HOUSTON, April 7 (UPI) -- A former top member of a Mexican drug cartel can expect to be a "hunted rabbit" after his release from a U.S. prison, a former U.S. drug agent says.
Jose Manuel Garza Rendon, 56, was scheduled to be freed from a federal prison in Texas, the Houston Chronicle reported. Garza has been in custody since 2001 when he crossed the Rio Grande by bridge and turned himself in to U.S. border guards.
While Garza did not testify in court, he reportedly gave the Drug Enforcement Administration invaluable information on the workings of the cartels. At the time of his surrender, U.S. authorities had offered a $2 million for his arrest and his own group, the California Cartel, was said to be looking for him as well because he had become addicted to cocaine, which interfered with his business sense.
"Basically, he is going from a safe, secure environment to being a hunted rabbit," said Mike Vigil, former DEA international operations head and now vice president of the private security firm SOS International. "Unless he does a good job of staying on the run or going to an area where nobody knows him, they'll kill him."
Federal officials have not said whether Garza would be deported.
