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It was a quick-paying job, and it would help their village. Sign Up. He was the town favorite, recalled Carl Robinson, 85, a former longtime school superintendent who retired in 1992. They were more optimistic souls in a long line of people who have tried, often futilely, to farm the floodplain. 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. But by the time he arrived, what he found was troubling: because of years of drought, famine, and encroaching cartel violence, in some areas the tribes running traditions were almost entirely dormant. darkness lifted just beyond the otherwise dreary concrete plaza, revealing the fertile valley that gives Cerocahui its name: between two mountains. The slope up the mountainside was rocky and dusty, the soil eroded from years of logging and grazing. As the cartel war ricocheted from one canyon to the next, Urique became one of the last towns to be engulfed by intense violence. They discovered what they believed to be a large load of cocaine covered by several bales of hay and empty feed sacks, Stinson testified. The newspapers alleged mechanical failure, but people heard otherwise: it was said that traffickers had murdered them in the middle of the night and pushed their car into the canyon. Soon he was recruited to run drugs into Texas. He read about races that went on for several days and about the ultramarathon that now brought the best long-distance runners to the Sierra Madre. That year, many had shown up to the event starving, walking or hitchhiking from hundreds of miles around, bringing only the clothes on their backs. The end came quickly for Thompson: On Jan. 9, 1992, he was indicted on four federal drug offenses, and was suspended as sheriff. His mother, Christine, didnt want to stay in Alpine because of the publicity. In 2006, he persuaded Scott Jurek, the top American, to travel to Urique Canyon for a trail race he was organizing that is now known as the Ultra Caballo Blanco. That same summer, Silvino landed a job as a manager for a chia cultivation project for 400 pesos (about $20) a day. 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. Chambers remembers his grandfather watching the Weather Channel regularly, hoping for rain. There were comments like, I wonder how much he kept?, the sheriff said. Running was in his blood. (He starred in a public service announcement TV ad urging people to call in and help lock up smugglers.). Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents left him in Jurez without enough money for a bus ticket home. But help never came, and speaking out became risky. He attended school in Alpine, Texas, where he later bought a ranch. 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. 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. He considered skipping the race, which was 37 miles, but the next event was four months away. Robert Chambers was born in New York City on September 25, 1966, to Robert Chambers, Sr. and Phyllis Chambers. Around the same time, federal defenders in Alpine had represented a pair of Tarahumara teenagers also recruited in Chihuahua. At his sentencing hearing May 10, Thompson apologized and his wife made a final plea for leniency. As the cocaine smuggling route changed from Florida to West Texas, Stinson took an assignment in Alpine and began investigating Robert Chambers with the intention of following his drug distribution to higher levels across the U.S. Stinson and his co-investigator, Kelly Cook with U.S. Customs, cultivated a key informant (Sam Thomas) who turned on Chambers and led agents to the cocaine Thompson stored in the horse trailer at the Presidio County Fairgrounds. He had run one hundred miles. A pair of uncles on his moms side also went to prison for drug offenses, and so did a paternal uncle. DISCLAIMER NOTICE: ALL ARE PRESUMED INNOCENT. Robert Chambers has stated that he feels sorry about what happened to Jennifer, noting that he feels like he is on trial every day of his life. He was in third place. Youve done this before., In fact, Silvino had carried a mochila, as the narcos called it, three times before. In August 2016, Chvez had decried the work of the cartels in downtown Chihuahua on the International Day of the Worlds Indigenous Peoples before a crowd of several thousand. Youre strong and you know the way, they pleaded. 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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. Of course, drug traffickers also know this. The actual number was likely much higher. 