38

to take some pictures, so I rolled the body over

31:40

and it must have happened. Then how

31:43

does this occur, Well, it doesn't occur

31:45

by accident, it occurs by design. If

31:48

you have a contaminated crime scene, you

31:51

can't tie it successfully to

31:55

a subject or subjects. To

31:57

Frank, it appeared the crime scenes with being

32:00

purposefully disturbed by

32:02

the very people whose job it was to preserve

32:04

them. When you don't follow your established

32:07

protocols, you are

32:10

ensuring that any evidence that is

32:13

recovered is going to be almost

32:15

impossible to introduce a trial.

32:18

You undermined everything. Frank

32:21

was discovering that it wasn't the exception

32:23

for crime scenes to be tampered with in Huirez,

32:26

it was the norm, and it prevented

32:29

crimes from ever being solved. The

32:31

killings Frank was initially concerned with

32:33

were murders of men committed by the

32:35

cartel, But then he had

32:37

an idea. What if the FBI

32:40

also offered to help the local police get

32:42

to the bottom of the women's murders. When

32:45

we come back, we learn what came of that offer.

33:04

Before the break, Frank Evans was describing

33:06

his work to exhume bodies as part

33:08

of Operation Plaza Sweep, an

33:11

FBI effort to secure an indictment against

33:13

the Quires cartel leader for the murder

33:15

of American citizens. In

33:17

that investigation, his Mexican counterparts

33:20

were from the federal police, but one

33:22

in Quires. Franks or an opportunity

33:25

to offer the FBI's resources

33:27

to the local and state police to

33:29

help solve the murders of women. Part

33:32

of it was selfish. We were trying to see can

33:34

we work with anybody locally. You

33:36

know, is it possible that there's

33:38

a local group that might be able to be vetted

33:41

into Plaza Sweep. You

33:43

know, we have resources that we will make

33:45

available to you as you look at these harmicides.

33:48

We will give you the best minds

33:51

the FBI has in criminal profiling

33:53

to look at your case and

33:56

tell you what they think. Specifically,

33:59

Frank access to the FBI's analysts

34:01

at Quantico, the men and women

34:04

who'd been trained in Robert Wrestler's approach

34:06

to forensic psychology.

34:08

The officials in Huis accepted, and

34:10

as they've done with Candice, they handed over

34:13

case files. We were

34:15

given seventy six files.

34:17

Each file representing one of the deceased.

34:20

The profilers took those files, they

34:23

went through them just like they would a file

34:25

that would be provided by a United

34:27

States law enforcement entity, and

34:30

they identified thirty four cases

34:32

that had items of interest

34:35

that they wanted to explore further. Thirty

34:38

four of the seventy six files shared

34:41

by the police had common characteristics,

34:43

indicating to the FBI profilers

34:46

that the same people may have been involved

34:48

in the murders. This felt

34:51

like a potentially huge break. Then

34:53

something happened that told Frank everything

34:56

he needed to know about his partners in Mexico.

34:59

It was that point that the authorities,

35:02

the State Attorney General's Office of HuaHua,

35:05

it's like, oh, we've gotten the FBI

35:07

reports and they agree with us one hundred percent

35:09

and case closed. In

35:12

fact, they claimed that the FBI's reports

35:14

confirmed the guilt of Abdel Latif

35:17

Sharif Sharif, the Egyptian

35:19

chemist who stood accused of both

35:21

being a serial killer and then paying

35:23

a gang to commit murders on his behalf.

35:26

In order to prove his innocence, they

35:29

distorted what the report said in

35:31

order to validate the

35:33

position that they had been espousing.

35:36

But why why the failure

35:38

after failure to resolve these crimes

35:40

once and for all. We

35:42

had evidence that, unfortunately

35:45

I even not at liberty to go into that

35:48

the handling of the femicide cases

35:50

was not in accordance with accepted

35:53

police procedure. And

35:56

the assumption is it is either

35:58

than gross and cops on the

36:00

part of the police officials, or

36:02

it's deliberate. You

36:04

know, you can only be incompetent so many times.

36:07

You can't be incompetent three hundred plus

36:09

times. From our perspective,

36:12

it showed that there wasn't a real

36:14

commitment to resolve

36:17

the femicides. Do you ever know?

36:21

Could you tell why why there was a lack No?

36:23

We speculated, Well,

36:25

our speculation was that when

36:28

you don't want a crime to be solved,

36:30

it's because the resolution

36:32

of it is going to be extremely either

36:34

embarrassing to somebody in power, or

36:38

it's going to come back to you,

36:41

you being the law enforcement

36:43

authorities. The

36:47

law enforcement authorities. Was

36:49

it possible they weren't just failing to

36:51

solve the murders of women, but

36:53

actively involved in them. Could

36:56

this explain why decades of murders

36:58

had gone unsolved? Well,

37:01

Alfredo's reporting was also

37:03

beginning to suggest this might be the case.

37:08

So Alfredo ultimately did

37:10

feel that he could trust what he'd heard from that

37:12

drug dealer in the Howire's Prison

37:14

Monica, and he

37:17

went to print with a huge story. How

37:20

did he get there? Well, he paired

37:22

up with another colleague, and together

37:25

they backed up the witness's account

37:27

with intelligence from federal law

37:29

enforcement from the US

37:31

and Mexico. One

37:33

of the law enforcement accounts that

37:36

Alfredo prince in his story is

37:38

an unnamed US official who

37:41

cites raw intelligence and

37:43

he says, quote, all you

37:45

have to do is put together a simple

37:48

investigative equation of why

37:50

and how, and you get to the who

37:53

why because they can because

37:55

there's a sense of excitement, a sense

37:58

of and erotic feeling icadios.

