NCJ Number
148780
Date Published
1991
Length
427 pages
Annotation
This book details the history of the crimes and law enforcement efforts related to Adolfo de Jesus Constanzo, a Miami-born former altar boy who became the leader of a cult that committed extensive drug-smuggling, torture, and human sacrifice involving at least 24 victims on the border between the United States and Mexico in the 1980's.
Abstract
Constanzo led a cult whose members were convinced that human sacrifice made them invincible. The narrative uses information from the files of the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Mexican police, Constanzo's personal journals, and interviews with both cult members and investigators. The narrator notes that for many in United States law enforcement this case, called the Matamoros case, demonstrated the need for more police expertise and training in ritual crimes. Both Mexican and Texas authorities were unaware of the significance of the mutilations they observed, and their ignorance impeded their investigations. This ignorance also led to confusion between this group's rituals and the entirely different and constitutionally protected religious movement called Satanism. The author notes that Palo Mayombe, which was the religion of Constanzo's group, and deviant forms of Santeria have been involved in an increasing number of crimes involving drug dealing, grave robbing, extortion, and murder, and that ritual crime may still exist on the Texas-Mexico border. Photographs and chapter notes