WASHINGTON — The code phrase was "carne asada": a barbecue.
When word went out that one was going to be held at the two-story residence in Juarez, Mexico, just across the border from El Paso, Texas, it meant that one of Mexico's powerful drug cartels planned to kill a perceived double-crosser or a rival operative.
The U.S. government had an informant in the House of Death on Parsioneros Street, where at least a dozen people were tortured, executed and buried.
The informant, Guillermo Eduardo Ramirez-Peyro, witnessed or knew in advance of several of the executions, and federal law-enforcement officials paid him $224,650 for four years of undercover work.
His handlers in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement continued to use him even after they found out that he'd witnessed a murder in August 2003.
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The families of six of the victims have lodged a wrongful-death suit against the U.S. government, alleging that ICE officials monitored the killing or that federal prosecutors and ICE agents were aware that their informant was participating in subsequent killings and kidnappings.
Justice Department policy prohibits confidential informants from participating in acts of violence. The suit is pending in federal court in El Paso.
Ramirez-Peyro was a mole for ICE while he was a lieutenant to Heriberto Santillan-Tabares — also known as "El Ingeniero," the engineer — a chieftain in the Juarez-based cartel who allegedly ordered the killings.
Immigration transcripts, depositions and ICE documents describe Ramirez-Peyro's double life, providing chilling details of the carnage as well an insider's account of the violent Mexican drug trade.
"Santillan spoke with me that he was going to `grill some more meat'; in other words, they were going to kill some people," Ramirez-Peyro said in recalling one execution.
The former high-ranking figure in the cartel headed by Vicente Carrillo Fuentes Ramirez has acknowledged that he witnessed two executions, one of which he recorded, either with his cell phone or a video recorder.
He also said he'd bought duct tape and lime to dispose of bodies, supervised burials and arranged the use of the house for a "carne asada."
On one busy day, hit men took a body to the house, threw it under the staircase and returned about 45 minutes later with another body wrapped in black plastic. They dumped that one in the kitchen.
Ramirez-Peyro also told of hit squads composed of corrupt Mexican police officers and high-ranking law enforcement officers enmeshed in the drug trade.
He remains in protective custody in the United States, fighting U.S. government attempts to deport him. Being sent back to Mexico, he asserts, would mean death at the hands of the drug lords he betrayed.
The House of Death story has received limited public attention — the most extensive reports have been in the online publication Narco News — since it began unfolding in early 2004.
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