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. Up ahead, they saw the lights of a highway and knew they were within a dozen miles of their drop-off. Select the best result to find their address, phone number, relatives, and public records. Thompson was very popular in Marfa, which back then was a gritty, down-in-the-boot-heels ranching town of about 2,500 people, a far cry from todays hip cultural mecca, popular with wealthy New Yorkers and Californians. Hell walk straight. In Spanish, the judge ran through the conditions of the imprisonment twice so Vega could understand. They both pleaded guilty and were sentenced to life in prison. Chambers, a violent, lawless man long suspected of drug. After his release, it took Silvino two months to get home. To meet the surging demand for heroin in the United States, they also began seizing additional farmland in order to increase poppy cultivation. I think its worth it. At first, Vega didnt seem to understand what Chambers was saying through his translator. McNamara often battled to obtain public records from officials and sued the U.S. Department of Justice in federal court in an attempt to acquire records in the Thompson case. The 1986 case was an extremely high-profile one, full of exactly the sorts of twists and turns that kept people interested. The next day, he drove two hours with Liz Rogers, a thirty-year former federal defender known for pulling out long-shot victories, to the West Texas Detention Facility, in Sierra Blanca, to see Vega. From there, the runners followed white arrows spray-painted on the ground into a forest of pion pine, juniper, and small oak trees. They were more optimistic souls in a long line of people who have tried, often futilely, to farm the floodplain. Looking behind him, Silvino could see his nephew Luis flagging, but he couldnt wait. Years earlier, while serving as an attach in Mexico City, Stinson had heard Mexican federal police mention Thompson in connection with the Ojinaga drug trade. Rick stays in jail because he believed in certain things, he said. John Robert Chambers 1 February 1875-19 July 1951 (Age 76) Terrell, Kaufman, Texas, United States The Life Summary of John Robert When John Robert Chambers was born on 1 February 1875, in Terrell, Kaufman, Texas, United States, his father, Asa Chambers, was 39 and his mother, Sara Melissa Long, was 25. A pair of uncles on his moms side also went to prison for drug offenses, and so did a paternal uncle. I thought about Silvino, and I told Rogers about his case. A m me vale, Silvino told his wife. A pair of federal police trucks rolled through with machine gunners standing in the bed, black scarves covering the bottom half of their faces. Scanning his new clients arrest report, Chambers expected the details to coalesce into the usual pattern, but he noticed an anomaly. Need an attorney in Chambers County, Texas? 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. Their huts clung to the granite slopes and crevices of the canyons, which are connected by a vast system of narrow footpaths. Handsome, well-educated, but deeply troubled: Robert Chambers was a total knockout with a dark personality. The result, Stinson said, was an outcome he did not entirely agree with. If I dont take the risk during a race, then I dont get any reward.. Show Phone. The two kept a tight rein on who knew what in their investigation when it became apparent that Sheriff Rick Thompson might be involved with Robert Chambers. With him were five cousins and a nephew, each shouldering a similar load. The property dispute over Moses Roses Hideout is by no means the first obstacle consultants and city and state officials have faced in the evolution of the Alamo project. He had run one hundred miles. Search law firms at FindLaw. Three were for illegal purchases of six-packs of beer, McNamara wrote in late 1991. sation, igniting a global running craze. There, they removed 40 heavy sacks, each marked with a blue polo player, the signature of a Colombian drug cartel. But I had my suspicions. There were many others to get to, almost too many to keep up with. Most of the visiting runners, who had come from 23 countries, made their way out under military escort. Chambers remembers his grandfather watching the Weather Channel regularly, hoping for rain. We drove west to Marfa before hooking southwest through the Chinati Mountains. Here, Uriques mayor and its public-works director had driven off the cliff almost four years ago. Chambers, a violent, lawless man long suspected of drug trafficking, had a remote family ranch in south Presidio County, across the border from San Antonio del Bravo, a hotbed of narcotics activity. The Tarahumara would know how to survive this. Robert Chambers grew up on the border in south Presidio County, where his mother taught in a small school in Candelaria. Many Tarahumara were forced to grow these crops, their wages docked and their land stolen. Don Robert Hendrix, loving husband, caring father, loyal friend, devoted educator, world traveler, Houston sports fan, and music lover passed away in peace at his home on April 28, 2021. Uriques head of tourism watched in tears as Tarahumara runners collapsed. He was just a phenomenally