It wasn’t easy tracking down this eye-popping story, which combined all the elements of the immigration debate— yet corporate media still ignored it. The Albuquerque Journal ran the astonishing article last week below the bland, uninformative headline, “Doña Ana County judge resigns after feds arrest man at home.” It was an all-American story about a small-town judge, a quiet, well-kept house, a nice, peaceful neighborhood— but while the judge’s wife was in the kitchen cooking dinner, a designated terrorist was out back polishing a suppressed AR-15.
On March 3rd, Las Cruces Magistrate Judge Jose Cano (D) quietly resigned from the bench after three re-elections since 2011. On the same day, prosecutors were down the street in federal district court arguing that a recent arrestee, a Venezuelan national named Christhian Lopez-Ortega, 23, was a Tren de Aragua gang member and a flight risk.
The two men’s connection defies belief.
Christhian was first caught crossing the border at Eagle Pass in December, 2023, but was freed three days later— due to overcrowding. This year, three days before Judge Cano tendered his letter of resignation, the El Paso Homeland Security Office, responding to an anonymous tip, raided the judge’s Las Cruces home and found the gang member living in the judge’s guest cottage, or what the locals call a casita.
Homeland Security officers nabbed Lopez-Ortega with a bunch of guns (a felony), and the family closed ranks, claiming the guns were owned by the Judge’s daughter, April. The government’s April 8th motion for reconsideration drily reported, “The Defendant admitted that he knew it was illegal for him to possess firearms.”
According to federal filings, Judge Cano’s liberal wife Nancy came upon the young man working construction and hired him to replace a glass door and do a couple odd jobs around the house. After Lopez-Ortega was evicted from his apartment, Nancy invited him to live with the family, and began driving him to his immigration appointments and his construction gigs.
No good reason for inviting a 23-year-old gang member into the family appears in any of the reports, leaving ample space for sordid speculation. Generously, the affluent middle-aged mom may have thought she just was helping “reform” the career gangster.
Investigators discovered some clues in Lopez-Ortega’s text messages. He called Nancy his “patrona,” which I believe is Venezuelan for “sugar momma.” One unidentified amigo asked Lopez-Ortega to get him “two grenades.” Another texted him a grisly murder scene photo showing decapitated victims with their hands cut off, a gruesome photo attached in full to Homeland’s motion, but which I will not reproduce here in close-up.
Troublingly, the local federal Magistrate judge overruled Lopez-Ortega’s bond, rebuffing federal prosecutors and saying something like, “I’m sure he’s okay if he’s living with Judge Cano.” The federal judge even tried to remit the gang member back into Nancy Cano’s custody.
That prompted the government’s attorneys to file an emergency motion for reconsideration, which has not yet been set for hearing.
This story involves two judges. The first, a sitting state judge embroiled in what appears at minimum to be a non-traditional relationship with a member of a designated terrorist organization, an illegal, gang-tattooed alien the Cano family shared everything with including their firearms, and a second local federal judge who in open court said he would release the man because he was friends with the first judge.If this story came from Venezuela, it would surprise no one. But it’s from New Mexico.
This troubling tale has created a certain amount of buzz in local and social media, percolating just below corporate media’s veneered surface. If we had a functioning media, which we obviously do not, they would tell us how historically, the corruption of local judiciary is one of the first and most critical steps that cartel-style organizations take when consolidating soft territorial control.
Cartels are cagey, sly, and experienced. They don’t roll into a new area in hummers holding assault rifles. They quietly assimilate and get a read on the local judicial and law enforcement arena. Then they deploy a carrot and stick approach. They offer sweet bribes, called “plata” (silver), sometimes cloaked as gifts or brokered with third parties. And, for judges who don’t take bribes, they offer quiet threats, called “plomo” (lead): you don’t want to deny bail on a TdA hermano.
Plata or plomo. Silver or lead.
The cartels realize that the judicial bench is the choke point. There are only a handful of judges in each locale, so controlling even one through plato or plomo makes a measurable difference. Control the judiciary, and you effectively control law enforcement. It’s not just a cartel thing, it’s an organized crime tactic. You can find similar examples in the 1980’s mafia and the 1930’s Chicago mobsters.
The cartels are just the tactic’s most recent incarnation.
☕️ HABEAS CORPSES ☙ Monday, April 21, 2025 ☙ C&C NEWS 🦠
The judiciary melts down as twin stories of robed failure decorate the national narrative. One, ignored by legacy media, highlights the peril. The other, blanketed with coverage, shows the promise.
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️ IT BEGINS ☙ Saturday, April 26, 2025 ☙ C&C NEWS 
