Pubdate: Thu, 10 May 2012
Source: Houston Chronicle (TX)
Copyright: 2012 Houston Chronicle Publishing Company Division, Hearst Newspaper
Contact:  http://www.chron.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/198
Author: Dane Schiller

DRUG CRIME SENDS FIRST-TIME OFFENDER GRANDMOM TO PRISON FOR LIFE

Houstonian, Who Has No Secrets to Trade, Is Doing More Time Than Drug Lords

FORT WORTH - The U.S. government didn't offer a reward for the 
capture of Houston grandmother Elisa Castillo, nor did it accuse her 
of touching drugs, ordering killings, or getting rich off crime.

But three years after a jury convicted her in a conspiracy to smuggle 
at least a ton of cocaine on tour buses from Mexico to Houston, the 
56-year-old first-time offender is locked up for life - without parole.

"It is ridiculous," said Castillo, who is a generation older than her 
cell mates, and is known as "grandma" at the prison here. "I am no one."

Convicted of being a manager in the conspiracy, she is serving a 
longer sentence than some of the hemisphere's most notorious crime 
bosses - men who had multimillion-dollar prices on their heads before 
their capture.

The drug capos had something to trade: the secrets of criminal 
organizations. The biggest drug lords have pleaded guilty in exchange 
for more lenient sentences.

Castillo said she has nothing to offer in a system rife with 
inconsistencies and behind-the-scenes scrambling that amounts to a 
judicial game of Let's Make A Deal.

"Our criminal justice system is broke; it needs to be completely 
revamped," declared Terry Nelson, who was a federal agent for over 30 
years and is on the executive board of Law Enforcement Against 
Prohibition. "They have the power, and if you don't play the game, 
they'll throw the book at you."

Castillo maintains her innocence, saying she was tricked into 
unknowingly helping transport drugs and money for a big trafficker in 
Mexico. But she refused to plead guilty and went to trial.

In 2010, of 1,766 defendants prosecuted for federal drug offenses in 
the Southern District of Texas - a region that reaches from Houston 
to the border - 93.2 percent pleaded guilty rather than face trial, 
according to the U.S. government. Just 10 defendants were acquitted 
at trial, and 82 saw their cases dismissed.

The statistics are similar nationwide.

The latest case in point came this week with the negotiated surrender 
of a Colombian drug boss Javier Calle Serna, whom the United States 
accuses of shipping at least 30 tons of cocaine.

While how much time Calle will face is not known publicly, he likely 
studied other former players, including former Gulf Cartel lord Osiel 
Cardenas Guillen.

Cardenas once led one of Mexico's most powerful syndicates and 
created the Zetas gang. He pleaded guilty in Houston and is to be 
released by 2025. He'll be 57.

As the federal prison system has no parole, Castillo has no prospect 
of ever going home.

"Any reasonable person would look at this and say, 'God, are you 
kidding?'" said attorney David Bires, who represented Castillo on an 
unsuccessful appeal. "It is not right."

Castillo's elderly mother in Mexico has not been told she's serving 
life, and her toddler grandson thinks she's in the hospital when he 
comes to visit her in prison.

Castillo is adamant about her innocence.

"Put yourself in my shoes. When you are innocent, you are innocent," 
she said. "I don't say I am perfect. I am not ... but I can guarantee 
you 100 percent that I am innocent of this."

At the urging of her boyfriend, Martin Ovalle, Castillo became 
partners with a smooth-talking Mexican resident who said he wanted to 
set up a Houston-based bus company.

But the buses were light on passengers and shuttled thousands of 
pounds of cocaine into the United States and millions of dollars back 
to Mexico. Her lawyers argued she was naive.

Castillo claims she didn't know about the drug operation, but agents 
said she should have known something was wrong when quantities of 
money and drugs were repeatedly found on the coaches.

"After hearing all the evidence as presented from both the government 
and defense in this case, the jury found her guilty ..." said Kenneth 
Magidson, chief prosecutor here.

Former federal prosecutor Mark W. White III said if Castillo had 
something to share, she might have benefited from a sentence 
reduction for cooperating.

"Information is a cooperating defendant's stock in trade," White 
said, "and if you don't have any, ... the chances are you won't get a 
good deal."

Castillo has faith that she'll somehow, some day, go free. Her daily 
routine doesn't vary: when she eats breakfast, when she works, when 
she exercises, and when she brushes her hair, which has gone from 
red-blond to black and gray. The gray gets respect in prison.

"I will leave here one day with my head held high," she said. "I 
don't feel like a bug or a cockroach. I am a human being, with my 
feet firmly on the ground."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom