Border Patrol Agents Imprisoned-Drug Smuggler Set Free-Disputed!

Border Patrol Agents Imprisoned-Drug Smuggler Freed in Case of Reverse Justice-Disputed!

Summary of the eRumor:
Two U.S. Border Patrol agents have been sentenced to more than a decade in prison because of "blind and bloodthirsty federal prosecutorial overkill" and a drug smuggler that the agents were trying to arrest got set free.

The Truth:
The eRumor leaves the impression that the two loyal Border Patrol agents were tossed into prison without merit while a drug smuggler got soft treatment.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Texas released a detailed statement about the case on September 8, 2006. The statement was partly because of the Internet eRumor.

According to the statement, the two Border Patrol agents in the case shot an unarmed man, failed to report the shooting as required, and did not know at the time that they shot him that he had 743 pounds of marijuana in the van he was driving.

After a two-week trial, a jury convicted both agents of eleven of the 12 counts in the indictment including assault with a dangerous weapon, assault with serious bodily injury, discharge of a firearm during the commission of a crime of violence and willfully violating the rights of the victim, and obstructing justice by defacing the crime scene, lying about the incident.

The statement said that the agents, Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean spotted the suspect, Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, on February 17, 2005, driving a van near the U.S. Mexico border near Fabens, Texas. They attempted to stop him for an ID check and the suspect got out of the van and started running toward the border. The agents stopped him at gunpoint and, according to the statement, he "held his hands up, as if to surrender, with his palms open, and no weapon was in either hand, or evident on his person." At one point one of the agents tried to hit the suspect with the butt of his gun and the suspect took off running again. The U.S. Attorney's office says the agents fired 15 rounds at the suspect, one of which hit him in the left buttock. The suspect made it into Mexico and got away.

It was later discovered that the suspect had been driving a van with 743 pounds of marijuana in it.

The statement said that the agents had shot the suspect knowing that he was unarmed and without knowledge of whether he was illegally in the United States or whether any crime had been committed.

Later, according to the statement, they returned to the scene of the shooting, collected all of the shell casings, and failed to report the incident as required by the Border Patrol.

The victim was granted immunity from any prosecution about the load of marijuana in return for his testimony in the case.

Updated 11/13/06

A real example of the eRumor as it has appeared on the Internet:

Border Patrol Agents Sentenced

Someone ought to tell the Bush administration that prisons are for criminals, not law-enforcement personnel trying to do their jobs. On Thursday, a federal judge in Texas sentenced two former Border Patrol agents to 11 and 12 years in prison because they shot at a drug smuggler who was evading arrest.

In February 2005, Border Patrol agent Jose Alonso Compean got in a scuffle with smuggler Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, who was driving a van that carried 743 pounds of marijuana. Agent Compean and fellow Agent Ignacio Ramos shot at Mr. Aldrete-Davila -- they say they thought he had a gun, which Mr. Aldrete-Davila denies. Agent Ramos shot the smuggler in the butt, but because Mr. Aldrete-Davila kept running -- across the border -- they said they thought they did not hit him. The agents picked up their shells and failed to report the shooting. For that violation of agency policy, Agents Ramos and Compean deserved an administrative review and some sort of job-related punishment.

Instead, due to a case of blind and bloodthirsty federal prosecutorial overkill, Agents Ramos and Compean were sentenced to 11 years and 12 years, respectively. Oh, and the smuggler was granted immunity for the 743 pounds of pot and is suing the federal government for $5 million. Crime pays, while going after criminals can land you hard time in prison.

excerpted from

Debra J. Saunders, The Washington Times