Upon replying yes and explaining our quest, they immediately decided to become part of our band of adventurers. While refueling in Presidio, three strangers approached – asking if we were headed to Mexico.
We made our final plans and headed to Presidio. Just as I was about to give up hope, Ken and his son Brandon from Grapevine arrived. On the appointed morning I found myself eating alone realizing that better judgement had taken hold of those who had seemed primed to cast their lot on this journey. A date and time was set – we would meet at the restaurant in Lajitas before venturing to Ojinaga and the quest. No photos exist of his grave, where really was it? Was it guarded by narcos? Would I come back alive? But those hardy souls who saw past the perceived danger and difficulties threw in their support. I mentioned to several folks of my quest and there was a mix of interest and bewilderment at the stupidity of engaging in what could be such a dangerous expedition. What follows is an account of the quest to find Pablo’s grave. So after making it back from Copper Canyon and riding around Big Bend for a couple of day’s, though the trip was amazing, an appetite remained unfulfilled – I had yet not accomplished my goal and I knew that before I left I must try. My original plan was to go a day or two early and search for the grave, but that later morphed into a pre Round the Bend trip to Copper Canyon – an epic journey with Fred B. The book said only that he, after being killed by a joint US and Mexican operation in Boquillas, that he was buried near his nephew on a hilltop in a town called Tecolote. So with all of this swirling through my mind as I planned my latest trip to the Bend I knew I had to find Pablo’s grave. Ultimately Pablo became a victim of his own product, his success, and his chutzpah – giving a tell all interview to the book’s author detailing who and how much he paid in the Mexican government to secure his concession – his rights to traffic through the Ojinaga “plaza”. And of course, Mimi Webb Miller, the artist who moved to the Big Bend area, bought a ranch outside Ojinaga which she still owns today (along with La Posada Milagro in Terlingua) and became involved first with the Customs agent tasked with taking down Pablo, David Regela, and then with Pablo himself, and became a de facto liaison between US law enforcement and Pablo working to get Pablo to become an informant for the US and ultimately to surrender to US authorities. Of course Pablo himself, but also US Customs agent David Regela, the young female drug dealer Becky Garcia and her once husband, smuggler Sammy. Being a long time visitor to the Big Bend region (as a youth my parents would bring my brothers and I camping at the park for 2 weeks each summer) I was mesmerized by tales around places I had visited as well as the colorful cast of characters. As I was making the decision to attend this year’s Round the Bend rally I was in the midst of reading a book I’d seen around for a while, but never managed to read – Drug Lord: The Life and Death of a Mexican Kingpin by Terrence Poppa.
0 kommentar(er)
