Well, that may happen there, the professor responded, but thats not the way its supposed to happen.. From there, the runners followed white arrows spray-painted on the ground into a forest of pion pine, juniper, and small oak trees. 1992 Press Photo Grand Isle Mayor Andy Valence addressing the City Council . Some folks called him cocky. A day before the race, however, Jurez hit men stormed the police station, seizing two officers and a teenager, and American organizers called off the race. He was just a phenomenally likeable guy, former District Attorney Richard Barajas said. A little time in the Western District of Texas jail isnt going to keep you from trying to feed your family.. The only difference is that cops carry badges, he said. The end came quickly for Thompson: On Jan. 9, 1992, he was indicted on four federal drug offenses, and was suspended as sheriff. Vega readily told him what had happenedas he did to the agents who arrested him, along with all but one in his groupbut when Chambers described his offense, Vega couldnt understand why the charges were so severe. Robert E. Chambers lives in Dallas, TX . International runners arrived to find armed gangs in the streets of Urique, while local government officials assured the competitors there were no problems. Only a change in federal sentencing law years later spared Thompson from dying in prison. The news coverage he could find estimated that more than a hundred Tarahumara had been arrested during the previous decade, but unless the defendants had to have a Rarmuri translator, like Escuders, their background had probably never come up. Its untamable, though his family certainly tried. Still, racing never provided a stable income for Silvinoprize money wasnt guaranteedand most of the Tarahumara fared far worse. In one week, he could make what usually took three months of labor in the Sierraand there was little work. A few years earlier, the Sinaloa and Jurez cartels had begun escalating their fight for control of billion-dollar fields of marijuana and poppy in the so-called Golden Triangle, where the states of Chihuahua, Sinaloa, and Durango converge in the Sierra. It seemed that everyone profited except the Tarahumara. That ended abruptly with his guilty plea Feb. 11, 1992, forcing them to accept that their Walking Tall law officer was a drug smuggler. He was the snake he had the contacts in Mexico, he said. Once there, he picked chiles to earn the bus fare farther south to Chihuahua City, where he finally cobbled together the fare to Huisuchi by making cheese at a quesera. She sometimes joked with Chambers that he didnt know where his grandfather was buried, but he did. Then, all at once, they saw the spotlights. Advertisements . almost entirely dormant. The prize for winning was significant: 14,000 pesos ($765), which, coincidentally, was nearly the going rate for running drugs across the border. People who think that are mentally unstable. Leave a sympathy message to the family in the guestbook on this memorial page of Robert Leroy Chambers to show support. Lookup the home address, phone numbers, email address for this person. Unwrapping it, they discovered a plastic container with a pound of methamphetamine inside. He found a friend to front him enough to get to Janos, the first town on his route back. Thompson helped with two shipments of marijuana in November 1991. A veteran of the DEA at the time, he had previously served in Mexico and Panama and was partner to Kiki Camarena, the DEA agent violently tortured and murdered in Mexico in 1985. It was a twenty-minute drive downhill to the square, which Silvino would be running back up for the first leg of the race: these six miles were a steep climb of 1,500. feet. A landmark in Marfa, the old Presidio County Courthouse housed Rick Thompsons tax assessors office. Other Land for Sale in Texas County 30 acres $90,000. He hadnt been feeling well and had visited a hospital the day before. He knew hed never be able to hold an audience like that, but he realized then that this work was what he wanted to do. Visit megapho The downfall of Rick Thompson was such a devastating occurrence for the people of Marfa and Presidio County, that this phenomenon should be addressed, wrote the authors of the two-volume history of the community. There were some things you couldnt outrun. McNamara reported extensively on Sheriff Thompsons role in the multi-county drug task force that spent an enormous amount of money producing minor drug busts. There, it also became common to see Tarahumara children begging or selling candy and key chains on the streets. Now, 26 years after Thompson was sent to federal prison, his troubling shadow lingers over Marfa. Need an attorney in Chambers County, Texas? Robert Conrad Photo, Robert Horton Photo, Springfield Trapdoor, Council Tool Collectible Axes & Hatches, Leaded Lamp, Now serving his sixth term as Presidio County sheriff, Danny Dominguez, 55, is one of the few in town who had a direct tie to Thompson. They currently reside in Houston with their son, William. Four days later, he was ordered held without bond, shocking his supporters. Of course, drug traffickers also know this. Silvino could only muster twenty-fifth place. There was little to give away his roots. They settled what would come to be known as the Sierra Tarahumara, an expansive network of canyons that are, at some points, deeper than the Grand Canyon, dropping 6,140 feet through three ecosystems. He was born on March 15, 1930, in Waynesville, North Carolina to James Guy and Hazel Medford Chambers. In the past twenty years, there has been a fivefold increase in Border Patrol agents working that stretch of border, up to nearly 20,000. He wanted to thank his lawyer for helping him. 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. I thought I knew him extremely well. The. Now 73, he lives in Midland, Texas with his wife, and remains close to his two sons and daughter. Thompson remained free after the drugs were seized. Meanwhile, as ultramarathons surged in popularity, American runners began crushing previously held records. A DEA informant had also linked Thompson directly to the drug deal. Jail Location His stomach was roiling. Escuder had recently defended a Tarahumara man in his fifties who, they realized, had been in Vegas brickmaking crew. 