Thats whats hard to understand, he added. His wife, Hilda, begged him not to go, but he felt he had no choice. I had worked with him through the years on different situations with students and parents, and we always had a very friendly and professional relationship, he added. For up to 24 hoursand sometimes longerthey kicked a small wooden ball across a rocky trail, and by the end of the race, teams often had only a few men left standing. 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. He messed up one time. Robert E. Chambers lives in Dallas, TX . Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate, Former Presidio County Sheriff Rick Thompson. But, as they staked it out, they realized they were not alone. He got along with almost everybody, except those he locked up. Silvino flung his bags into the sand and began to run. Most of the visiting runners, who had come from 23 countries, made their way out under military escort. Rick had such good favor. Back then, nationality didnt matter as much; people were simply trying to make ends meet on both sides of the Rio Grande. Hes a good man and has led a good life, she said to a packed courthouse in Pecos. They were close now, a few hours from their destination. With Vegas case resolved, Chambers moved on. Silvino, with his farmland afflicted by unrelenting drought, was one of the desperate ones, so he signed on to tote drugs. He was sentenced to 19 years behind barswhere he remains today. He knew what an absence like that could do to a family. International runners and film crews descended on the Sierra Tarahumara. He was in third place. The squat white, Thirty minutes later, the second finisher arrived, and Silvino three minutes after him. Hed run, The journalist Christopher McDougall chronicled the race, and his ensuing. 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. He was conditioned to navigating switchbacks. 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. Copyright Texas Monthly 2023. Now 56, he lives in El Paso. He didnt believe in spells, but Silvino felt the pressure of what hed come to donot just for his own survival but for the survival of his people. Either barefoot or in sandals (called huaraches) made from old tire treads and goat hide, they were able to traverse seemingly super-human distances. This case was filed in Travis County Courts, Heman Marion Sweatt Travis County Courthouse located in Travis, Texas. I have never heard 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. 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. The South Bank Show returns to Sky Artsthis November with a sensational line-up of exclusive interviews, showcasing six brilliant women from across the arts: comedian Tracey Ullman, soul singer Beverley Knight, opera star Danielle de Niese, theatre producer Sonia Friedman, publishing powerhouse Gail Rebuck and a special show highlighting the importance of the arts in education . For Silvino, new opportunities eventually arose from the attention generated by the book. He grew up on the family farm in the Iron Duff community along with his brothers Howard and Earl Chambers. He claimed $1.5 million in narcotics seized when in fact $5,000 was seized. It was cool now, but the temperature would climb into the 70s. Robert Chambers in Texas We found 15 records for Robert Chambers in Lolita, Round Rock and 11 other cities in Texas. Then the judge asked Vega if he had anything to add. PWW(defunct) Final roster, Michael Avalon, Michael Berlot, Damon Black, Blitzschlag, Vanessa von . In the days leading up to the 2015 Ultra Caballo Blanco, an eight-hour battle erupted in a village along the planned racecourse. He looked up at the stars and thought about curses, as older Tarahumara runners tend to do before a race. Hed hoped that once there he could stay a short time and workin the Permian Basin oil fields, perhapsand then return home with money for his. 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. They were more optimistic souls in a long line of people who have tried, often futilely, to farm the floodplain. A little time in the Western District of Texas jail isnt going to keep you from trying to feed your family.. This was the most common drug crossing in her cases, she said. 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. Thompson was president of the Sheriffs Association of Texas, headed a multi-county drug task force, and was prominent in working with federal officials in the war on drugs. 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. Others sought his counsel. Report this listing. Remote and rugged, West Texas, along with much of the southwestern United States, has long been a key drug-smuggling corridor. After walking for ten days in the harsh borderland, their guide had abandoned them that morning. Of course, drug traffickers also know this. It was cool now, but the temperature would climb into the 70s. It may have been thirty. People who know me, know Im not that kind of person, Dominguez said. There was no sewer connection in their trailer, and electricity came from an extension cord that stretched from his grandparents house. In. Its untamable, though his family certainly tried. While the podcast features numerous sources, here are a few of the main players in the story. PECOS, Texas (AP) _ A former county sheriff and a rancher were sentenced to life in prison Friday for supervising a midnight haul of cocaine worth $48 million last December. Stinson, now 74, lives in Colorado and is writing about his experiences. That was my last case, and Rick was kind of the orchestra leader in trying to coordinate relationships with not only the witnesses, but the local people and federal authorities. Hed hoped that once there he could stay a short time and workin the Permian Basin oil fields, perhapsand then return home with money for his wife and two sons. Silvino remembered the women in Huisuchi who used to weave baskets out of the pine needles. 