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Narco Mennonites - Season 1 - Episode 01: This Mennonite Is a Drug Dealer
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Short filmTranscript
00:09You guys recording?
00:11Yep.
00:18My name is Johan Harms, and I'm here to set the record straight.
00:24Mennonites are beautiful people.
00:26When the regular citizen thinks of the word Mennonite, they think of a quiet, very religious group of people.
00:32I would see them going by in the horse and buggies.
00:35I thought they were just religious people.
00:37God-fearing.
00:38Law-abiding.
00:39Go to church.
00:40Hard-working.
00:41Don't swear.
00:42Who worked an honest life.
00:44Don't do anything wrong.
00:45Boy, was I wrong.
00:50Beneath the surface, there is something much more sinister taking place.
00:56There's a lot of good Mennonites, but there's a lot of bad Mennonites too.
01:01A lot of them got excommunicated from the church for violating certain prohibitions.
01:06So you get this very, very enforced separation that then becomes the reason why so many rebel.
01:15Very small fraction of who commit crimes, a lot of that crime is drug smugglers.
01:20There's a lot more money to be made at selling drugs than there is picking tomatoes and tobacco.
01:24And you begin to unearth the descent into narcotics trafficking.
01:29And all that entails in terms of danger, threat, harm, killing, extortion, coercion, intimidation.
01:38Oh my God, this Mexican Mennonite is a drug dealer.
01:42I just know it's not a godly thing.
01:45There is no honor.
01:46The only thing that matters is money.
01:49They had this public image.
01:51It was like harmless peasants.
01:52We're so trusted like at borders.
01:54You were just good to go.
01:55These blind mules were driving these drug-laden vehicles all across the country.
02:01The big trucks, they were mainly coming in around about 2 and 3 in the morning because that was not
02:08the daytime job.
02:10Mennonites got killed because they're starting doing jobs for cartels.
02:16This was the biggest thing I'd seen.
02:18This is a major drug operation with links to some of the most lethal, ruthless Mexican cartels in the world.
02:28There are a lot of Mennonites and problems like me.
02:32Being in a drug business isn't easy.
02:35It's a tough life.
02:39The Harms drug family has been untouchable for so long.
02:43They've been offered this sort of immunity for years by the Mexican government.
02:47Mr. Harms?
02:48They told me that you are involved in the drug business here in Cuauhtémoc.
02:51We knew that the Harms are running Mennonite Mafia.
02:54My understanding is that Abe enlisted the help of his sons, particularly Enrique.
03:01He's comparable to the chop of his lawn of the Sinaloa Cartel.
03:07He's at the top of the food chain.
03:09First it's marijuana, but then eventually comes cocaine.
03:13He's prepared to do anything to protect his interests, even if that means abducting, torturing, and beating to death with
03:23baseball bats members of the Mennonite community.
03:27Right now, as we speak, there is a full-scale war occurring just miles south of us in Chihuahua, Mexico.
03:38So many of them disappear.
03:39You get used to it, and then you don't see it as a sin anymore.
03:45The community is imploding.
03:48I knew the enemy was very, very close to me.
03:52They became more ruthless, more greedy, more interested in making more money.
03:57Defend your business.
03:58You've got to defend yourself, because if you're not going to be standing up for yourself, the people will eat
04:03you alive.
04:04This is the most bizarre story.
04:08What is a Mennonite doing with drugs?
04:11How is that possible?
04:13How did this happen?
04:14No more questions.
04:31My name's Bernie LeBlanc.
04:34I joined the Provincial Police in 1985.
04:391987, I became part of the Ontario Provincial Police Drug Enforcement Section.
04:45A lot of the smaller towns, even some of the bigger towns, their officers are all known, so it's not
04:52easy for them to infiltrate the drug dealers.
04:54So what they would do is take provincial police undercover operators, take us to a town.
05:01I always said that it was one of my favorite things were going into these old bars.
05:06And when you first opened that door and you smell the, you know, the sweat and the blood and the
05:12stale booze and cigarettes.
05:14It was just, let's get to work.
05:27It's about the mid 80s in Ontario.
05:31We're making stops and getting marijuana.
05:33And it wasn't like marijuana we'd usually see.
05:35The home grown would be loose stuff and all that.
05:37Well, we're seeing this compressed stuff and it's got seeds in it.
05:41And it's obviously not from here.
05:43It's being smuggled.
05:43But it's extremely hard and people are using coffee grinders to grind it up to be able to use it.
05:49But apparently it's extremely cheap, so it's becoming a hit.
