Adolfo Constanzo - Cartels, Cults and Human Sacrifice

[Cain]

There is always an Adolfo Constanzo in any contemporary or historical conflict zone you wish to dig deeply enough into.  Always.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolfo_Constanzo

Adolfo de Jesús Constanzo (November 1, 1962 – May 6, 1989) was an American serial killer, drug dealer and cult leader. His nickname was El Padrino de Matamoros (The Godfather of Matamoros).

[...]

Constanzo and his mother were arrested numerous times for minor crimes like theft, vandalism, and "farderismo" (shoplifting, concealing goods between their clothing). He graduated from high school but was expelled from prep school. His mother believed he had psychic abilities for supposedly having foretold the attempted assassination of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan in 1981.

As a teenager, he befriended a priest of Palo Mayombe ritual, who taught him the skills to be a drug dealer.

Constanzo visited Mexico City in 1983, supporting himself as a tarot card reader. There, he recruited two younger men; Martín Quintana Rodríguez and Omar Chewe Orea Ochoa to be his servants, lovers and disciples. Constanzo returned to Miami shortly thereafter, but he moved to Mexico City in mid-1984. Over the next few years he became the leader of a full-fledged religion with drug dealers, musicians and even police officers under his command. The religion, based in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, on the U.S.-Mexico border, sold drugs, held high-priced religious ceremonies, and by 1987 at the latest, murdered people for use in human sacrifices. These victims fell along with the religion's rivals in dealing drugs.

When a US citizen tourist, 21-year-old Mark J. Kilroy, disappeared in Matamoros during Spring Break 1989, local police, facing pressures from Texas authorities, began to search in earnest for him. They discovered Constanzo's religion quite by accident (in an unrelated drug investigation) and, after arresting some of the members, quickly discovered that they were responsible for the murder of Kilroy, whose body had been dismembered and burned.

More and more of the cult's members were arrested until, on May 6, they had cornered Constanzo and four of his followers, two of whom were his male lovers, in a dilapidated Mexico City apartment. Determined not to go to prison, Constanzo ordered one of the disciples to shoot him and Quintana Rodríguez. They were both dead when the police finally broke in.

One of Constanzo's most trusted leaders within his cult, Sara María Aldrete, was arrested not long after his death. She was sentenced to a total of 68 years in prison for her involvement in the cult and the murders.

I know in 2004 there were rumours of a cult called "the demons of Eden" doing the rounds in Mexico's less savoury and legitimate circles, and one of the stranger accusations of the serial killer Henry Lee Lucas was that he was a trained killer for a "Satanic cult" based near Juarez, Mexico (not anywhere near Matamoros, for those wondering).  Religion, drugs and ritual murder - always a bad mix.

There are a couple of documentaries about Constanzo, as well as a rather gory film based (loosely) on his actual doings, called Borderland.

[The Johnny]

Its so odd that i had heard of that Mark Kilroy's death in spring break, but not that cult.

And just a correction, both Matamoros and Juarez are in the same state, just that Juarez is at the border with the USA, while Matamoros is at the south border of the state with Durango. Both are Chihuahua, which if im not mistaken, is where "The teachings of Don Juan" took place. =P

[Disco Pickle]

There is always an Adolfo Constanzo in any contemporary or historical conflict zone you wish to dig deeply enough into.  Always.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolfo_Constanzo

Adolfo de Jesús Constanzo (November 1, 1962 – May 6, 1989) was an American serial killer, drug dealer and cult leader. His nickname was El Padrino de Matamoros (The Godfather of Matamoros).

[...]

Constanzo and his mother were arrested numerous times for minor crimes like theft, vandalism, and "farderismo" (shoplifting, concealing goods between their clothing). He graduated from high school but was expelled from prep school. His mother believed he had psychic abilities for supposedly having foretold the attempted assassination of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan in 1981.

As a teenager, he befriended a priest of Palo Mayombe ritual, who taught him the skills to be a drug dealer.