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. The judge saw things differently after hearing evidence the sheriff had been corrupt since 1986 or 1987. From then on gunfire could routinely be heard in the town and up the canyon. , Now here he was, with six members of his own familynearly a year after, Then, all at once, they saw the spotlights. This is the list of all previous golf courses where the U.S. Open has been played: 2019Pebble Beach Golf Links, Pebble Beach, Calif. 2018Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, Southampton, N.Y. 2017 Erin Hills Golf Course, Erin, Wisc. Hed expected to see one person on trial. Now, 26 years after Thompson was sent to federal prison, his troubling shadow lingers over Marfa. Phyllis was an immigrant who was . 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. In late 1991, when Chambers was four, his father was arrested in the largest drug bust on record in West Texas. Silvino remembered the women in Huisuchi who used to weave baskets out of the pine needles. Jail Location 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. Meanwhile, as ultramarathons surged in popularity, American runners began crushing previously held records. 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. Robert Chambers was born in New York City on September 25, 1966, to Robert Chambers, Sr. and Phyllis Chambers. 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. Finally, after a few hours, Vega asked the translator if she could speak more slowly. Rick Thompson was widely admired by Marfa residents and was a shoe-in for his upcoming election to a fifth term as Presidio County Sheriff. Her caseload was so large she had to meet with up to nine clients at a time, but she patiently explained to each one how their case would unfold and made them all laugh. The cartels were not letting up. Two days later, he reached Ascensin, close to where theyd picked up the drugs. Rogers pulled off on Farm-to-Market Road 2810, better known as Pinto Canyon Road, where the asphalt ended. His grandfather served as a Presidio County commissioner and was often asked to resolve border disputes privately. They were taken from Chambers county, Ala., by said Ware to Texas some-where about the year 1847. The Tarahumara would know how to survive this. He was in third place. As a result, Vegaperforming the lowest, most expendable role in the drug tradecarried the burden himself. In one of his ethics courses, he told the class that what they were learning was a fantasy. 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. We hadnt seen another car in two hours. Then, with the path hugging a creek, he entered tiny Porochi. Silvino emerged from the forest onto a roadreally a collection of rocks and dirt. Last summer, according to a courtroom interpreter, one witness in a backpacker trial in Pecos said that smugglers, It was the eighth-annual ultramarathon here, and 120 runners, mostly Tarahumara, were going to set off from its plaza. There were some things you couldnt outrun. Robert Conrad Photo, Robert Horton Photo, Springfield Trapdoor, Council Tool Collectible Axes & Hatches, Leaded Lamp, Chambers remembers his grandfather watching the Weather Channel regularly, hoping for rain. When he was thirteen, they went to live with his mothers family, in Abilene. (Robert Chambers was released in 2005 after serving 13 years. Only a change in federal sentencing law years later spared Thompson from dying in prison. Ryan Goldberg is a freelance journalist based in New York. But I had my suspicions. Silvino flung his bags into the sand and began to run. In fact, Vega had come this way. Need an attorney in Chambers County, Texas? The sheriffs office in Marfa where former Sheriff Rick Thompson. Fisher struck deals with sponsors; he paid his runners with bags of corn and beans. True wondered how they would fare against the Tarahumara, and he sought to revitalize these local traditions. He did not respond to a letter sent to him in prison requesting an interview. Four days later, he was ordered held without bond, shocking his supporters. 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. A pair of uncles on his moms side also went to prison for drug offenses, and so did a paternal uncle. Rick Thompson had charm. Chambers returned to school with one of Rogerss mantras ringing in his ears: procedural due process, as opposed to actual due process. Looking behind him, Silvino could see his nephew Luis flagging, but he couldnt wait. Silvino flung his bags into the sand and began to run. Rather than face starvation, Silvinos cousins had approached him with an idea: they could go on a drug-running mission across the border. His wife, Hilda, begged him not to go, but he felt he had no choice. Hell walk tall, she told U.S. District Judge Jerry Buchmeyer of Dallas. 