38:00

That is, hitmen fit the profile.

38:03

There is no limit anymore to what

38:05

they can do. They enjoy the feeling

38:08

of ecstasy, the orgies, the

38:10

women are like trophies for them.

38:12

They are thrill kills. These

38:15

guys like the feeling of control.

38:18

But they need help, and that's where

38:20

the local and state police come in.

38:25

I hate that quote, but

38:28

I don't doubt it's true. Alfredo

38:31

was able to verify that the very

38:33

police who were supposed to be protecting

38:36

the public and investigating the

38:38

crimes were actually the ones committing

38:40

the crimes. When

38:43

you read that first article

38:45

on the front page of the Dallas

38:47

Morning News, I mean it

38:50

was huge. Alfredo's

38:53

story went to print in February

38:56

two thousand and four. Later

38:58

on he reprinted the drugs played

39:00

by play account in his book Midnight

39:02

in Mexico. To have it debate

39:05

him, we asked him to read it aloud. The

39:08

cops would first identify potential victims

39:11

study their routine. It

39:13

wasn't hard to lure the women. Police

39:16

would stopped at them on the street as they got off

39:18

work and tell them that a family member

39:20

was missing or something had happened to

39:22

their child, and wouldn't they please

39:24

get in the backseat of the police car. The

39:28

cops would then transport them to the parties,

39:30

where they would be gang raped. By

39:33

the end, the women always knew too much

39:35

and they would kill. This

39:42

would explain the lackluster search for Cigario.

39:45

It would explain why when witnesses reported

39:47

seeing Lily Alexander struggling, the

39:50

police look book for the Knight says

39:52

nothing to report. This

39:55

was a conspiracy and it

39:57

wouldn't have been uncovered without the work of journalists

40:00

like Alfredo. This

40:03

is how journalism is supposed to work.

40:05

This is why we need a strong and

40:07

robust press. It

40:10

took the combination of these Mexican

40:12

reporters who first wrote about

40:14

these crimes beginning in nineteen ninety

40:16

three, then Diana calling

40:18

attention to the systematic

40:21

nature of the murders, and Alfredo

40:23

confirming the corruption behind

40:26

it. But this isn't where

40:28

the story ends. I mean, the corrupt

40:30

cops are only part of the equation.

40:36

Alfredo had finally corroborated

40:38

what Dante's source had told him, and

40:41

it exposed the involvement of certain police

40:44

officers. But if law

40:46

enforcement agents were acting on behalf

40:48

of the cartel, how far

40:50

did the influence of organized crime reach?

40:53

And who else was complicit in the abduction

40:56

and murder of women. On

40:58

his journey to answer those questions, Alfredo

41:01

paid a visit to the corridors of power in

41:03

Mexico City, and he

41:05

came into contact with a force that seemed

41:08

far more menacing than corrupt cops. Yeah,

41:13

I mean, I mean, I'm in the heart of se Alquis in

41:15

downtown. Quite the Medico near the

41:17

cathedral, near the park, and I'm

41:19

walking away and there's a number comes in and

41:21

it's not a number, is just unknown. It says

41:23

unknown on your says unown on the phone and

41:26

the person says a key or

41:30

La Lisi's fays what's that in English?

41:33

I'm right behind you. On the

41:35

sixteenth of September, Avenue

41:39

I was being watched, Alfredo

41:43

was scared and he turned to the only person he

41:45

could think of, Dante.

41:48

It was the first time I saw Dante, and I thought he

41:50

looked worried, and

41:53

then he finally says, yeah the chaste, which

41:56

means you're fucked, I

41:59

said. He says, they're aren'to you? La

42:02

Lina is Anto you. In

42:10

the next episode, Alfredo makes a

42:12

break for safety. He tries to

42:14

understand what La Lina is and

42:17

what their role might be in the murders. I'm

42:21

as Flash and I'm Monica.

42:24

See you next time? Do

42:26

you know not? See

42:30

so? Do you know

42:32

not? Sque

42:45

I love Licia. Forgotten

43:10

The Women of Juarez is co hosted

43:12

by me Monica and

43:14

me oswal Oshin. Forgotten

43:17

is executive produced by Me and

43:19

Mangesh Hatiga. Our

43:22

producers are Julian Weller and Katrina

43:24

Norvell. Sound editing by Julian

43:27

Weller, Jakapo Penzo and Aaron

43:29

Kaufman. Lucas Riley is

43:31

our story editor. Caitlin Thompson

43:34

is our consulting producer. Recording

43:36

assistance this episode from Alice

43:38

Daniel and Michael Perez. Production

43:41

support from Emily Maronoff and

43:43

Aaron Kaufman. Our theme tune

43:45

is rich Namo as

43:47

performed by Natalie La, music

43:51

by Leonardo Hablum and Hakkabo

43:53

Libermann. Additional music by

43:55

Aaron Kaufman. Karla Tassara

43:58

is the voice actor for Paula Flores