But on the afternoon of March 6, Border Patrol agents found him and five others sleeping in the brush west of Marfa. Organizers across the world sought Tarahumara runners for their races, and those who moved comfortably among chabochi, or outsiders, began receiving regular invitations to race. Robert and Kimberly both received bachelor's degrees in business administration from Texas A&M and were members of the Fellows program. Still, he got paid only if he successfully completed his mission. In 2003, Robert Chambers walked out of prison, after 15 years, a free man, still pursued by his own infamy. Competitors from all over the world, electrified by "Born to Run", made the pilgrimage to the Tarahumara homeland. It was big news, from the Big Bend Sentinel (The Marfa Coke Bust, it blared) all the way to the New York Times. In the end, it was Chambers who used Thompson. Hed run rarajipari as a boy, and, per Tarahumara tradition, gambled on the race from an early age, winning soap, pens, and sometimes even a chicken. Hes made parole. View Robert H Chambers's profile for company associations, background information, and partnerships. Chambers had been selling drugs out of his girlfriend Shawn Kovell's Manhattan apartment. far west texas when austin-based journalist rob d'amico started calling west texans in 2017, asking what they knew about robert chambers, rick thompson and the 1991 billion dollar bust of a cocaine-filled horse trailer in presidio county, many "quite frankly said, 'this is done, you don't need to dredge it up,'" d'amico said in an interview In late 1965, he enlisted in the Marines, serving in Vietnam as a radio man and military policeman. It was still dark when Silvino woke two hours before the big race in Cerocahui last October. While working a job canning chiles, they were told they could earn twice as much at a pecan orchard near the Rio Grande. A pair of feral dogs dozed near Silvinos feet. It was twelve miles north to Candelaria, where you could stand in the middle of town and see all of it: ramshackle trailers and a few adobe houses; Johnnie Chamberss empty schoolhouse; an abandoned church and a corrugated-metal cotton gin. That was my last case, and Rick was kind of the orchestra leader in trying to coordinate relationships with not only the witnesses, but the local people and federal authorities. In time, the backpackers shed come to represent were known to ask for her by name. Not in West Texas. In 2006, he persuaded Scott Jurek, the top American, to travel to Urique Canyon for a trail race he was organizing that is now known as the Ultra Caballo Blanco. Even for a strong farmer like Silvino, who used oxen to plough his fields in Huisuchi, cultivating chia in Urique proved biblical in its afflictions. After crossing the river here, backpackers hike past the old Chambers ranch to the top of the Sierra Vieja, where they look for their U.S. 90 pickup. PeopleFinders is the best people search for contact info and public records. The two kept a tight rein on who knew what in their investigation when it became apparent that Sheriff Rick Thompson might be involved with Robert Chambers. So, after returning from his aborted drug run, Silvino saw his racing career take off. 2016Oakmont Country Club, Oakmont, Pa. 2015 Chambers Bay, University Place, Wash. 2014Pinehurst No. He moved swiftly. mother, Christine, didnt want to stay in Alpine because of the publicity. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents left him in Jurez without enough money for a bus ticket home. Many of these were caught and processed as so-called backpacker cases: groups of six or more Mexican men arrested in the mountains, each carrying about 45 pounds of marijuana. Unable to afford lawyers, each defendant was assigned one by the court. She sometimes joked with Chambers that he didnt know where his grandfather was buried, but he did. ST v CASTILLO,ROBERT EASTMAN Case Summary On 01/26/2018 ST filed an Other - Other Criminal lawsuit against CA ST ILLO,ROBERT EA ST MAN. Leave a sympathy message to the family in the guestbook on this memorial page of Robert Leroy Chambers to show support. Silvino felt the pressure of what hed come to donot just for his own survival but for the survival of his people. By 2015, the tiny office of the federal public defenders in Alpine was tasked with the second-largest caseload in Texas, behind El Paso. Search law firms at FindLaw. Agent Fort identified this Suburban as the vehicle usually driven by the Presidio County Sheriff Richard Dee Thompson, Stinson stated. Chambers was well acquainted with smugglers from Mexico and eventually became close to Pablo Acosta, the drug lord of Ojinaga. After walking for ten days in the harsh borderland, their guide had abandoned them that morning. Silvino could only muster twenty-fifth place. Thompson in a portrait with his