The Notebook of Carlos Moore

Trina Nunez was a ghost. We tracked down the guys that raped her, killed her, and stole her baby to put her to rest.

The meth was poisoned by an evil artifact that was also in the backpack. Indiana Jones stuff. Thing’s still out there. The Montes de Oca’s have it, and no one knows what they plan to use it for. If they plan to use it for anything. Jose Montes de Oca could just think it’s pretty and keep it on his mantelpiece for all I know.

Just in case anyone reads this thing after I’m dead, those two bits of information might help make things make a little more sense. Whether it makes sense because you believe it or whether it makes sense because it confirms that I’m crazy is a toss up.

Gilberto Flores was suspected of running a meth lab out in Graham or Greenlee county, but no one knew where. With some legwork I managed to run down a known associate of Flores named Sam Mungia, working in a movie theater in Safford. After dedicated surveillance I was able to learn that Mungia was in regular contact with a crew in a remote area in Greenlee county. Some exploration and cross-country hiking allowed me to find a camp consisting of one old trailer and a few tents, with only one vehicle on the property. Trees had been felled across the road to slow anyone trying to enter the area. Additional surveillance revealed that Flores was in fact on the property. Hiking back to my vehicle, I drove back to an area with a cell signal and phoned Cameron Teeters of Tucson Police, who in turn notified that Greenlee County Sheriff’s department.

Flores was arrested on outstanding warrants and two others, a soldier and a lab tech, were also arrested. Back in Tucson, Luis Echevarria turned himself in for parole violations and will testify that Flores murdered Trina Nunez in return for a reduced sentance.

This brings the total of drug arrests I’m responsible for in the past two weeks to six.

I managed to track down Luis Echevarria’s parole officer up in Phoenix. He didn’t want to give me any information, understandably since I’m not law enforcement. I told him I was really only looking for a former known associate suspected of murder, no one Echevarria is currently affiliated with and he gave me a last known address. He did state that Echevarria had missed his last meeting, so technically he was in violation of his parole. I’d use that to my advantage.

I had Mercedes Gomez with me as backup. The kid’s street smart. She’s also obviously Hispanic, and going into Brown Pride territory with me looking so white and carrying myself like an obvious cop, she was an asset. On the way to the address, we passed a bunch of Brown Pride guys about Echevarria’s age hanging out on a streetcorner. He’s old for a banger, late 20s, pushing 30. We made a pass around the neighborhood, scoping for where he’d run if we met up with him and he decided to rabbit, what traps he might lead us into, and again, where the bangers who might come running as backup are standing around. No one answered, though, and a peek in the window revealed it to be empty.

We returned to the corner where the bangers were standing, and I let Mercedes do the talking. One of them turned out to be Luis Echevarria, and Mercedes persuaded him to take her to the local bar and buy her a drink. Inside the bar I disappeared into a corner, far enough to allow Echevarria to mack on, her but not so far away that I couldn’t overhear. They started out talking about Brown Pride and being in a gang, which led to Mercedes talking about her family formerly being in the drug dealers and coyotes. At the last he went cold. She asked him if he’d ever helped anyone cross the border, and that’s when he got nervous and asked who we were. I went over to the table then, and let him see the gun I was carrying under my jacket. I told him we were just looking for Flores.

Echevarria caved at that point. I was acting like a cop, he was in violation of his parole in more ways than one (I took a 9mm pistol off of him), and he knew his best hope was to come clean. He regretted doing that run with Flores. Gilberto Flores was the name he gave. No relation to Gabriella Flores, just a coincidence with a fairly common last name. All Echevarria wanted was to make a simple run and get paid. Flores had ideas of ransoming people they were helping to cross. Trina Nunez was attractive, and apparently turned away Flores’s advances, and that’s when things went south. He never saw Flores or the illegals again after dropping them off at the safe house.

He agreed to come with us back to Tucson. I’d advised him that I was former law enforcement with connections, and that he was going to go back to jail for his parole violations, so the best thing for him would be to testify against Flores in return for some leniency. He agreed to cooperate.

I called Cameron Teeters, a contact I had in the Tucson Police Department, and brought him up to speed on the case. Even though the Trina Nunez case happened outside his jurisdiction, he was definitely interested in getting credit for the arrest of a murderer. It turned out that Giberto Flores had multiple outstanding warrants for violent crimes. All I had to do was find Flores, contact Teeters to tip off his location, and the case would be closed.

Now I just need to track down a deranged criminal.

Based on information given to me by the aunt I managed to locate the “travel agent” who arranged the crossing for Trina Nunez and Gabriella Flores, a man named Victor Bustamante. Based in Mexico, he’s no longer in the pollero business but has a thriving legitimate enterprise going. He agreed to speak with me, and knew about the incident. He stated that it was what ruined his business. He’d hired two guys he’d never worked with before, an American named Luis Echevarria and another guy named Flores, to do shepherd the crossing. He’d said it had gone wrong almost from the beginning, and that Echevarria in particular was brutal. bustamante never worked with those guys again, and no one wanted to work with him once word about Trina Nunez got around, so he reinvested into legal businesses.

No first name on Flores, but the other crosser was named Gabriella flores, and she’s the one that took the baby. It can’t be coincidence that she made it unharmed. I’ve got a lead on Echevarria, a gang banger in Phoenix with a record for weapons and drug possession. I’m going to try to get up there and follow up. I want to get this guy for murder, which will be a tough job considering the lack of forensic evidence and witnesses, but I also want to find Gabriella Flores and that baby. If she witnessed the horrible things done to Trina Nunez, I may be able to get her to testify against Echevarria. She’s illegal, so maybe a deal can be cut to keep her from being deported in return for testimony. Not my department, though. I want justice, but I can only go so far.

By necessity I will not be naming all of my sources. I am using confidential informants, but I’m no longer a DEA agent so I can’t officially extend the usual protections. All I can do is leave their names out of it. This forces me to work harder, as I can only use their tips and leads to locate hard evidence or witnesses willing to take the stand. The Trina Nunez murder is one such case.

I first heard the story as an urban legend. A female border crosser was tied to an ocatillo tree with barbed wire and left to die in the heat of the desert sun. Her baby was taken from her, and now her vengeful ghost wanders the desert preying on the children of border crossers. It’s the kind of story that less scrupulous coyotes use to scare illegals and keep them in line. There were too many specifics to the story that didn’t change with retelling, and it was apparently a fairly recent legend, which led me to believe that their might be some truth to it. The woman could have been a drug mule who double-crossed or upset a gang or cartel. She could have failed to pay her coyote for aiding in her crossing from Mexico. It could be the work of a rogue Minuteman, or a serial killer. In any case, it was an unsolved murder.

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