Constanzo visited Mexico City in 1983, supporting himself as a tarot card reader. There, he recruited two younger men; Martín Quintana Rodríguez and Omar Chewe Orea Ochoa to be his servants, lovers and disciples. Constanzo returned to Miami shortly thereafter, but he moved to Mexico City in mid-1984. Over the next few years he became the leader of a full-fledged religion with drug dealers, musicians and even police officers under his command. The religion, based in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, on the U.S.-Mexico border, sold drugs, held high-priced religious ceremonies, and by 1987 at the latest, murdered people for use in human sacrifices. These victims fell along with the religion's rivals in dealing drugs.

When a US citizen tourist, 21-year-old Mark J. Kilroy, disappeared in Matamoros during Spring Break 1989, local police, facing pressures from Texas authorities, began to search in earnest for him. They discovered Constanzo's religion quite by accident (in an unrelated drug investigation) and, after arresting some of the members, quickly discovered that they were responsible for the murder of Kilroy, whose body had been dismembered and burned.

More and more of the cult's members were arrested until, on May 6, they had cornered Constanzo and four of his followers, two of whom were his male lovers, in a dilapidated Mexico City apartment. Determined not to go to prison, Constanzo ordered one of the disciples to shoot him and Quintana Rodríguez. They were both dead when the police finally broke in.

One of Constanzo's most trusted leaders within his cult, Sara María Aldrete, was arrested not long after his death. She was sentenced to a total of 68 years in prison for her involvement in the cult and the murders.

I know in 2004 there were rumours of a cult called "the demons of Eden" doing the rounds in Mexico's less savoury and legitimate circles, and one of the stranger accusations of the serial killer Henry Lee Lucas was that he was a trained killer for a "Satanic cult" based near Juarez, Mexico (not anywhere near Matamoros, for those wondering).  Religion, drugs and ritual murder - always a bad mix.

There are a couple of documentaries about Constanzo, as well as a rather gory film based (loosely) on his actual doings, called Borderland.

Saw that movie when it hit theaters in Mexico.  They didn't hold back on the gore.  Gave me more appreciation for Sean Astin as an actor.

The human sacrifice was to ensure the drugs made it across the border safely (in the movie) 

I haven't done any research on the real cult it was based on but that movie was pretty damn bloody.

Id rank it up there with Hostel for blatant killing.  Also, though it was set near the border, that town could have been any neighborhood in Cuidad de Mexico.  That's a city you could disappear in and no one would ever find you.

[Cain]

Its so odd that i had heard of that Mark Kilroy's death in spring break, but not that cult.

And just a correction, both Matamoros and Juarez are in the same state, just that Juarez is at the border with the USA, while Matamoros is at the south border of the state with Durango. Both are Chihuahua, which if im not mistaken, is where "The teachings of Don Juan" took place. =P

Um, I may be wrong here, Mexican geography is not my forte, but this was Matamoros, Tamaulipas, which is just across the border from Brownsville, Texas, on the other side of the Rio Grande and very close to the Gulf coast.  Whereas Juarez is the one in Chihuahua, across from El Paso, Texas.  Going by the map I have here, that means they are half of the northern border of Mexico away from each other.

Saw that movie when it hit theaters in Mexico.  They didn't hold back on the gore.  Gave me more appreciation for Sean Astin as an actor.

The human sacrifice was to ensure the drugs made it across the border safely (in the movie)  

I haven't done any research on the real cult it was based on but that movie was pretty damn bloody.

Id rank it up there with Hostel for blatant killing.  Also, though it was set near the border, that town could have been any neighborhood in Cuidad de Mexico.  That's a city you could disappear in and no one would ever find you.

Yeah, I just watched it last night myself.  Yeah, definitely gory.

Well, I don't know if they ever used bodies for that purpose in real life, but since they burnt at least one of the bodies after sacrifice, it doesn't seem to have been their primary reason behind the killings, at least in that case.

[The Johnny]

I realized now that im speaking of Mariano Matamoros, which is where i said before, while Matamoros is indeed faraway, basicly in the corner that the gulf and the border make.