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. When they arrived at the orchard, there were no pecans. 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. A pair of feral dogs dozed near Silvinos feet. . Competitors from all over the world, electrified by "Born to Run", made the pilgrimage to the Tarahumara homeland. ), he added. In March 2010, a month before Silvinos narrow escape in New Mexico, the annual Ultra Caballo Blanco had drawn a record number of international participants to Urique Canyon. Silvino wore athletic gear and blue-and-yellow Asicsthe trails were too slippery, the roads too hard, for huaraches. Advertisements . He was arrested and sentenced to eight months. He had run one hundred miles. 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. He also was the first to question the close relationship Chambers had with Thompson. Chambers had seen many of these harsh sentences handed out, including to drug runners who were essentially forced into smuggling. Tax lawyers can assist with understanding tax law and resolve tax liens, back taxes, tax debt recovery and relief, and IRS compliance issues. PECOS, Texas (AP) _ A former county sheriff and a rancher were sentenced to life in prison Friday for supervising a midnight haul of cocaine worth $48 million last December. 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. His attire was perfect pressed jeans, starched shirt, Stetson tilted and a gun on his hip, they noted. There was no trial. Still, racing never provided a stable income for Silvinoprize money wasnt guaranteedand most of the Tarahumara fared far worse. 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. There are people who kill or rape who serve less time, he noted. Unable to afford lawyers, each defendant was assigned one by the court. Two runners in their mid-twenties were planning to challenge him, and the prize for winning was significant: 14,000 pesos ($765), which, coincidentally, was nearly the going rate for running drugs across the border. Although many still believe he was not directly involved in smuggling for an extended period of time, the DEA disputes this and pins several more tons of cocaine and marijuana smuggling on him for at least six years before his arrest. Cook, a native of Alpine, knew the area well and helped manage the surveillance of Chambers and cultivating their informants. Rick stays in jail because he believed in certain things, he said. Looking back, former DEA agent Stinson said the Marfa drug case neither was the biggest nor most interesting of his career. Standing well over 6 feet, before putting on his hat and boots, he cut an imposing, even intimidating figure. Some Tarahumara activists tried to make their plight known, like Irma Chvez Cruz, a 25-year-old mother who was a friend of Silvinos. Thirty minutes later, the second finisher arrived, and Silvino three minutes after him. When they neared the San Isidro Lodge, Silvino was in fourth but still in range of the leaders. 2016Oakmont Country Club, Oakmont, Pa. 2015 Chambers Bay, University Place, Wash. 2014Pinehurst No. Chambers '91 President's Endowed Scholarship. Chambers remembers law enforcement coming to his house after his father had been arrested, though he was too young to comprehend the reason. 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. He was born on March 15, 1930, in Waynesville, North Carolina to James Guy and Hazel Medford Chambers. By early spring their corn was burned on the stalk. A reception will be held in her honor at St. Mark's United Methodist Church, Baytown, Texas from 4-6 pm on Saturday, January 21. Then, all at once, they saw the spotlights. Throughout the series, D'Amico retells the story of Sheriff Rick Thompson and Rob Chambers, and the bust that brought them down. 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. By 2010, entire communities had emptied out of the canyons, and some ten thousand had fled to the city of Chihuahua, where they were more easily conscripted into smuggling. Soon the sound of the dirt bike faded. If I dont take the risk during a race, then I dont get any reward.. He laughed at the memory of a. None of his companions had made it out. Sign Up Log In Tags Don Robert Hendrix Just across the border were powerful drug lords such as Pablo Acosta, the boss of Ojinaga, who was killed in a shootout in Mexico in April 1987. Roughly forty miles northwest of Big Bend Ranch State Park, it is a place of extremes, a dry, barren land that is only ever hot or cold. After serving 26 years, he will be released April 18. Rick wasnt the kingpin. At 10:42, the first runner appeared on the cobblestone alley leading to the finish. The race was part of the budding sport of extreme long-distance trail running, in which race lengths range from slightly longer than the standard 26.2-mile marathon to more than 150 miles. 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. Many of these were caught and processed as so-called backpacker cases: groups of six or more Mexican men arrested in the mountains, each carrying about 45 pounds of marijuana. According to McNamara, Thompson mismanaged task force funds, illegally destroyed its records and grossly exaggerated its accomplishments. Robert Chambers Email Localization Editor @ The Pokmon Company International View Robert's Email (It's Free) 5 free lookups per month. 