DA Bregman revitalizes commission for border

Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman is also the chairman of the New Mexico Organized Crime Commission. Here’s a 10-question interview Bregman gave to Jerry Pacheco, the executive director of the International Business Accelerator, a nonprofit trade counseling program of the New Mexico Small Business Development Centers Network. Pacheco is also a Journal business columnist, whose columns are published every other Tuesday.

Q: What is the Organized Crime Commission?

A: “Back in the 1970s, there was put in place statutorily a Governor’s Organized Crime Commission to make sure the mob was not infiltrating New Mexico. About a year and a half ago, the governor decided that we needed to take the existing statutes and reinvigorate the Organized Crime Commission because it had gone dormant in the early 90s. She said, ‘We’re dealing with organized crime all the time in this state right now in terms of criminal organizations, the cartels and other things, and we have to do something to fight back at that.’ I think more than anything else, she gave us a mandate, specifically to help coordinate the intelligence statewide when it comes to law enforcement, but also to address three specific areas: drug trafficking, human trafficking and gun trafficking, and that’s our mission. We have a fantastic group of commissioners, and we have a small team. I’ve started and funded this out of our office about a year and a half ago, but now I’m excited to tell you that the Legislature and the governor have agreed to invest millions of dollars in this commission to get it a really solid footing in New Mexico so we can do the work that needs to be done in fighting the cartels and every other type of criminal organization.”

Q: Do you work with Mexican and Texas officials?

A: “Absolutely. We’ve visited with folks in Arizona, Colorado, Utah and Texas. We just did a major operation, which had 19 different agencies involved called Operation Disruption, which included not only Texas, us, federal and local law enforcement. We also dealt with and are continuing to build our relationships with the state governments and the national government in Mexico. I’ve been really excited about that.”

Q: So, you and your staff are coming down periodically to the border?

A: “We do, and I’ve also visited the state of Chihuahua and (the Department of Public Safety) there. I’ve also visited with the governor of Sonora. I have been down to Mexico City and dealt with the head prosecutor in the attorney general’s office there for narcotics. So, we are continuing to build relationships.”

Q: Do you also get involved in human trafficking?

“Absolutely, in fact we recently conducted a major operation with (U.S. Customs and Border Protection) and (New Mexico) State Police was also involved. We saved 200 migrants’ lives, and we disrupted dozens of stash houses and actually identified people who are peddling in human trafficking, which is a disgusting crime to say the least.”

Q: Violence involving guns is an issue on this side of the border, but here at the border it is also the shipment of illegal guns and money to Mexico. Do you work to intercept these types of flows?

A: “Yes. It is a fact that we have fentanyl in our state, and we have human trafficking on the border that is at unacceptable levels — there is no acceptable level, but it is really bad, and we know that they bring the drugs up, they commit human traffic bringing migrants up, and then they take guns down south. We are working on these issues, and it is the same people that are involved.”

Q: There is a corridor that runs from the border to a city such as Albuquerque. Is your organization actively monitoring this corridor?

A: “Yes, we are, and I will tell you that fentanyl is destroying entire neighborhoods within Albuquerque. It is so frustrating to see so many people bent over on the side of the road after smoking fentanyl and to know that businesses are suffering because of what this drug does to people. We’ve got to do everything we can to get a handle on this and we continue to do that.

Q: What about gangs?

A: “Gangs are different now. Gangs used to be all about territory. Now, they are loose-knit organizations, and so many are contractors for the cartels. They operate on social media, and they communicate and band together that way. The biggest thing I am dealing with in Albuquerque is the rise in juvenile violent crime, dealing with guns. There’s plenty of work for law enforcement.”

Q: It seems like not a week goes by without seeing a violent crime being committed by a juvenile.

A: “It’s disgusting. On New Year’s Eve in Albuquerque, we saw one teenager allegedly get killed in a gun transaction by another teenager. That’s very concerning.”

Q: How do you stop unauthorized teen access to guns such as 9mm Glocks?

A: “It’s not just 9mm Glocks. They are putting switches in them and making them fully automatic. We’ve got kids running around that have automatic weapons that can shoot 30 rounds in two seconds. That’s a cop killer. It’s devastating and we have to get a handle on that.”

Q: What else would you like the public to know about your commission?

A: “We are focused like a laser beam on taking on the cartels and organized crime. We are not going to rest until we make a huge dent. It’s important because too many people are dying from fentanyl, too many people are being abused through human trafficking, and the gun situation is out of control, especially amongst our young people. At the end of the day, I want people to know that we wake up every single morning and work to make this a safer place. We have a role to play in taking on organized crime, but also to collaborate with law enforcement at every level, and we can only do that if we are properly funded. I’m very grateful to the governor and the Legislature for this.”

Jerry Pacheco is the executive director of the International Business Accelerator, a nonprofit trade counseling program of the New Mexico Small Business Development Centers Network. He can be reached at 575-589-2200 or at jerry@nmiba.com.