04/08/2023
I would like to share a sample of my book which will be published soon. The working title is, The Taco Truck informant. The book chronicles my time as a undercover narcotics agent. 
Chapter 13, The Bruja
While continuing to work with Thomas, I noticed that there seemed to be a common thread related to the traffickers. Many had small satchels containing tiny bones and herbs. This led me to believe they had powerful beliefs in Santeria. From what I knew, Santeria arrived from Cuba to Mexico towards the end of the 1940s or early 1950s.
Many Cuban people embraced the practice of Santeria, and it had become a part of their culture. Cuban musicians and dancers had immigrated to Mexico, bringing with them Santeria. Santeria is an African diasporic religion, having developed from a blending of the Yoruba religion of West Africa, Roman Catholic Christianity and Spiritualism. The religion has no official structure and has spread by the use of various practitioners known as Creyentes (believers).
The Catholic aspect was mainly to hide the practice from authorities, as they used Catholic saints as fronts for the deities of the religion. Santeria is mostly considered a practice of White Magic.
This practice opens the door to a darker, more ominous religion in Palo Mayombe. Santeria and Palo Mayombe differ as Santeria is considered a Force of Light while practitioners of Palo Mayombe use the forces of darkness to accomplish their goals. There are many dark stories related to Palo Mayombe and drug trafficking.
In the early 1990’s the use of cults in drug trafficking became undeniable with the much publicize murder of Mark James Kilroy on March 14, 1989. Mark, who was a student at the University of Texas, Austin, was vacationing in Matamoros, Mexico during spring break. He was taken to a ranch by his abductors and, after hours of torture, they eventually murdered him in a ritual of human sacrifice. It is believed they killed him with a machete blow to the head and his brain was removed and placed into a pot. The complete details of the sacrifice were brutal. Mark was among as many as 14 others who had been previously sacrificed.
The leader of the cult, Adolfo Constanzo, preached to his followers that human sacrifice granted them protection from law enforcement for their drug smuggling operations.
I read a book by E. Hume, Buried Secrets: A True Story of Serial Murder, Black Magic, and Drug-Running on The U.S. Border. The book told the story in great detail. As a narcotics officer, I had taken great interest in the story. I had attended a narcotics class where an actual video of the interrogations of the cult members was played. The scenes depicted were gruesome, to say the least.
The drug traffickers may have believed in the rituals to a certain extent, but they mainly used it to instill fear in those they were dealing with. During this time, the Mexican Cartels began to eclipse the Colombians in the level of drugs being smuggled into the U.S. as well as earning a reputation of pure brutality. If this was a conscious effort, then they certainly succeeded.
With this in mind, I began prodding Thomas for more information about his sources. He then told me he had befriended a bruja who worked in a local shop that sold Latin American religious items. The woman was bragging to Thomas about her followers who were in drug trafficking and unwittingly providing Thomas with the information about various drug deals, the times, locations, and dealers. Thomas in turn, provided me with the information.
On Good Friday in 1992, I visited the store under the pretense of purchasing gifts for my wife’s family. Out of curiosity, I wanted to see what was happening at the shop and who this woman was. Upon entering the store, it felt eerily disturbing. I could smell the scent of incense and candles burning. The flickering candles cast a glow on the walls. Perhaps it was due only to my knowledge of the nature of the business and the secrets contained in its walls, but I felt the presence of evil, something that penetrated my mind and body.
Choosing a few candles, I walked to the counter, where a woman managing the register looked at me suspiciously. I placed the candles near the register and asked to pay. The woman quietly rang up my purchases and pushed them toward me, not offering a bag. I grabbed the candles and quickly left the store.