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. Sign Up. The great size of the load, the property of the Jurez Cartel, raised unsettling questions about what might have occurred earlier. True wondered how they would fare against the Tarahumara, and he sought to revitalize these local traditions. A DEA informant had also linked Thompson directly to the drug deal. He wore two hats, as the sheriff and tax assessor. Listing provided by TMLS Even still, looking at the slight, dark-haired, shackled Vega, his anger bubbled up. It turned out to be people burning salt cedar, an invasive species that saps water from the earth. He just didnt like coming here, and I could see why. Lookup the home address, phone numbers, email address for this person. For months, Huisuchi had been cursed with drought. People say that because I worked for Rick Thompson, I was dirty. It seemed that everyone profited except the Tarahumara. When Chambers arrived at the detention facility, the 39-year-old Vega stood up to greet his lawyer. The third time, though, in February 2007, Border Patrol agents found him and two others hiding in creosote bushes one hundred miles west of Las Cruces, with three backpacks that totaled 194 pounds. In the summer of 2016, drug traffickers moved on the town of Basihuare, near Chvezs hometown of Rejogochi, stealing the funds from the towns ejido, a government-supported agriculture cooperative. With him were five cousins and a nephew, each shouldering a similar load. Texas Department of Criminal Justice | PO Box 99 . Thompson started as a deputy sheriff in Presidio County, which covers 3,856 square miles and shares more than 150 river miles with Mexico. In 1986, Chambers led a raid on the municipal jail in Ojinaga, kidnapped an inmate wanted in the United States for rape, brought him back to Texas and chained him naked to a tree for authorities to find, according to popular lore. It didnt make sense, Vega said, and worse, it was unfair. almost entirely dormant. And not only did Thompson use Chambers as a confidential source, the sheriff went to bat for him over his legal problems. 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. Ott-Laughlin Funeral Home OBITUARY Robert Mark Chambers March 17, 1943 - January 9, 2014 Chambers, Robert Mark ("Bob"), 70, of Winter Haven and Ft. Pierce, Florida passed away of heart failure January 9, 2014. He is preceded in death by his parents, Ralph E. and Lois C. Chambers also of Winter Haven. When the Norwegian explorer Carl Lumholtz stopped at the edge of one of these canyons, Urique, in the late nineteenth century, he couldnt imagine anyone living below. The six-foot-two Chambers towered over him by more than a foot. When Chambers arrived at the detention facility, the 39-year-old Vega stood up to greet his lawyer. He didnt believe in spells, but Silvino felt the pressure of what hed come to donot just for his own survival but for the survival of his people. She sometimes joked with Chambers that he didnt know where his grandfather was buried, but he did. He was 36, but people still remembered him from the summer of 1986 when he was 19. MARFA As the town slept fitfully late Dec. 3, 1991, its single traffic light blinking out a perfect pulse, shadowy figures moved through the streets, while others lurked on the outskirts. When they neared the San Isidro Lodge, Silvino was in fourth but still in range of the leaders. After walking for ten days in the harsh borderland, their guide had abandoned them that morning. More than five hundred Tarahumara, Silvino included, resolved to carry on anyway, and the mayor agreed to a version that cut out the downriver loop, where the major shoot-out had occurred. Nobody was warming up when he arrived; the Tarahumara dont stretch. And when cocaine starts flowing across the Mexican border like never before, Robert dives in headfirst. Under any circumstances, safeguarding so vast and wild a county with the help of only two deputies was a daunting job. He hadnt eaten anything, not even the pocket-size bean burritos and salsa he normally ran with. But racing couldnt alleviate the hardships ravaging the Tarahumara themselves. The case status is Disposed - Dismissed. In the end, it was Chambers who used Thompson. Jackson was a regular, and he later devoted most of a chapter in his book One Ranger to a tortured examination of their relationship. 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. 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. Offender is currently in the Parole Review Process The parole review process begins approximately six months before the parole eligibility date for a first review and four months before the eligibility date in additional reviews. It was just disbelief. Now 68, he lives in Alpine, Texas. He considered skipping the race, which was 37 miles, but the next event was four months away. Read more:1975 ad promoted new neighborhoods on the Northeast Side. 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. 1992 Press Photo Mayor and council members in City Hall chambers, Texas . Hes made parole. Scott the Scoopis Pro Wrestling Warriors' play-by-play announcer. Later came the even more formidable Amado Carrillo Fuentes, leader of the Jurez cartel. The only liquids to be found were two cans of Lone Star and three cans of Bud Light that had been left for Boyd at his headstone. Thompson acknowledged his guilt and agreed to cooperate with federal investigators. Between sips of Guinness, the race organizer announced the winners name, hometown, and time. Tarahumara is a Spanish corruption of the tribes name, Rarmuri, meaning ones with light feet or foot runners.. The most famous section, covered with lichen, is the color of oxidized copper. There were hairpin turns where the drop-off was thousands of feet, and he passed several roadside memorials. Almost like brothers, one observer said. 