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Minutemen Worked With Drug Gang in Murder Case

Posted September 27, 2010 by Patrick Young, Esq.
Categories: Hate Watch

The May 2009 killing of grammar school student Brisenia Flores and her father in southern Arizona by two members of Minuteman American Defense, Shawna Forde and Jason Bush, and a third man, Alex Gaxiola, had new light shed on it last week when text messages by the murder squad were unveiled in court by prosecutors. Although the Minutemen claimed to be fighting illegal drug and immigrant smuggling, the messages imply that they may have entered into an alliance with a drug gang to eliminate Brisenia’s father either as a competing drug smuggler or because her father had reported Gaxiola to local authorities for growing marijuana on the Flores’ ranch.

Gaxiola has long been suspected of involvement in the local illegal drug economy. Prosecutors now believe that he was part of a drug gang and that he also hoped to hire the Minutemen to eliminate another person associated with a rival gang. According to Arizona’s Green Valley News:

Minutes after the murders, at 1:33 a.m. on May 30, 2009, a text message was sent from Gaxiola’s phone to Forde’s phone saying, “Cops on scene. Lay low,” according to a court document.

About 25 minutes later, a message from Forde’s phone to Gaxiola’s phone said, “No worries, all good, competition gone.”

Tags : brisenia flores, hate watch, minuteman, minuteman american defense, minutemen, shawna forde

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