05:51And we had no idea where it was coming from.
05:54In 1989, I was contacted by the drug enforcement section from Windsor of the OPP.
06:03What do you think about coming and working in Leamington?
06:06I said, Leamington?
06:08Where in the hell is Leamington?
06:12A civilian came forward and was concerned about narcotics trafficking
06:18in the Leamington area.
06:20His brother had died from a drug overdose.
06:24And he was looking for payback for sure.
06:27We're in the undercover car and we were trying to come up with a plan on where we were going
06:31to go buy some more drugs.
06:33He said, I've heard about this Mennonite that's dealing drugs.
06:38And I said, Bull, they don't sell drugs.
06:41Honest, I had never really knew very much about Mennonites.
06:46I thought they were just religious people.
06:49Go to church.
06:50Don't swear.
06:52Don't drink.
06:57Boy, was I wrong.
07:00When we pull up to the house, it just looked like your typical, what you would think of a Mennonite
07:06home.
07:06There's a clothesline at the back.
07:09And I still remember this.
07:11There was work clothes.
07:12And then it just kind of went down the line to baby diapers.
07:18There was no way I was going in there to buy drugs.
07:20We go up and I knock on the door and this Mexican Mennonite comes to the door.
07:30And it's Abraham Herms.
07:38I said, how are you doing?
07:39He said, good.
07:40And I said, I'm looking to buy some weed.
07:43He invites me in.
07:44Yeah, what do you want?
07:45Well, I'll take a quarter.
07:47I was thinking quarter ounce because I really didn't think they were dealing large quantity of drugs.
07:53So I see him go to the cupboard.
07:55He takes out a brick that I recognize as a kilo of weed.
07:59He cuts a quarter off the kiwi and puts it on the scales.
08:06And here you go.
08:10Well, you could have knocked me over with a feather.
08:14Oh, my God.
08:16This Mexican Mennonite is a drug dealer.
08:29Abraham Herms originally came up into the Leamington area to work on a farm that harvested tomatoes.
08:35And then we find out he's had a side job.
08:38Along the way, someone convinced him that maybe he should start transporting loads of marijuana up there, too.
08:44There's a lot more money to be made at selling drugs than there is picking tomatoes and tobacco.
08:52Abe Herms thought I was going to be a connection for him to distribute drugs in Ontario.
08:58And he actually wanted me to go with him to Mexico.
09:02I go back to my boss and said, look, I want to go to Mexico.
09:06He goes, you idiot, you're not going to Mexico.
09:09We got no way of covering you.
09:11You can do what you can do here in Ontario, but you're not going anywhere else.
09:15I said, OK.
09:18Herms said that he would be able to get me four or five kilos of weed.
09:23I made the deal with Herms to meet on the dock in Wheatley and it was all set.
09:35We ended up meeting on the dock at Wheatley.
09:38I seen the five kilos of weed.
09:41After a bit of a struggle getting the signal out to my arrest team.
09:47It was quite the feeling being on the end of this dock waiting for the cavalry to show up and
09:53no one's commented.
09:54I was counting the money.
09:55I'd go, ah, no, I got that wrong.
09:57And I'd start over again.
09:59And I was just trying to buy time.
10:04All of a sudden, all these sirens and policemen are running down the dock with shotguns and throwing bodies on
10:11the ground, arresting everyone.
10:13Abraham Herms and his partner were taken off to jail.
10:18The next day, I introduced myself as Detective Constable LeBlanc.
10:24He wasn't too happy when he seen my face, not like the other times I had met him.
10:30A large group of policemen get called in at 4 o'clock in the morning to meet at a police
10:33station in Leamington.
10:34And we see two Mexican Mennonite guys in the cells, which at that time was a rarity.
10:39You might get the odd one for, you know, drunk driving or whatever.
10:42They bring in these two garbage bags and they set them on the desk and they say,
10:47today we're here to wrap up an undercover project.
10:49And then they open up the bag and we see 50, 60 pounds.
10:53There was a lot of pot there compressed.
10:56Then they say something about the Mennonites.
10:58We're like the guys in the back.
11:00You could just hear a pin drop and everybody was kind of dumbfounded.
11:05The mystery of the brick we'd solved.
11:07I think everybody was flabbergasted and it was Bernie's work that identified this organization.
11:13From what I understand, I was the first officer to purchase drugs off of Mexican Mennonites.
11:21The light bulb went on with law enforcement that these Mexican Mennonites just aren't these God-fearing people.