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. Youre strong and you know the way, they pleaded. Chambers was well acquainted with smugglers from Mexico and eventually became close to Pablo Acosta, the drug lord of Ojinaga. Thank you for reading! Hell walk straight. Rogers pointed to the barely visible Rio Grande just under a mile beyond, and San Antonio del Bravo farther still. View Robert I Chambers results in Texas (TX) including current phone number, address, relatives, background check report, and property record with Whitepages. After successes in Costa Rica and Spain, he landed on the cover of Runners World Mxico, in December 2014. Chambers was well acquainted with smugglers from Mexico and eventually became close to Pablo Acosta, the drug lord of Ojinaga. He took the office after his predecessor, Sheriff Hank Hamilton, was gunned down in 1973 by a mentally unstable man. All I know is I worked for five months for him. 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. I thought about Silvino, and I told Rogers about his case. (Courtesy of Presidio County Sheriff's Office) By Brbara Anguiano The former girlfriend of Preppy Killer Robert Chambers is breaking her silence about their relationship as a docuseries airing on Sundance and AMC takes a new look at the infamous murder. At the square, a dozen bedraggled municipal police, a few seemingly too young to grow facial hair, loitered with unloaded AK-47sgoats horns, they called them. Search law firms at FindLaw. The 1986 case was an extremely high-profile one, full of exactly the sorts of twists and turns that kept people interested. There, it also became common to see Tarahumara children begging or selling candy and key chains on the streets. For him, the bust was an unfortunate necessity that put a halt to their goals of a much larger bust of key players. 6, Border Patrol agents found him and five others sleeping in the brush west of Marfa. Show Phone. At the bottom of the canyon road, the asphalt resumed at a desolate village called Ruidosa. After field tests confirmed the drug, agents hauled the trailer to Alpine. Currently, he is at the Sullivan Correctional Facility, where fellow inmates include the infamous Ronald DeFeo Jr., whose crimes are the basis of ' The Amityville Horror '. Learn more about your ad choices. Unlike many of his classmates, he didnt have to wait long for work. Robert Stanley Chambers Obituary. Other Land for Sale in Texas County 30 acres $90,000. Escuder had recently defended a Tarahumara man in his fifties who, they realized, had been in Vegas brickmaking crew. Forty years ago, engineers had erected this road on top of an ancient Tarahumara foot trail. That part of the state was out of control, said Dale Stinson, head of the DEA regional office. Thompson became sheriff in May 1973 after Sheriff Hank Hamilton was shot to death. Federal agents and others had learned that his nickname in Mexico was La Puerta, the door to smuggling. There were comments like, I wonder how much he kept?, the sheriff said. Light-footed. Spotting the same vehicle minutes later, still driving dark, the agent recognized it. She shook her head in wonder. Candelaria was well on its way to becoming a ghost town. Chambers grew up on the border. Silvino could only muster twenty-fifth place. Chambers nodded. They discovered what they believed to be a large load of cocaine covered by several bales of hay and empty feed sacks, Stinson testified. And he gained notoriety for breaking a man accused of rape in the U.S. out of a Mexican prison, dragging him back across the border and tying him to a tree naked for the local authorities to find. There has to be a better way to deal with this, she said. While Thompson, 72, is unlikely to return to Marfa, the painful story of his fall from grace soon will be told here again. CHAMBERS,ROBERT NEAL 02883057 01655409 Parole Review Status . A Presidio County native, Ponton dabbled in film in his early days and worked on the crew of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Together with her father, an activist, musician, and poet known as Makawi, she pleaded for government officials in Chihuahua to help prevent drug traffickers from stealing their land and their water. We drove up a small bluff, and Rogers led me to the grave of Boyd Chambers. Vega didnt know the men whod recruited him, which is typical in backpacker cases, so they didnt have any information to offer prosecutors in exchange for a shorter sentence. The only thing he asked me to do was take care of my people. Most of the visiting runners, who had come from 23 countries, made their way out under military escort. Thompson was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole, but a change in sentencing guidelines led to his eventual release in April of 2018. While working a job canning chiles, they were told they could earn twice as much at a pecan orchard near the Rio Grande. Multinational corporations seized the merchandising opportunities, and soon, people all over the world were wearing barefoot-style shoes. Mahallah Escoe seeking her brother Robert Cofield Southwestern Christian Advocate (New Orleans, LA) February 14, 1884. The sheriff had also helped deliver various loads, the agency claimed, altogether earning him $70,000 to $80,000 in drug money. 