| | |  Americas & Beyond | September 2009 
US Antidrug Official Helped Enemies
Sebastian Rotella - Los Angeles Times
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September 18, 2009
| | Richard Padilla Cramer (borderreporter.com) | |
Washington - As a high-ranking U.S. antidrug official, Richard Padilla Cramer held frontline posts in the war on Mexico's murderous cartels. He led an office of two-dozen agents in Arizona and was the attache for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Guadalajara.
While in Mexico, however, Cramer also served as a secret ally of drug lords, according to federal investigators.
He allegedly advised traffickers on law enforcement tactics and pulled secret files to help them identify turncoats. He charged $2,000 for a Drug Enforcement Administration document that was e-mailed to a suspect in Miami in August, authorities say.
"Cramer was responsible for advising the (drug traffickers) how U.S. law enforcement works with warrants and record checks as well as how DEA conducts investigations to include flipping subjects,'" or recruiting informants, according to a criminal complaint filed by a DEA agent.
DEA agents arrested Cramer, 56, at his home in Arizona on Sept. 4.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney in Miami said Wednesday that she could not comment, but said cases that begin with complaints usually go before a grand jury.
Cramer's duties as the ICE attache in Guadalajara included serving as a liaison with Mexican police, assisting investigations and gathering intelligence.
But the investigation revealed that Cramer also worked for "a very high-level drug lord," according to federal officials. The 26-year government veteran became a full-time adviser to traffickers after retiring from ICE in January 2007, according to the complaint.
A trafficker "convinced Cramer to retire ... and began working directly for (him) in drug trafficking and money laundering," according to the complaint.
Cramer sold secret documents that he obtained from active U.S. agents, an aspect of the case still under investigation. The charges underscore the corruptive power of the cartels, which have bought off Mexican politicians, police chiefs and military commanders. Drug lords have reached across the international line with increasing ease, corrupting U.S. border inspectors and agents to help smuggle cocaine north. In 2006, the FBI chief in El Paso, Texas, was convicted of charges related to concealing his friendship with an alleged drug kingpin.
Cramer stands out because his rank and foreign post made his work especially sensitive, officials said. Stunned colleagues described him as a well-regarded investigator who spoke fluent Spanish and operated skillfully in the array of U.S. and Mexican agencies at the border when he ran the ICE office in the action-packed border zone of Nogales, Ariz., his hometown.
"It came as a complete shock," said Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada in a telephone interview. "I have been in law enforcement at the border 42 years and I have seen some strange things, but I have never ceased to be surprised. You have to be watchful and mindful. The cartels have touched local, state and federal agencies."
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