jail staff. The case status is Disposed - Dismissed. Studied Registered Nurse at Lone Star College System Class of 2008 Associates of Applied Science in Nursing Studied Trumpet Performance at Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester September 1, 1993 - May 15, 1994 Studied at Spring High School Class of 1993 High school Went to Spring High School Photos See all photos To help keep them on the ranch, his grandmother Johnnie earned a teaching degree from Sul Ross State University in her forties, and she ran the two-room schoolhouse in Candelaria for 25 years. Thompson remained free after the drugs were seized. Man, I never saw this coming. Case Details Parties Dockets Case Details Case Number: Meanwhile, budget cuts meant the number of lawyers (four) stayed the same. John Robert Chambers 1 February 1875-19 July 1951 (Age 76) Terrell, Kaufman, Texas, United States The Life Summary of John Robert When John Robert Chambers was born on 1 February 1875, in Terrell, Kaufman, Texas, United States, his father, Asa Chambers, was 39 and his mother, Sara Melissa Long, was 25. International runners arrived to find armed gangs in the streets of Urique, while local government officials assured the competitors there were no problems. Thompson is scheduled to get out April 14, 2018.). He didnt believe in spells, but Silvino felt the pressure of what hed come to donot just for his own survival but for the survival of his people. Robert Chambers was the head of the organization. TX 78721-1510 is the last known address for Robert. It was at least forty miles through the driest landscape Id ever seen. The American ultramarathoner Micah True got to know some of the Tarahumara runners in Leadville, and he was so changed by the experience that he later moved to the Sierra Madre. At his sentencing hearing May 10, Thompson apologized and his wife made a final plea for leniency. Others long had expressed doubts about Thompson, including Jack McNamara, publisher of the Nimby News in Alpine, who was critical of Thompsons leadership of the West Texas Multi-County Narcotics Task Force. He wanted to thank his lawyer for helping him. Thomas Chambers. His stature as a political figure and a leader of law enforcement at the time made people seek him out for advice. , Now here he was, with six members of his own familynearly a year after, Then, all at once, they saw the spotlights. You can view 1 entry, complete with personal details, location history, phone numbers, relatives and locations for Robert Chambers. When he met Vega again, Chambers jokingly asked, If you could run like that, why didnt you escape? Vega said he never could have evaded the agents in their trucks and helicopters. Refine Your Search Results All Filters 1 Robert Warren Chambers, 83 Resides in Austin, TX Lived In Houston TX, Cedar Park TX Her caseload was so large she had to meet with up to nine clients at a time, but she patiently explained to each one how their case would unfold and made them all laugh. Silvino, a farmer with four children, knew the canyons the way urban dwellers know city streets: every rock, cactus, and river bend was a sign. MARFA As the town slept fitfully late Dec. 3, 1991, its single traffic light blinking out a perfect pulse, shadowy figures moved through the streets, while others lurked on the outskirts. Some Tarahumara activists tried to make their plight known, like Irma Chvez Cruz, a 25-year-old mother who was a friend of Silvinos. He called his colleague and friend Jaime Escuder, who had also been assigned a defendant in the case. Almost like brothers, one observer said. After his release, it took Silvino two months to get home. The grief and horror of the people concerning this incident appeared to be beyond the normal consternation of people in situations such as this. As Silvino left the San Isidro Lodge, where he had stayed the night, he glanced over at six mangy dogs and cats sleeping next to the embers of a nearby campfire. Sunlight broke through the slim canopy. Eagle Realty Group & Associate, (573) 336-0003. A pair of uncles on his moms side also went to prison for drug offenses, and so did a paternal uncle. Of course, drug traffickers also know this. They had come from as far away as Chihuahua, riding two buses for eleven hours combined. His wife, Hilda, begged him not to go, but he felt he had no choice. The federal Drug Enforcement Administration said in a statement Friday that Chambers has moved about 10 tons of cocaine and 10 tons of marijuana through the Big Bend area since 1986. Robert is a managing . Soon after, his mother was arrested for possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine. He had grown up on the ancient tales of men who sprinkled bone dust on the course the night before, thought to induce fatigue in your competitors. This is the list of all previous golf courses where the U.S. Open has been played: 2019Pebble Beach Golf Links, Pebble Beach, Calif. 