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. There was little shade, and he dropped down on a set of steps next to four old campesinos. Yes, Robert Chambers is alive. Robert and Kimberly both received bachelor's degrees in business administration from Texas A&M and were members of the Fellows program. His earliest possible release date is January 2024. 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. If circumstances once again drove Silvino to carry another drug load, hed be risking a potentially lengthy prison term. Log In. But on the afternoon of March 6, Border Patrol agents found him and five others sleeping in the brush west of Marfa. Related:President Ford's visit to San Antonio included culinary oops. The Chambers' gift creates the J. Robert Chambers '89 and Kimberly A. He also enlisted the two best Tarahumara runners: Silvino, who was 28 at the time, and his younger cousin Arnulfo Quimare Qui. He built a small adobe house for his wife and children and another for his parents and siblings, and he fixed up an old truck so he could bring his harvest into the town of Urique to sell. 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. Organizers across the world sought Tarahumara runners for their races, and those who moved comfortably among chabochi, or outsiders, began receiving regular invitations to race. Thompson and Chambers agreed to plead guilty in hopes of receiving lighter sentences. For Chambers, it was one of the saddest days of his life. He told me he was too busy with his caseload to make the three-hour trip. Chambers also was involved in several gun battles on the border, saved six hunters from a fiery plane crash in the desert, and was shot three times in the back in an assassination attempt on a Mexican fishing boat. 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. It was still dark when Silvino woke two hours before the big race in Cerocahui last October. He was the snake he had the contacts in Mexico, he said. He scrambled down a cliff-side trail so narrow that only one person could traverse it at a time. Meanwhile, budget cuts meant the number of lawyers (four) stayed the same. And, he said, it is often misunderstood: Thompson never was the primary figure in the investigation of a 10-year drug conspiracy. For finishing third, Silvino earned 8,000 pesos, enough to remain free of the cartels, at least for a while longer. At one point, he said, when Chambers drug-loaded truck stalled near the border, Thompson quickly appeared to give him a jump. In late 1965, he enlisted in the Marines, serving in Vietnam as a radio man and military policeman. Makawi had also met with the wives of those who, like Sebastian Vega, were in prison in the U.S. Word was spreading that the sicarios wanted to eliminate the two. 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. 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 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. Chambers remembers law enforcement coming to his house after his father had been arrested, though he was too young to comprehend the reason. In Spanish, the judge ran through the conditions of the imprisonment twice so Vega could understand. Handsome, well-educated, but deeply troubled: Robert Chambers was a total knockout with a dark personality. He left three years later as a sergeant. Sunlight broke through the slim canopy. 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. He found a friend to front him enough to get to Janos, the first town on his route back. He dreaded telling his client. Thompson is scheduled to get out April 14, 2018.). But help never came, and speaking out became risky. Robert Chambers. 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. Use FindLaw to hire a local tax lawyer near you to help structure an offer and compromise, fight IRS collections, and assist with wage and garnishment releases. 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. The address PO Box 134 Hardin, Texas 77561 Thank you for reading! 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 days leading up to the race, competitors ground corn for an energy drink called pinole (and set aside a fermented version as their post-race celebratory beer, tesgino). In the years ahead, she cycled in and out of prison for similar charges. We drove west to Marfa before hooking southwest through the Chinati Mountains. They bought blue jeans for those wearing traditional loincloths and paired them with guides to lead them to the border at night. Imagine walking this with forty-four pounds on your back, she said, not counting food and water. The female racers wore their everyday clothes: skirts full of reds, yellows, pinks, and blues, and matching head scarves to block the sun. They owned a house on West Washington Street, and the youngest of their three children still was at home. So, after returning from his aborted drug run, Silvino saw his racing career take off. Robert had a passion for his large garden that he was so proud to grow year-after-year. During the race, the slower runners tended to set the early pace, while the closers bided their time. That same summer, Silvino landed a job as a manager for a chia cultivation project for 400 pesos (about $20) a day. Cartel recruiters trolled the gas stations and plazas of small Mexican towns. 