| | |  Americas & Beyond | October 2009 
Cartel Slayings on the Rise in Houston
 Dane Schiller - Houston Chronicle
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October 20, 2009
 |  | Houston has long been regarded as a hub for cartel- related trafficking of weapons, but officials said it also is emerging as a magnet for killings and other crimes over cartel connections gone bad. |  | | |
It was not the first time a rival tried to kill Mexican drug cartel-connected gangster Santiago “Chago” Salinas, but it would be the last.
When 28-year-old Salinas was shot in the head at point-blank range three years ago at the Baymont Inn & Suites hotel on the Gulf Freeway, it was the latest round in a deadly feud that has played out here and in Mexico.
Just a few weeks before, Salinas' brother-in-law who also had lived in Houston, was found dead, charred in a barrel of diesel near the city of Monterrey.
Revenge and rivalry murders are part of everyday carnage south of the border, but court papers and interviews document a growing toll in Houston, where an untold number of killers have cartel connections painstakingly being uncovered by authorities.
Houston has long been regarded as a hub for cartel- related trafficking of weapons, but officials said it also is emerging as a magnet for killings and other crimes over cartel connections gone bad.
The back and forth in the killings is undeniable, said Violet Szeleczky, spokeswoman for the Drug Enforcement Administration's Houston Division. “They are just killing themselves,” she said. “Who lost a load within a cell? Who disrespected who by doing this?”
It can take years for authorities to collect the evidence that connects seemingly random murders or robberies to underworld turf wars.
Few killings weave through the hidden connections of criminals in Houston and Mexico like that of Salinas.
Three attempts
The shooting at the Baymont hotel marked the third attempt on his life in about a year.
The first came in early 2006. He was shot in the back of the head and left for dead in Mexico. The bullet went through his neck and jaw, but he somehow survived, according to the DEA.
The person believed responsible for that shooting was Daniel “Danny Boy” Zamora, who grew up in Houston but ran an enforcement crew for the Sinaloa drug trafficking cartel.
“Danny Boy” was later killed in a Mexican shootout.
The second attempt on Salinas' life came in May 2006 at Chilos, a Mexican seafood restaurant on the Gulf Freeway.
Spotters inside picked out the wrong guy, a Pasadena maintenance man, who was gunned down in the parking lot in front of his family.
Video shows Salinas inside the restaurant at another table and gawking at the aftermath of the shooting before slipping away.
Salinas' luck ran out six months later when he answered the door of room 142 at the Baymont hotel at about 3:45 a.m.
Authorities now point to Danny Boy's younger brother, Jaime Zamora, a former city parks employee and alleged trafficking rival now facing a capital murder charge for the botched restaurant killing, as a likely culprit in the Salinas killing as well, records show.
The killings are all part of a string of Houston area murders in the past few years.
Among others in which no one has been charged: a husband and wife who were tortured and killed in their home on Easingwold Drive, in northwest Houston. About 220 pounds of cocaine was found in the attic.
And then there is the nephew of Osiel Cardenas Guillen, the reputed former leader of the Gulf Cartel and the top rival of the Sinaloa Cartel. He was shot in the head and left in a ditch off Madden Road, near Fort Bend County.
Few murders and surrounding conspiracies that have been uncovered are as extensive as what authorities are claiming regarding the surviving Zamora brother, Jaime.
In state court, he faces trial for allegedly masterminding the mistaken hit that was meant for Salinas but ended up killing an innocent man. In federal court, he is charged with drug trafficking, but prosecutors also put him in the center of the Salinas murder.
Relatives want justice
“At this time, the United States gives notice that in relation to his drug trafficking activities, Jaime Zamora participated in the murder of a drug rival,” according to a document filed this month by a federal prosecutor, “and prior to this murder, Zamora and co-conspirators killed a man who was mistaken by conspirators as Zamora's drug rival.”
Zamora, through his attorney, has denied the charges. Salinas' relatives declined comment, but said they'd like to see justice in the case.
Lt. Dan Webb, of the Texas Department of Public Safety narcotics division, said the traffickers have shown that borders won't stop them from killing in Mexico or Texas.
“There are so many different reasons why they kill each other,” he said, “a rivalry between two groups; or some boss says ‘kill this guy, he pissed me off' or boyfriend-girlfriend stuff gets involved.”
dane.schiller(at)chron.com
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