Alleged Zeta slashed his own throat but survived
Jose Ezequiel Galicia Gonzalez, an alleged member of the Zetas criminal organization, was in federal court Wednesday for a competency hearing after he tried to kill himself with plastic cutlery.
According to testimony given before U.S. Magistrate Judge Felix Recio, Galicia used either a plastic knife or a plastic spoon to cut his wrists and then slit his throat.
According to defense attorney Reynaldo Cantu, Galicia almost succeeded and ended up in intensive care. Cantu stated that Galicia might suffer from a mental disease or defect and requested a psychiatric evaluation. Galicia will be evaluated by a court-appointed psychiatrist on Friday. Court documents don’t state when the suicide attempt took place, but Cantu filed a motion for the hearing on Aug. 12.
Galicia is being held on a charge of illegal re-entry to the United States and was arrested on July 23, along with Oscar Castillo Flores, also known as Arturo Castillo and nicknamed “El Apache,” and Luis Alberto Blanco Flores, known as “El Pelochas,” court documents show. Galicia and the two other men are under the custody of the U.S. Marshals in lieu of $25,000 bail.
The group was caught during an operation involving U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement-Homeland Security Investigations, the FBI, the U.S. Border Patrol and Brownsville police, said ICE spokeswoman Nina Pruneda.
After the men conclude their pending legal matters, they will be extradited to Mexico, Pruneda has said.
During his hearing, a shackled Galicia, wearing khaki pants and a blue shirt, told the judge that it was all a misunderstanding and he was not trying to kill himself. He stated that he was just trying to get a hold of his wife.
Galicia, speaking in a raspy voice in Spanish, said that he and his wife had been hiding in the Rio Grande Valley. He said that after unknown individuals burned down his house in Mexico, she wanted to go there to recover their possessions.
“It wasn’t safe to go to Mexico,” Galicia said. “My father was abducted, and they burned my house. I didn’t want her to go. Before I had gotten arrested I told her I was going to take her to McAllen to buy stuff for the house, but since I got arrested I haven’t been able to get in touch with her. I remembered the forms that had the phone number to call in case of emergency. I wanted to go to the hospital to get in touch with her and tell her not to go.”
When asked by Recio if he had succeeded, Galicia stated he had gotten in touch with her. However, he added that he was paying for it dearly because he was being held in solitary confinement and was under suicide watch.
According to a Mexican law enforcement official who asked that his name not be released, Galicia worked for Castillo. The official said Castillo was the leader a group of Zeta hitmen who are responsible for the recent shootouts in Matamoros, including an attack in June at the city’s Municipal Police Station where seven police officers were killed.
The Zetas began as a group of Mexican special forces who switched sides and became the armed wing of the Gulf Cartel. In February, the Zetas split from the Gulf Cartel split and began a bloody dispute over territories and drug trade routes.
According to a source with firsthand knowledge of criminal activity in Mexico, who for security reasons asked not to be identified, Castillo’s older brother, “El Beto Fabe,” was the head of the Gulf Cartel in Matamoros but cooperated with the Zetas by letting Castillo operate there.
According to the source, after Beto Fabe was killed last May supposedly under orders of Gulf Cartel bosses, his brother and a group of hitmen – including Blanco and Galicia — began openly attacking Gulf Cartel and police assets.
A few days after the trio’s arrest in Brownsville, 15 bodies with signs of torture were dropped along a Matamoros highway. Each of the bodies reportedly had a large “Z” painted on its back, and sources have said the men were part of Castillo’s group.
At around the same time, the Mexican navy announced that it had arrested 12 Zetas at a motel in San Fernando, all of whom were also part of Castillo’s group. Authorities have said those 12 were among the 14 men killed two weeks ago in violence at the Matamoros state prison.
