Thank you for listening to The Border Chronicle podcast! First, a brief note. We want to thank Lillian Clark, who started this podcast with us in 2021 as audio editor and is a talent extraordinaire. Lilly has been hired by Vox Media in NYC and they are lucky to have her! Thank you Lilly for everything you’ve done for The Border Chronicle!
We’re also pleased to announce that another very talented Tucson native Hannah Gaber has signed on as our podcast producer. Hannah is a multimedia talent, who produced the podcast for USA TODAY's Pulitzer Prize winning project, "The Wall” among many other projects. We are incredibly luck to have Hannah on the team. You can learn more about her work and background here.
It’s also important to note that we couldn’t do any of this without our readers and listeners. We rely 100 percent on paid subscribers to keep The Border Chronicle afloat. Please consider supporting our work today for just $6 a month or $60 annually. We appreciate you!
Sheriff David Hathaway is a fifth-generation rancher from the U.S.-Mexico border in Santa Cruz County, Arizona. He’s also a former supervisory agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration, and he participated in the DEA’s largest-ever homicide investigation, Operación Leyenda, to track down the killers of DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena in the 1980s.
Hathaway’s participation in Camarena’s murder investigation, and his discovery that the CIA was not only smuggling drugs but also involved in Camarena’s death in Mexico, led Hathaway to conclude that America’s war on drugs is a failure, which spurs government corruption on both sides of the border as illustrated (yet again) in the current trial of former Mexican anti-drug official Genaro Garcia Luna in New York.
Hathaway speaks frankly about U.S. drug policy, the investigation into Camarena’s death (which is now featured in a four-part documentary called The Last Narc on Amazon), and the restorative justice programs* that Santa Cruz County has spearheaded to reduce drug demand in its communities.
*Constructing Circles of Peace, Hope Incorporated, Wellness Connections, and Mariposa Community Health Center.
The second part of this podcast with Hathaway which delves into border militarization, the recent shipping container wall boondoggle, and “fuzzy” border statistics will air next week. Stay tuned!
'Did the CIA Smuggle Cocaine? Yes, I Witnessed it Firsthand': A Podcast with Sheriff David Hathaway