2018Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, Southampton, N.Y. 2017 Erin Hills Golf Course, Erin, Wisc. Use FindLaw to hire a local tax lawyer near you to help structure an offer and compromise, fight IRS collections, and assist with wage and garnishment releases. For Silvino, new opportunities eventually arose from the attention generated by the book. 118 Oak Shadows Cv Hawkins, TX 75765 2324 Saddlebrook Ln Rockwall, TX 75087 1651 Airport Rd Rockwall, TX 75087 460 County Road 2375 Saltillo, TX 75478. Silvino flung his bags into the sand and began to run. They were taken from Chambers county, Ala., by said Ware to Texas some-where about the year 1847. To meet the surging demand for heroin in the United States, they also began seizing additional farmland in order to increase poppy cultivation. The tribes runners had never ventured far from home and remained largely unknown until 1993, when an opportunistic American photographer named Rick Fisher brought several members, including a 55-year-old grandfather and a 40-something goat farmer, to an old Colorado mining town called Leadville to enter its 100-mile ultramarathon. He attributed part of the Tarahumaras success to their minimal footwear; they ran with a lightness unfamiliar to American runners, landing on the midpoint of their foot instead of the heel. 2 . After field tests confirmed the drug, agents hauled the trailer to Alpine. If I dont take the risk during a race, then I dont get any reward.. Their huts clung to the granite slopes and crevices of the canyons, which are connected by a vast system of narrow footpaths. Handsome, well-educated, but deeply troubled: Robert Chambers was a total knockout with a dark personality. Cook, a native of Alpine, knew the area well and helped manage the surveillance of Chambers and cultivating their informants. It turned out to be people burning salt cedar, an invasive species that saps water from the earth. None of his companions had made it out. His grandfather served as a Presidio County commissioner and was often asked to resolve border disputes privately. From there, the runners followed white arrows spray-painted on the ground into a forest of pion pine, juniper, and small oak trees. Silvino felt the adrenaline course through him, and he told himself to escape to the mountains theyd crossed on their way north. Some folks called him cocky. Robert Earl Chambers, Age 115 Witnessed: Borderlands is a new true-crime podcast from journalist Rob D'Amico, set during the peak of the War On Drugs. There was no trial. Uriques head of tourism watched in tears as Tarahumara runners collapsed. Chambers dug out the sentencing guidelines: a scant .11 pounds of meth would double their potential sentences, from five to ten years. Chambers remembers law enforcement coming to his house after his father had been arrested, though he was too young to comprehend the reason. I have never heard That ended abruptly with his guilty plea Feb. 11, 1992, forcing them to accept that their Walking Tall law officer was a drug smuggler. Even still, looking at the slight, dark-haired, shackled Vega, his anger bubbled up. sation, igniting a global running craze. Currently, he is at the Sullivan Correctional Facility, where fellow inmates include the infamous Ronald DeFeo Jr., whose crimes are the basis of ' The Amityville Horror '. He took the office after his predecessor, Sheriff Hank Hamilton, was gunned down in 1973 by a mentally unstable man. Thompson acknowledged his guilt and agreed to cooperate with federal investigators. Silvino remembered the women in Huisuchi who used to weave baskets out of the pine needles. Strapped to his back were two homespun burlap packs, one filled with 45 pounds of marijuana bricks and the other with enough burritos and gallon jugs of water to survive another week in the wilderness. It was around the twelve-mile mark. Nobody was warming up when he arrived; the Tarahumara dont stretch. Robert Stanley Chambers August 10, 1952 February 4, 2022 Robert Stanley Chambers, of Talty, Texas, passed away on February 4th, 2022, at his home in Talty. After drug traffickers had taken over the ejido in Basihuare, Makawi had given an interview to a newspaper in Chihuahua, describing the situation and the growing recruitment of Tarahumara youth into organized crime. It may have been thirty. When they arrived at the orchard, there were no pecans. Robert Chambers has stated that he feels sorry about what happened to Jennifer, noting that he feels like he is on trial every day of his life. Silvino wore athletic gear and blue-and-yellow Asicsthe trails were too slippery, the roads too hard, for huaraches. An informant had told the federal drug agents a tantalizing tale. Silvino, a farmer with four