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. In his book on his travels through the Sierra Madre mountains, Unknown Mexico, he recounts that when the Jesuits first arrived and asked the Tarahumara about the canyons depth, they replied, Only the birds know., For centuries the Tarahumara got by as subsistence farmers. 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, Silvino swore he would never run drugs again, but by 2010, there was still not enough food to eat. Two weeks earlier, sicarios, or hit men, had stopped in Rejogochi to ask for Chvez, the young activist, and her father, Makawi. After razing the corn and bean fields, they planted poppies instead. 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. While Chambers has spent most of his adult life behind bars, Levin's family remains haunted by her death. Amid the tall gray peaks and dry basins, hed be harder to catch. I still wanted to see the town where he had spent time as a boy-where many backpackers make their crossing todayso instead, I went with Rogers. 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. But racing couldnt alleviate the hardships ravaging the Tarahumara themselves. He crossed the finish line, accepted a sandwich, sat on a stone wall, and barely stirred for photographs with local officials. 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. 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. 1992 Press Photo Grand Isle Mayor Andy Valence addressing the City Council . The drug lord known as El Zorro de Ojinaga (The Ojinaga Fox) was a mentor to Chambers and played a significant role as The Plaza who controlled all drug movement through the region into the U.S. Acosta, who was gunned down in 1987 by Mexican federales (with the assistance of the FBI) is featured in the recent Narcos Mexico series and the book Drug Lord, by former El Paso Times reporter Terrance Poppa. Contacted recently at his home in Oregon, McNamara, 80, said he still is trying to get to the bottom of it all. 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. He looked up at the stars and thought about curses, as older Tarahumara runners tend to do before a race. 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 Chambers in Texas 442 people named Robert Chambers found in Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston-Galveston-Brazoria and 20 other cities. This is a carousel. Meanwhile, as ultramarathons surged in popularity, American runners began crushing previously held records. A m me vale, Silvino told his wife. 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. Barajas still recalls the general reaction when Thompson was implicated in the cocaine seized at the fairgrounds. Then again, he spent much of his life severed from them. His late paternal grandfather, Boyd, was a rancher on the Sierra Vieja, a small mountain range that locals call the Candelaria Rimrock, after the nearest town. Three were for illegal purchases of six-packs of beer, McNamara wrote in late 1991. Its wistful melody is reserved for joyous occasions, when Tarahumara dance to its repetitive interplay of violin and guitar. He feared what might happen to his family if he went back to federal prison. It operated along the Rio Grande from El Paso to Alpine, from 1988 to 1992. Dominguez, who in 1991 was hired to work out of Presidio, said he never saw the crooked side of Thompson. At the aid station, he declined water and collected a paper bracelet to confirm he had passed. Thompson is being released this month after serving 26 years in prison for cocaine smuggling. Witnessed: Borderlands is a new true-crime podcast from journalist Rob D'Amico, set during the peak of the War On Drugs. No one, even back then, would have trusted someone with that quantity of drugs, unless they had a reliable track record. Man, I never saw this coming. Robert F Chambers Address: 1414 W 51st St Austin, TX 78756 Name: Robert F Chambers Address: 1414 W 51st St Austin, TX 78756 Phone: (512) 454-6544 Dwelling Type: Single Family Dwelling Unit Length of Residence: 15+ years Median Home Value: $1,201,000 Median Household Income: $311,000 Vehicle: 1995 1998 FORD RANGER Report ID: 99303825 Chambers was impressed; none of his other clients had ever commented on the injustice of the law. Early the next morning, with only a little pain in his right leg, Silvino drove in a low gear down the canyon to Urique, listening to traditional Tarahumara folk music from a USB stick connected to the CD player. Investigators from the federal public defenders office had seen Tarahumara come through their West Texas offices for five years, as had their colleagues in nearby Las Cruces. When youre desperate, youll do anything. The object of their intense interest was a red horse trailer parked at the county fairgrounds east of town. In time, the backpackers shed come to represent were known to ask for her by name. The revelation, he said, left him feeling used, humiliated and dumb.. How could he be responsible for all the backpacks when he only carried one? Ponton, a defense attorney, was hired by Chambers for a weapons charge and suddenly found himself defending a man busted with a ton of cocaine. 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