11:30They're in the business.
11:32From the sounds of it, it was a good business.
11:37Abraham Harms was arrested in Ontario and somehow they let this guy out on bail.
11:44Our judges aren't always the best of lawyers or the best decision-makers.
11:48Abe was smart enough to realize, let's get out of here.
11:50He skipped town.
11:51He went to Mexico.
11:56He never came back.
11:58But he also had his ties here that he could still sell narcotics through other Mennonites through his contacts that
12:03he made in organized crime.
12:04The narcotics don't slow down.
12:06They keep coming into Canada and the States with so many families.
12:11They needed money.
12:12They weren't getting it from the farm.
12:14They'd been in the drought at that time.
12:15And they saw an easy way.
12:16Come up to Canada.
12:17Two day drive.
12:18Bring a load of drugs.
12:19And you can make what you can make in a year as a farm head.
12:29In 1991, I was kind of goofing off.
12:33I went down to the CBC Library.
12:36This is pre-internet.
12:37I happened upon the Windsor Star.
12:39I see this, what we call a three-inch story, a small little story.
12:44And it makes mention of the fact that a fellow by the name of Cornelius Bandman had been arrested at
12:51the border with a false bottom sofa packed with dope.
12:59Cornelius Bandman.
13:01Cornelius Bandman.
13:03That's a Mennonite name.
13:05And the first question was, what is a Mennonite doing with dope in the false bottom of a sofa?
13:11I recognized that he was just a mill.
13:13He was getting paid to ship the dope from Kwakdamuk through the United States into southwestern Ontario and southern Manitoba.
13:24So the question was, who is Bandman a mule for?
13:28I discovered that Cornelius was in the pay of Abraham Harms.
13:33Well, who is Harms working for?
13:36Canadian law enforcement, they had these jurisdictional issues that they had to deal with.
13:42They couldn't travel to Mexico.
13:44As a journalist, I didn't face those obstacles.
13:47I could go to Kwakdamuk.
14:11We went down to Kwakdamuk.
14:15We descend upon the Hamses.
14:19We arrive at his homestead.
14:26Hello, Mr. Harms?
14:27Hello, I'm Hannah Gartner, Canadian Television.
14:29Oh, okay.
14:30I think we can interview him in English.
14:32Yes, I was talking to...
14:34No, don't speak to me too much.
14:35I'll talk slowly.
14:36I was speaking to Canadian police and they told me that you are involved in the drug business here in
14:42Kwakdamuk.
14:45No, not me.
14:47No?
14:47No.
14:48Are you retired?
14:52Well, that's not true at all, Mr. Harms.
14:55You're a fugitive from Canada on narcotics charges, possession and trafficking of marijuana.
15:05The customs official and the police are very anxious to have you.
15:09Could I ask you one question?
15:10Just as a parent, how can you make your children act as mules and smuggle narcotics across the border?
15:17As a parent, I would like to know this.
15:21I don't understand you.
15:23Are you going back to Canada to face charges?
15:26No, I don't know. Maybe not you.
15:30So you admit that you are in the drug business?
15:36You're staring at me, sir, but you're not answering.
15:41Is that your son behind us in the purple cap?
15:44Is this the boy?
15:46Yeah.
15:46I thought you said he's not home.
15:49I think you do understand that you have made criminals out of your children.
15:53I think you do understand that.
15:59Yeah.
16:01Yes, I do understand.
16:09Really telling moment where he starts dangling the keys.
16:13The nervousness begins to overtake him.
16:18A, he had children.
16:24And had enlisted the help of his sons.
16:28Particularly on Enrique.
16:33There's a son there.
16:35Johan is there.
16:36Baseball cap, sheepish.
16:38Johan realizes what's happening.
16:42She makes a hasty exit.
16:50And the critical question was, I think that singed his sense of self was, how could you enlist your children?
17:01And I think Abe at that point recognized what he had done.
17:06That he, for money, had converted his children into criminals.
17:22Enrique was in jail in Juarez on heroin charges.
17:35I remember his hair being cropped here.
17:39He had a very bad haircut.
17:44It was as if you were confronting a little boy.
17:48I would like to know what you're going to tell your father when you get out of here.
17:52Like, when I answered that, why the drugs were coming in the truck.
17:59And he still hasn't told you that?
18:01No.
18:09What happened to Abraham Harms?
18:12Well, what happened to Abraham Harms is still a bit of a mystery, I think.
18:19Shortly after, we discovered that Abe met a sudden and violent death.