children, knew the canyons the way urban dwellers know city streets: every rock, cactus, and river bend was a sign. (He starred in a public service announcement TV ad urging people to call in and help lock up smugglers.). At one point, he said, when Chambers drug-loaded truck stalled near the border, Thompson quickly appeared to give him a jump. International runners and film crews descended on the Sierra Tarahumara. He hadnt eaten anything, not even the pocket-size bean burritos and salsa he normally ran with. In 2006, he persuaded Scott Jurek, the top American, to travel to Urique Canyon for a trail race he was organizing that is now known as the Ultra Caballo Blanco. Roughly forty miles northwest of Big Bend Ranch State Park, it is a place of extremes, a dry, barren land that is only ever hot or cold. From then on gunfire could routinely be heard in the town and up the canyon. Sign Up Log In Tags Don Robert Hendrix Once there, he picked chiles to earn the bus fare farther south to Chihuahua City, where he finally cobbled together the fare to Huisuchi by making cheese at a, Silvino swore he would never run drugs again, but by 2010, there was still not enough food to eat. Rick Thompson was widely admired by Marfa residents and was a shoe-in for his upcoming election to a fifth term as Presidio County Sheriff. He ate a sandwich and drank a bottle of Coca-Cola. The second time, he completed his drop at a fancy hotel outside Las Cruces, New Mexico. Silvino, a farmer with four children, knew the canyons the way urban dwellers know city streets: every rock, cactus, and river bend was a sign. He looked up at the stars and thought about curses, as older Tarahumara runners tend to do before a race. In that era, there were many unsupervised border crossings and the Border Patrol was understaffed. Thats whats hard to understand, he added. About three hours later, the agents moved in to inspect the trailer, parked with the sheriffs other equipment. Ten minutes after six, the runners approached the starting line, adjacent to the three-hundred-year-old red-earthen, yellow-domed Jesuit church, and took off. They lived in the same indigent neighborhood on the edge of Chihuahua. Chambers told Vega that it was a good deal, and it helped when the Federal Bureau of Prisons sent back a recommendation of 46 months instead of 60. His mother, Christine, didnt want to stay in Alpine because of the publicity. The sheriff had also helped deliver various loads, the agency claimed, altogether earning him $70,000 to $80,000 in drug money. Robert Conrad Photo, Robert Horton Photo, Springfield Trapdoor, Council Tool Collectible Axes & Hatches, Leaded Lamp, According to the Mexico Citybased magazine Proceso, at least five indigenous activists were assassinated in 2015 and 2016. Rogers, a family friend, was now a private attorney and had also been assigned a member of the group. The most famous section, covered with lichen, is the color of oxidized copper. It just shattered people. . They were more optimistic souls in a long line of people who have tried, often futilely, to farm the floodplain. Still, he got paid only if he successfully completed his mission. It operated along the Rio Grande from El Paso to Alpine, from 1988 to 1992. Runners would have to reach the plaza, grab another bracelet, and then double back to the edge of town before returning. In the summer of 2016, drug traffickers moved on the town of Basihuare, near Chvezs hometown of Rejogochi, stealing the funds from the towns ejido, a government-supported agriculture cooperative. His first time, in 2005, he did just that, tossing his, After his release, it took Silvino two months to get home. Of course, drug traffickers also know this. The only thing he asked me to do was take care of my people. He crossed the finish line, accepted a sandwich, sat on a stone wall, and barely stirred for photographs with local officials. He knew hed never be able to hold an audience like that, but he realized then that this work was what he wanted to do. There are unanswered questions, he added. That summer, he saw around four hundred cases come through the Alpine office, and within a few years its annual caseload had more than doubled. Soon he was recruited to run drugs into Texas. Now here he was, with six members of his own familynearly a year after Born to Run had become an international best sellerstriding through the dark up the boot heel of New Mexico. Theyre some of the toughest people in the world.. His teammates became ill; hed been the only one not stricken. It was one of Thompson's more dubious associations, a local man named Glyn Robert Chambers, that apparently led to his downfall. He did not respond to a letter sent to him in prison requesting an interview. They moved up and down the Interstate 35 corridor so often that Chambers lost count of the number of