Independent in
vestigative reporter Jason McGahan has written extensively on organized crime and drug trafficking and drug trafficking both in Mexico and the United States. He has delved into drug distribution networks, the prosecution of high-level cartel leaders, the use of cartel informants by law enforcement the United States and the connection between organized crime and politicians in Mexico.
On Tuesday June 10, 2014, McGahan was interviewed by Marfa Public Radio's and West Texas Public Radio's Fronteras Desk reporter Lorne Matalon. Matalon was joined in the studio by Morning Edition anchor Travis Bubenik and Liz Rogers, formerly a senior assistant federal public defender and a former assistant U.S. Attorney in El Paso.
Matalon asked McGahan about the case of Arturo "Benny" Gallegos, a convicted leader of two groups of assassins--one recruited from the ranks of Mexican police, the other from Juarez Cartel foot soldiers--who killed on orders from the top echelon of the cartel fueling a war that claimed 1000 victims a month in Juarez during 2010.
McGahan covered the trial of Arturo Gallegos, one which revealed how a Mexican working with the killers had a change of heart after innocent people were killed by a cartel car-bomb meant to send a signal to Mexican federal police.