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. But Thompson, with brains, nerve and political savvy, proved up to the all-consuming job of being a rural West Texas sheriff. He also enlisted the two best Tarahumara runners: Silvino, who was 28 at the time, and his younger cousin Arnulfo Quimare Qui. When Chambers was still in law school, in 2012, Rogers had helped introduce him to the federal courts that were handling the influx of people and drugs coming across the border. He glanced over his right shoulder at the river that snaked through the canyon of the same name. The great size of the load, the property of the Jurez Cartel, raised unsettling questions about what might have occurred earlier. His attire was perfect pressed jeans, starched shirt, Stetson tilted and a gun on his hip, they noted. As Silvino left the San Isidro Lodge, where he had stayed the night, he glanced over at six mangy dogs and cats sleeping next to the embers of a nearby campfire. According to Women's Health, Chambers was the only child born to Phyllis Chambers and Robert Chambers Sr. (His mom is pictured in the photo above with her son.) Then, with the path hugging a creek, he entered tiny Porochi. When I stopped by his office one afternoon to see if he would visit Candelaria with me, he declined. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate, Former Presidio County Sheriff Rick Thompson. According to the DEA, Thompson had also moved the ton of drugs from the border to Marfa in his green Suburban. Phyllis was an immigrant who was . AGE 60s Robert Nicklos Chambers Lolita, TX View Full Report Used To Live In Relatives The 1986 case was an extremely high-profile one, full of exactly the sorts of twists and turns that kept people interested. I think its worth it. Rick stays in jail because he believed in certain things, he said. They discovered what they believed to be a large load of cocaine covered by several bales of hay and empty feed sacks, Stinson testified. His people, an indigenous tribe of roughly 70,000 known as the Tarahumara, had originated on the lush plains east of the mountains. Locals recall how Thompson held court over morning coffee with other officials, cops and agents in the cramped 19th-century limestone building that held his office and the county jail. In the years ahead, she cycled in and out of prison for similar charges. 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. They trudged silently past the scars of an old copper mining trail, long-gone railroad tracks and trading posts that once upon a time exchanged men, minerals, and equipment across the border to Chihuahua. 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. 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. Carrillo earned the nickname, Lord of the Skies, by bringing airliners packed with cocaine directly from Colombia to Mexico, with some of it bound for Presidio County. ), he added. The journalist Christopher McDougall chronicled the race, and his ensuing bookBorn to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seenbecame an international sensation, igniting a global running craze. Soon he was recruited to run drugs into Texas. Robert Chambers grew up on the border in south Presidio County, where his mother taught in a small school in Candelaria. The Border Patrol had found them. The sheriff had also helped deliver various loads, the agency claimed, altogether earning him $70,000 to $80,000 in drug money. Spotting the same vehicle minutes later, still driving dark, the agent recognized it. They had come from as far away as Chihuahua, riding two buses for eleven hours combined. After walking for ten days in the harsh borderland, their guide had abandoned them that morning. The 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. Connect with the definitive source for global and local news. Two weeks earlier. A m me vale, Silvino told his wife. Refine Your Search Results All Filters 1 Robert Warren Chambers, 83 Resides in Austin, TX Lived In Houston TX, Cedar Park TX Instead, groups of up to two dozen Mexican nationals at a time, arrested for smuggling drugs or illegal entry, were marched in front of the judge throughout the day. Soon he was recruited to run drugs into Texas. It doubled as his race training. He finished second in an ultramarathon in Austria, the first of many races in more than half a dozen countries where his expenses were paid and the possible earnings were worth the trip. Read more:Rickhoff kicks off Bexar County judge race with attacks on Wolff for "pay to play," art spending. 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. At approximately 1:15 a.m., Agent Fort observed a green Chevrolet Suburban driving east on the Fairgrounds Road with the lights off, DEA Agent Dale Stinson testified at a later court hearing. It was cool now, but the temperature would climb into the 70s. 1992 Press Photo Mayor and council members in City Hall chambers, Texas . Though clouds had gathered off and on over the villagers homesdark, billowing masses that overshadowed their huts among the fields of cornit had not rained. Chambers, who cooperated with the DEA, got life also but was released after serving 18 years. When he returned with seven new competitors in 1994, they dominated the race again. Federal securities regulators sanction former S.A.-area See photos of a $4.5 million Dominion mansion on the market, UT-Austin blocks access to TikTok on campus Wi-Fi networks, President Ford's visit to San Antonio included culinary oops, Affair testimony may be kept from jury in McDonald murder trial, Once again, South San ISD is thinking about closing schools, Southwest ISD superintendent finalist a familiar name, Woman struck, killed while crossing dark road in Universal City. We hadnt seen another car in two hours. He crossed abandoned desert valleys on old Apache land with nothing to eat, drinking only dung-infested runoff water. There are people who kill or rape who serve less time, he noted. 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. His earliest possible release date is January 2024. 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