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Criminal Records - Most Wanted |
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Profile |
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Name: Curi Caberi Tapia-Martinez
(Tahoe, Papo, Primo)
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Sex: Male |
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Race: Hispanic |
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Age Now: 26 |
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Height: 5'6" |
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Weight: 150 lbs. |
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Hair (Color, Description, Facial Hair): Black |
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Eyes (Color and Correction): Brown |
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Wanted for :
Conspiracy to Possess with Intent to Distribute and Distribute Controlled Substances, Fargo, ND;
Sep 22, 2006
Possession with Intent to Distribute Controlled Substances, Fargo, ND;
Sep 22, 2006
Continuing Criminal Enterprise, Fargo, ND;
Sep 22, 2006
Aiding and Abetting, Fargo, ND;
Sep 22, 2006
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Location(s) |
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Last Seen : Turlock, CA |
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Possible Location : Willmar, MN
Turlock, CA
Mexico
Fargo, ND |
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Last Known : National |
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Traits |
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Case Story |
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Fugitive Wanted For Trafficking Meth To North Dakota |
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To customers at the John Deere dealership in the small farm town of Hunter, N.D., Brad Berg appears to be a jovial, honest man very much in touch with the community.
Indeed, Brad loves his corner of rural America -– the corn and beet fields, the old grain elevators dotting the landscape, and even the frozen winters when neighbors are quick to offer one another a jump or a tow.
So 13 years ago, after a successful career as a real estate attorney, Brad decided to contribute to his community by, first, joining the sheriff’s department and, then, the West Fargo Police. He’s since been promoted to detective, and refuses to collect a salary.
“Being of Scandinavian descent, you’re kind of born with a large share of guilt over any good fortune you might have,” he told AMW. “And you feel the need to atone for it. This is my way of atoning for the good fortune I’ve had in life.”
Because of this choice, though, Brad has been exposed to a side of the Peace Garden State that deeply disappoints him: young women, derisively known on the street as “bag whores,” selling themselves for methamphetamine; boys from good families involved in slashings and pistol whippings over drug deals; and a generation growing up hooked to a toxic blend of sodium hydroxide and ammonia.
And he blames a Mexican national for much of the trouble.
Curi Caberi Tapia-Martinez -– also known as “Tahoe,” “Primo” or “Papo” -- is accused of running a violent drug organization, transporting meth from his base in Turlock, Calif. to the rural areas surrounding Fargo, N.D. and Willmar, Minn. In one six-month period, cops estimate Tapia-Martinez grossed $1 million from the illicit trade, while assaults, smash-and-grab robberies and other drug-related crimes escalated.
Tapia-Martinez has been deported from the United States at least twice. But rather than remain in his nation of origin, the fugitive has allegedly regrouped and returned north, openly mocking the U.S. government’s efforts to contain him.
At 57, Brad has one singular goal before his mandatory retirement: he wants to capture Tapia-Martinez, and see him tried in federal court, where he could be sentenced to up to life behind bars. |
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Cops: Tapia-Martinez And "Meth Values" |
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Police believe that Jodi Richter was one of the people hooked to the meth that Tapia-Martinez’s organization distributed in the region.
“I started building ethics and values that I knew aren’t good,” says the former addict, who left her husband and two children to feed her addiction. “You don’t really care about people anymore.”
Late one night, Jodi took AMW correspondent Jon Leiberman on a tour of places around Fargo where she’d regularly bought meth before she got clean.
Unlike other cities, where drug dealers and abusers congregate to do their deals, Fargo has no skid row, and no public shooting galleries.
Instead, meth houses are located in residential neighborhoods.
“First, I snorted meth,” she said. “That kind of gets hard on your nose, so I started smoking it. I also swallowed meth; we call it ‘gut bombs.’ And then, I pretty much became a ‘banger,’ a person who shoots up.”
During her time as an addict, Jodi -– who now speaks on behalf of North Dakota Team Challenge, a faith-based recovery organization -– had five felony convictions on rap sheet, and lost her license as a registered nurse.
“I had a gun held to my head,” she recalls, “and I didn’t care. My only priority was the drugs.”
Brad knew of Jodi’s hardships on street, and once even raided her apartment. Along with police from nearby Moorhead, Minn. and other agencies, he was appointed to a DEA task force monitoring meth activity in the region. |
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Rise of the Super Labs |
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Initially, he claims, methamphetamine was produced in clandestine labs, cooked up on old farms and in trailers, among other locations.
“What happened,” he explains, “is we cracked down on the availability of the cold tablets used to make methamphetamine.”
Authorities also targeted the accompanying chemicals, like anhydrous ammonia, a fertilizer commonly stored in tanks on farms.
“One of the reasons we see so few ‘clan labs’ now is that we encouraged farmers to take security precautions concerning their anhydrous ammonia,” Brad told AMW producer Keith Greenberg, while leading him through fields containing the fertilizer tanks. “The tanks are generally kept under lock and key. They’re monitored. They’re supervised.”
But, police contend, the Mexican drug cartels were watching from afar, and creating alternatives, mass producing higher quality, lower priced meth in “superlabs” south of the border, then transporting the drug into the U.S. through secretive tunnels.
In California, cops say, Tapia-Martinez purchased the meth from the cartels, then had his underlings transport it up to Yakima, Wash., and then to Minnesota and North Dakota –- along the same routes once used by migrant laborers.
Police later found detailed documents, suggesting that Tapia-Martinez regulated every penny his mules spent on their eastward excursions, demanding that they stay at bargain hotels, and travel on specific highways.
“You can bring methamphetamine to a rural community, and make more money than in a larger city,” Moorhead, Minn. Sgt. Toby Kroney told AMW. “There’s more competition in the cities. In a place like this, you can set the price.”
At one point, Brad approximates, there were 40 or 45 members of Tapia-Martinez’s organization, including his father and a bookkeeper. When a dealer was unable to make a payment, police claim, the fugitive would order his associates to take over the person’s home until the debt was paid.
He was known to use automatic weapons -- and, in one instance, a hand grenade -- to drive home his point, police told AMW.
Manipulating the U.S. Government
In addition to being deported, Tapia-Martinez has been arrested numerous times on a variety of charges. But, authorities say, he’d use an alias, and bail out before the arresting officers could figure out his true identity.
“He’s trying to confuse,” a police translator is heard complaining on an audio tape obtained by AMW. “He says he’s from Mexico, but at the same time, he says he’s from Spain.”
When an officer asked Tapia-Martinez about a gun found in his vehicle, he responds, “I don’t know what is in that truck. It’s not mine. I was only going to install a sound system.”
For Brad Berg, the notion of Tapia-Martinez brazenly evading justice is infuriating. But members of the DEA task force believe that they’ve figured out the fugitive’s routine, and he’ll soon be serving a long term in a federal prison.
“In my estimation, in the last three to four years, we’ve federally indicted 180 drug traffickers directly connected to organizations on the west coast,” Brad says. “Many were sentenced to 20-plus years, many life without parole.
“I think we’re sending a message: this isn’t a good place to do business.” |
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