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. Silvino emerged from the forest onto a roadreally a collection of rocks and dirt. Escuder had recently defended a Tarahumara man in his fifties who, they realized, had been in Vegas brickmaking crew. Studied Registered Nurse at Lone Star College System Class of 2008 Associates of Applied Science in Nursing Studied Trumpet Performance at Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester September 1, 1993 - May 15, 1994 Studied at Spring High School Class of 1993 High school Went to Spring High School Photos See all photos 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. far west texas when austin-based journalist rob d'amico started calling west texans in 2017, asking what they knew about robert chambers, rick thompson and the 1991 billion dollar bust of a cocaine-filled horse trailer in presidio county, many "quite frankly said, 'this is done, you don't need to dredge it up,'" d'amico said in an interview He and his cousins would be paid 15,000 pesos ($825) apiece. After going to law school, in northwest Indiana, he thought hed never return to West Texas, but it was Liz Rogers who persuaded him to come back. Robert is a managing . He quickly worked his way up to a key operator in smuggling drugs into the U.S. and after Acostas death, he even held the title of The Plaza (the kingpin who controlled all drug movement through Ojinaga)a strange position for an American. His grandfather served as a Presidio County commissioner and was often asked to resolve border disputes privately. Helping clients like Vega affirmed his decision, though it also generated no shortage of heartbreak. Cops and crooks are of the same caliber. of clients hed defended, it was Vega, and the plight of the Tarahumara, that stuck with him. ROBERT D CHAMBERS Private / Unlisted Po Box 4, May, Brown County, TX-76857 Cellular: No mobile line available Edit / Delete Person *Reflects database record as of Sunday, December 25, 2022. In the middle of August, Silvino and seven others cleared eight acres of weeds by hand amid a plague of red ants, tarantulas, bees, gnats, flies, scorpions, snakes, floods, and 125-degree heat. Some folks called him cocky. During the day, they slept beneath frayed creosote bushes, concealing their bags nearby, and at night they trudged north toward the freeway, avoiding rattlesnakes, coyotes, and most of all, la migra, the Border Patrol. Robert Chambers grew up on the border in south Presidio County, where his mother taught in a small school in Candelaria. For Chambers, it was one of the saddest days of his life. They bought blue jeans for those wearing traditional loincloths and paired them with guides to lead them to the border at night. Barajas, who counted Thompson as a friend, worked closely with him on the notorious Rio Grande sniper case, in which a teenager, shooting from a canyon rim on the Mexican side, killed a tourist rafter and wounded a guide in 1988. . In late 1991, when Chambers was four, his father was arrested in the largest drug bust on record in West Texas. It operated along the Rio Grande from El Paso to Alpine, from 1988 to 1992. His first time, in 2005, he did just that, tossing his mochila into the back of a truck on a highway near El Paso. Search our database of over 100 million company and executive profiles. A m me vale, Silvino told his wife. Uriques head of tourism watched in tears as Tarahumara runners collapsed. But racing couldnt alleviate the hardships ravaging the Tarahumara themselves. He grew up believing hed never. This case was filed in Travis County Courts, Heman Marion Sweatt Travis County Courthouse located in Travis, Texas. The squat white ejido headquarters proclaimed Porochi as the Tierra de Corredores, or the Land of Runners. It was the halfway point. It was big news, from the Big Bend Sentinel (The Marfa Coke Bust, it blared) all the way to the New York Times. He did not respond to a letter sent to him in prison requesting an interview. 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. Silvino remembered the women in Huisuchi who used to weave baskets out of the pine needles. After walking for ten days in the harsh borderland, their guide had abandoned them that morning. The. $13.99 . 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. People who know me, know Im not that kind of person, Dominguez said. The 2,421 pounds of cocaine later would test to be 93 percent pure, and was worth about $50 million. From then on gunfire could routinely be heard in the town and up the canyon. Its untamable, though his family certainly tried. Multinational corporations seized the merchandising opportunities, and soon, people all over the world were wearing barefoot-style shoes. Case Details Parties Dockets Case Details Case Number: We drove up a small bluff, and Rogers led me to the grave of Boyd Chambers. Rick wasnt the kingpin. He moved swiftly. When he was thirteen, they went to live with his mothers family, in Abilene. Robert Chambers was the head of the organization. Chambers was well acquainted with smugglers from Mexico and eventually became close to Pablo Acosta, the drug lord of Ojinaga. Some Tarahumara activists tried to make their plight known, like Irma Chvez Cruz, a 25-year-old mother who was a friend of Silvinos. 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. 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