likeable guy, former District Attorney Richard Barajas said. Strapped to his back were two homespun burlap packs, one filled with 45 pounds of marijuana bricks and the other with enough burritos and gallon jugs of water to survive another week in the wilderness. The tribes runners had never ventured far from home and remained largely unknown until 1993, when an opportunistic American photographer named Rick Fisher brought several members, including a 55-year-old grandfather and a 40-something goat farmer, to an old Colorado mining town called Leadville to enter its 100-mile ultramarathon. His father was a videocassette distributor and his mother worked as a private nurse, once treating a young John F. Kennedy Jr. for bronchitis and arranging a play date for him and Robert. The only thing he asked me to do was take care of my people. For Chambers, it was one of the saddest days of his life. He zigzagged around scrawny desert saplings, while the shadows cast by the dirt bikes spotlight darted around him. There were hairpin turns where the drop-off was thousands of feet, and he passed several roadside memorials. Robert Chambers - Football Official - Texas Association of Sports Officials | LinkedIn Robert Chambers Environmental Engineer at Austin White Lime Company Austin, Texas, United States 735. None of his companions had made it out. In the days leading up to the 2015 Ultra Caballo Blanco, an eight-hour battle erupted in a village along the planned racecourse. Rick wasnt the kingpin. Vega, it turned out, was a Tarahumara. 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. The female racers wore their everyday clothes: skirts full of reds, yellows, pinks, and blues, and matching head scarves to block the sun. About three hours later, the agents moved in to inspect the trailer, parked with the sheriffs other equipment. The loss of a hero harms a communitys ability to believe in anything anymore, wrote the historians, Louise OConnor and Cecilia Thompson, no relation to the sheriff. 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. The man did what he did. The smell of charcoal-grilled chicken filled the air. Youve done this before., In fact, Silvino had carried a mochila, as the narcos called it, three times before. 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. Soon he was recruited to run drugs into Texas. His arrest for cocaine trafficking shocked Marfa and the law enforcement officers he had befriended and worked with for years. In that era, there were many unsupervised border crossings and the Border Patrol was understaffed. Thats whats hard to understand, he added. Helping clients like Vega affirmed his decision, though it also generated no shortage of heartbreak. Chvez had learned Spanish as a teenager, to serve as an interpreter for her people, then earned a university degree in ecology and gotten elected to local government. Ponton had to retrieve his attorney fees for Chambers defense by traveling to Juarez to pick up $100,000 in cash, which caused a considerable stir at the border when he re-entered the U.S. Now County Attorney for Presidio County, Ponton was featured in the recent Netflix documentary, Confession Killer, for his role in proving that alleged serial killer Henry Lee Lucas could not be responsible for most of the murders he confessed to. Silvino wore athletic gear and blue-and-yellow Asicsthe trails were too slippery, the roads too hard, for huaraches. He was starting to feel betterthe steep climbs were behind himand though he wouldnt be able to catch the leader, he thought he could finish second or third. Now, 26 years after Thompson was sent to federal prison, his troubling shadow lingers over Marfa. Standing well over 6 feet, before putting on his hat and boots, he cut an imposing, even intimidating figure. You can view 1 entry, complete with personal details, location history, phone numbers, relatives and locations for Robert Chambers. True wondered how they would fare against the Tarahumara, and he sought to revitalize these local traditions. People say that because I worked for Rick Thompson, I was dirty. Buchmeyer gave him the max: Two life terms without a chance of parole. He was in third place. The Border Patrol had found them. 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, Vega and his family had fled the canyons to find work in Chihuahua, and though he got a job as a brickmaker, it barely sustained them. When I visited Chambers at his office in January, his desk was makeshift: two long folding tables down the hall from a few other lawyers in a one-story brick building on the main street. Competitors from all over the world, electrified by Born to Run, made the pilgrimage to the Tarahumara homeland. Two weeks earlier. He laughed at the memory of a. Amid the tall gray peaks and dry basins, hed be harder to catch. 