schools he attended. During the day, they slept beneath frayed creosote bushes, concealing their bags nearby, and at night they trudged north toward the freeway, avoiding rattlesnakes, coyotes, and most of all, la migra, the Border Patrol. Corrupt Texas sheriff soon to be released from prison. Had he been arrested the second time in New Mexico, she said, he would have faced a mandatory five years in prison. He passed fields with corn stalks as tall as the cabins beside them, and a few loose cows and goats. He would share his produce with family, friends, and neighbors, a true labor of love. Urique had an anthropomorphic quality from here: the peaks on either side of the river looked like heads, with an evergreen blanket sloped across their chests and legs. Between sips of Guinness, the race organizer announced the winners name, hometown, and time. In the distance, Rogers noticed a cloud of black smoke rising downriver. But racing couldnt alleviate the hardships ravaging the Tarahumara themselves. He was doing this stuff and they never knew. If we each look into our hearts, every one of us has made mistakes. A day before the race, however, Jurez hit men stormed the police station, seizing two officers and a teenager, and American organizers called off the race. Related:President Ford's visit to San Antonio included culinary oops. Wherever I looked, in Alpine and Marfa and later Presidio, I saw makeshift villages of turnkey houses, the whitewashed barracks of Border Patrol. PECOS, Texas (AP) _ A former county sheriff and a rancher were sentenced to life in prison Friday for supervising a midnight haul of cocaine worth $48 million last December. ROBERT D CHAMBERS Private / Unlisted Po Box 4, May, Brown County, TX-76857 Cellular: No mobile line available Edit / Delete Person *Reflects database record as of Sunday, December 25, 2022. Then, with the path hugging a creek, he entered tiny Porochi. There was no sewer connection in their trailer, and electricity came from an extension cord that stretched from his grandparents house. While Thompson, 72, is unlikely to return to Marfa, the painful story of his fall from grace soon will be told here again. Escuders client had been sentenced to eighteen months in federal prisonsix months longer than others in his group because hed had the misfortune of appearing before a different judge. When youre desperate, youll do anything. Silvino remembered the women in Huisuchi who used to weave baskets out of the pine needles. A beloved law officer had betrayed the badge, causing a tragedy of epic proportions for his family and the town. Investigators from the federal public defenders office had seen Tarahumara come through their West Texas offices for five years, as had their colleagues in nearby Las Cruces. People who know me, know Im not that kind of person, Dominguez said. Chambers nodded. Vega, it turned out, was a Tarahumara. Helping clients like Vega affirmed his decision, though it also generated no shortage of heartbreak. And so when Micah True hosted the second Caballo Blanco, Silvino couldnt make the race; he was sitting in a New Mexico prison. Find Robert Chambers in Midland, TX - phone, address, email. The judge saw things differently after hearing evidence the sheriff had been corrupt since 1986 or 1987. At first, Vega didnt seem to understand what Chambers was saying through his translator. He grew up on the family farm in the Iron Duff community along with his brothers Howard and Earl Chambers. The drug lord known as El Zorro de Ojinaga (The Ojinaga Fox) was a mentor to Chambers and played a significant role as The Plaza who controlled all drug movement through the region into the U.S. Acosta, who was gunned down in 1987 by Mexican federales (with the assistance of the FBI) is featured in the recent Narcos Mexico series and the book Drug Lord, by former El Paso Times reporter Terrance Poppa. Now 56, he lives in El Paso. Though the Tarahumara largely kept to themselves, poverty and hunger made them targets for narcos looking for mules willing to make the demanding trek to designated drug drop-off points in New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas. ), he added. In fact, Vega had come this way. Mahallah Escoe seeking her brother Robert Cofield Southwestern Christian Advocate (New Orleans, LA) February 14, 1884. Early the next morning, with only a little pain in his right leg, Silvino drove in a low gear down the canyon to Urique, listening to traditional Tarahumara folk music from a USB stick connected to the CD player. Thompson started as a deputy sheriff in Presidio County, which covers 3,856 square miles and shares more than 150 river miles with Mexico. (Robert Chambers was released in 2005 after serving 13 years. (Courtesy of Presidio County Sheriff's Office) By Brbara Anguiano A pair of federal police trucks rolled through with machine gunners standing in the bed, black scarves covering the bottom half of their faces. A little time in the Western District of Texas jail isnt going to keep you from trying to feed your family.. For him, the bust was an unfortunate necessity that put a halt to their goals of a much larger bust of key players. At first, Vega didn't seem to. His wife, Barbara Jean, worked at the Marfa National Bank. