By Daniel Borunda
El Paso Times
EL PASO, Texas — A reputed Barrio Azteca gang member on trial in U.S. District Court on racketeering charges was found dead in his jail cell during the weekend, an El Paso County sheriff’s spokeswoman confirmed.
Ramon “Spooky” Renteria was found hanged Saturday in his cell at the Downtown jail, sheriff spokeswoman Chris Acosta said.
Acosta said Renteria was being held in segregation and was alone in the cell.The death is believed to be a suicide but it is under investigation, she said.
“When they (detention officers) were doing their routine checkups, that’s when they found him,” Acosta said. “He was in a cell by himself. Nobody else was around.”
Recordings of gang members’ telephone calls in a Texas prison in the fall of 2010 allegedly said Renteria was among three men running the gang’s operations in El Paso, according to a federal indictment.
Renteria was on trial facing charges of racketeering, drug conspiracy, drug smuggling and money laundering. The trial had been scheduled to resume Tuesday after the Memorial Day holiday weekend.
The Barrio Azteca is an El Paso prison-based gang that serves as enforcers for the Jucrez drug cartel.
Renteria was among 35 members, associates, members and leaders of the Barrio Azteca indicted after members of the gang allegedly killed three people linked to the U.S. Consulate in Jucrez.
On March 13, 2010, consulate employee Lesley Enriquez Redelfs and her husband, Arthur Redelfs, an El Paso County sheriff’s detention officer, were fatally shot in their car after leaving a children’s party in Jucrez. Jorge Alberto Salcido Ceniceros, whose wife worked at the consulate, was also shot and killed in a separate car after leaving the same party.
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