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 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. He passed the now extinguished fire pit and its dogs and cats, a fenced-in flock of garrulous turkeys, and local government officials eating breakfast inside the lodges small gazebo. Still, he got paid only if he successfully completed his mission. It turned out to be people burning salt cedar, an invasive species that saps water from the earth. John MacCormack has been covering South Texas and the Mexican border for the past 35 years, first for the Dallas Times Herald and since 1992 for the Express-News. Phyllis was an immigrant who was . Meanwhile, as ultramarathons surged in popularity, American runners began crushing previously held records. Then the judge asked Vega if he had anything to add. Remote and rugged, West Texas, along with much of the southwestern United States, has long been a key drug-smuggling corridor. In these rugged gorges, they developed a unique running style that eventually brought them fame. Spotting the same vehicle minutes later, still driving dark, the agent recognized it. Tell Rick Thompson Im still investigating this. In 1977, on a highway south of Marfa, Presidio County Sheriff Rick Thompson, far right, posed for Texas Monthly with his crew (left to right) Jailer Robert Guevara, Deputy Gary Painter, and Deputy Roger Brito. Silvino could only muster twenty-fifth place. 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. There are people who kill or rape who serve less time, he noted. e cartel war ricocheted from one canyon to the next, Urique became one of the last towns to be engulfed by intense violence. Texas Department of Criminal Justice | PO Box 99 . Dominguez said he also has a troubled relationship with the DEA, and that he, too, is whispered by some as being corrupt. . The sheriff had also helped deliver various loads, the agency claimed, altogether earning him $70,000 to $80,000 in drug money. Like the Tarahumara, the Chambers clan was inexorably tied to their land. When he met Vega again, Chambers jokingly asked, If you could run like that, why didnt you escape? Vega said he never could have evaded the agents in their trucks and helicopters. His stomach was roiling. Thomas Chambers. Listing provided by TMLS $175,000 4.79 acres lot - Lot / Land for sale 7 hours ago 720 Solomon Rd, Leasburg, NC 27291 ELEVATION REALTY, LLC. Had he been arrested the second time in New Mexico, she said, he would have faced a mandatory five years in prison. Silvino couldnt compete in the U.S. because of his arrest record, but he still needed to race to remain financially free of the cartels, so he often stuck to races closer to home, like the upcoming ultramarathon in Cerocahui, which included a four-thousand-foot ascent up a road out of Urique. 2 . He took money in exchange for information about law enforcement activities, helping Chambers to smuggle more than 20 tons of cocaine and marijuana through the Big Bend, according to the DEA. Chambers remembers law enforcement coming to his house after his father had been arrested, though he was too young to comprehend the reason. In the distance, Rogers noticed a cloud of black smoke rising downriver. Chambers never forgot that first time he accompanied Rogers to jail as an intern. The cartels were not letting up. He now lives in Granbury, Texas. Chambers thought about how Vega wouldnt be there for his two sons as they grew into their teens. He hadnt been feeling well and had visited a hospital the day before. There has to be a better way to deal with this, she said. Federal and state drug enforcement agents arrested Glyn Robert Chambers and the popular sheriff of Presidio County, Rick Thompson, after an informant tipped them off to a red horse trailer containing 2,400 pounds of cocaine on the fairgrounds in Marfa. Federal public defenders were typically appointed the first defendant, and private attorneys, like Chambers, were tasked with the rest. Volunteers were on hand to offer cheese sandwiches, bananas, and oranges. Silvino felt the pressure of what hed come to donot just for his own survival but for the survival of his people. 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. I felt this sickness in my gut. 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. He was back in the chia fields after breakfast. Wherever I looked, in Alpine and Marfa and later Presidio, I saw makeshift villages of turnkey houses, the whitewashed barracks of Border Patrol. 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. Ryan Goldberg is a freelance journalist based in New York. A few months later, Sinaloa won control of the areanearly a dozen planes flew out of the town of Urique in one day with the remaining Jurez fightersbut conditions worsened. Mexican cartels, meanwhile, recognized an opportunity for a different sort of international commerce. 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. Robert had a passion for his large garden that he was so proud to grow year-after-year. The object of their intense interest was a red horse trailer parked at the county fairgrounds east of town. Up here, he realized, right before the 2008 Semana Santa celebrations, assassins from the Sinaloa cartel had kidnapped around a dozen people from Uriquethe chief of police, other officers, government officialsand beheaded all but two, whom they sent back to town, stripped naked and hands tied, to tell the story. Their address, phone numbers, relatives and locations for Robert Chambers was saying through his translator it, times! 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