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents left him in Jurez without enough money for a bus ticket home. Buchmeyer gave him the max: Two life terms without a chance of parole. Silvino emerged from the forest onto a roadreally a collection of rocks and dirt. He couldnt count on his corn harvest to yield enough food for his family, and his chia project was still unpredictable. A veteran of the DEA at the time, he had previously served in Mexico and Panama and was partner to Kiki Camarena, the DEA agent violently tortured and murdered in Mexico in 1985. Chambers, who cooperated with the DEA, got life also but was released after serving 18 years. When Chambers arrived at the detention facility, the 39-year-old Vega stood up to greet his lawyer. The downfall of Rick Thompson was such a devastating occurrence for the people of Marfa and Presidio County, that this phenomenon should be addressed, wrote the authors of the two-volume history of the community. Soon he was recruited to run drugs into Texas. I thought about Silvino, and I told Rogers about his case. Youre strong and you know the way, they pleaded. He told me he was too busy with his caseload to make the three-hour trip. They bought blue jeans for those wearing traditional loincloths and paired them with guides to lead them to the border at night. Yes, Robert Chambers is alive. He finished second in an ultramarathon in Austria, the first of many races in more than half a dozen countries where his expenses were paid and the possible earnings were worth the trip. Scott the Scoopis Pro Wrestling Warriors' play-by-play announcer. Family and friends are welcome to send flowers or leave their condolences on this memorial page and share them with the . For Chambers, it was one of the saddest days of his life. He also was the first to question the close relationship Chambers had with Thompson. Forty years ago, engineers had erected this road on top of an ancient Tarahumara foot trail. Robert Chambers in Texas 442 people named Robert Chambers found in Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston-Galveston-Brazoria and 20 other cities. A landmark in Marfa, the old Presidio County Courthouse housed Rick Thompsons tax assessors office. Robert Chambers is a resident of Austin. The man did what he did. He glanced over his right shoulder at the river that snaked through the canyon of the same name. They moved up and down the Interstate 35 corridor so often that Chambers lost count of the number of schools he attended. But racing couldnt alleviate the hardships ravaging the Tarahumara themselves. This is a carousel. No one, even back then, would have trusted someone with that quantity of drugs, unless they had a reliable track record. He got along with almost everybody, except those he locked up. Its untamable, though his family certainly tried. He didnt believe in spells, but Silvino felt the pressure of what hed come to donot just for his own survival but for the survival of his people. In his book on his travels through the Sierra Madre mountains, Unknown Mexico, he recounts that when the Jesuits first arrived and asked the Tarahumara about the canyons depth, they replied, Only the birds know., For centuries the Tarahumara got by as subsistence farmers. Robert Emmet Chambers Jr. has spent much of his life in the limelight, after entering the public eye as a 19-year-old youngster who was the prime suspect for the death of 18-year-old Jennifer Levin. Report this listing. Tell Rick Thompson Im still investigating this. His people, an indigenous tribe of roughly 70,000 known as the Tarahumara, had originated on the lush plains east of the mountains. He messed up one time. He dreaded telling his client. He was back in the chia fields after breakfast. The third time, though, in February 2007, Border Patrol agents found him and two others hiding in creosote bushes one hundred miles west of Las Cruces, with three backpacks that totaled 194 pounds. Two weeks earlier, sicarios, or hit men, had stopped in Rejogochi to ask for Chvez, the young activist, and her father, Makawi. Robert Chambers Research Associate Email r.chambers@ids.ac.uk Telephone +44 (0)1273 915723 On this page Academic links Research Opinions Publications Professor Robert Chambers has a background in biology, history and public administration. True wondered how they would fare against the Tarahumara, and he sought to revitalize these local traditions.