Body of wanted drug suspect found in New Mexico mortuary
Associated Press
November 21, 2019
ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico -- The hunt for a suspected gang leader by federal narcotics agents has ended after the man’s body was discovered in a New Mexico mortuary, officials said.
The body of 43-year-old Johnny Lee Padilla was found last week at Albuquerque’s Gabaldon Mortuary, The Albuquerque Journal reported.
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents are investigating whether Padilla was tortured and executed in Mexico, where they believe he lived under the protection of a cartel leader.
Authorities found Padilla’s body through an obituary on the mortuary’s website, officials said.
Authorities have linked Padilla to the Juarez Cartel and identified him as a leader in the Los Padillas gang, which they said has operated for decades out of Albuquerque’s South Valley.
A federal grand jury indicted Padilla on charges of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine in 2015, but authorities said he was out of their reach in Mexico.
Agents were told in early November that Padilla died in Mexico and then found the mortuary’s online announcement of his death and pending funeral services. Agents served a search warrant on the mortuary and found the body.
“A person associated with the Padilla DTO (Drug Trafficking Organization) paid $21,000 in cash for funeral services, including a $15,000 payment of all one-hundred-dollar bills,” the search warrant affidavit said. “A drug dog alerted to the presence of controlled substances on those one-hundred-dollar bills.”
Documents indicated Padilla’s body was transported by a Mexican funeral home through Mexican customs, but there were no records of the body clearing U.S. customs.
The Mexican documents listed Padilla’s cause of death as heart attack and diabetes, but an examination found a bullet hole in the back of the head, stab wounds, scratches on the back, and “signs of torture,” U.S. records said.
A DEA spokesman would not comment on an ongoing investigation.
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