18:27He is killed in a car wreck on the highway between Cuauhtémoc and the town of Rubio, which is 22
18:34miles of straight highway.
18:36From what I was told, he drove off the road, hit a tree, crawled up out of the ditch onto
18:41the road and got hit by a second car.
18:44It's very difficult to determine what the truth is.
18:47The other story, which has developed some credence within law enforcement, is that perhaps it wasn't as innocent as that.
18:56That he may have been killed.
18:58That the so-called accident was not an accident.
19:01But he died, and he died going to church with the Bible in hand.
19:07The contradictions.
19:08He still believed to his last breath, apparently.
19:12Enrique Harms, Johan Harms, begin to develop the drug business that their father bequeathed them.
19:20First it's marijuana, but then eventually comes cocaine, because the supplies coming from Colombia are just catastrophic.
19:28A little Seems Helmet.
19:58Is that something that makes him miss the garbage.
19:58But you said it makes the wasteland hit by the Spirit of a person.
20:11I was 18 I started dating Abraham really oh my gosh I was feeling so many butterflies in my
20:21stomach when we started wanting to get married we had to come pass our sins to everyone what we
20:29had done wrong for the biggest stuff we had to go to the bishop and like Abraham he had stole
20:37the
20:37money from a place where he worked before and then the bishop said oh you have way too much sin
20:45we cannot forgive you what kind of person he is what he has done you are damned we cannot forgive
20:53you
20:58Abraham had a very hard time with it he lost all his faith
21:08and then I got kicked out of the church in the community too
21:12I was only about three months with Abraham then he already started hitting me I didn't expect that
21:21I would have to deal with that more that's what I ended up with when I grew up in Mexico
21:35he never had
21:36electricity that was a sin Mennonite that have so many rules their own gosh you cannot imagine they
21:47expect a Mennonite woman is supposed to be in church every Sunday some Sundays we all dressed at the same
21:57color dark brown or black mostly all had the same hairstyle one day when I was almost 10 years old
22:12my mom died
22:15that was hurting in my heart I was never the same again I was lost my dad I got spanking
22:27pretty bad from him sometimes I had to run after a booster cable that he was trying to hit me
22:35with and
22:36stuff like that and that was not easy on me I was feeling like I was I was lost I
22:47didn't get any love from
22:48anybody this amazing sometimes to think about it that you still can be alive after all that
23:04we decided to leave Mexico because Mennonite would have eaten us alive
23:20Abe Weeby he was my brother-in-law I knew him one in Mexico for years well after I got
23:30married to his sister
23:31one day we decided to move to Oklahoma
23:37Abe and Helen they showed up in Thomas in the mid 90s and they stayed with us for a week
23:44or two and
23:45then they moved into an apartment at the motel Abe started working here and there some just never knew
23:54one day to one day to the next if he was going to be around or not he did drink
23:59a lot nobody could tell
24:02him nothing and when we were living in Oklahoma Abraham he always had a bunch of Mexican friends
24:10Javier Morales that was the top one Javier Morales lived in Lukeba Oklahoma and Javier connected Abraham
24:20Wayby with Renee Cisneros the contact to the source of Mexico the local wholesaler Abraham and Javier Morales
24:30they a lot of times they went to a cantina Abraham he knew of drug trafficking from the area where
24:43he was
24:43hanging around with his friends and several years for having friends like that and so that's how he got
24:53involved with it he said always I have to go and get the truck Abraham he was in that drug
25:00trafficking and
25:01all that stuff I knew the drugs were coming from Mexico but I didn't know who was sending it or
25:10this
25:10or that I didn't know any about it
25:19Abe called me up one night he said I'm having trouble with a tire to take off I went over
25:26there
25:27and I had a rough time at my business at that time he just got in his pocket and he
25:33had a big
25:34all the money Abe told me that he took these wheels apart took the rims out cut them all open
25:43packaged it
25:44up all into the city he just said if you work like this you just work a little bit just
25:52a couple hours a
25:53day and they said you got all the money you need to do whatever you want to do he asked
25:59me he said why
26:00wouldn't you do this instead freezing your butt off in the shop and just hardly making it and I mean
26:09there was a temptation he didn't do nothing he had bigger old money in his pocket
26:25just at that time I couldn't I mean I couldn't afford to have nothing
26:38then I said no it's not what I want for my family and that's not what I'm gonna do I
26:47walked away from it
26:50there's so many Mennonite people so poor
27:00they'd be tempted to do it because that's easy money and when they got an offer like that
27:09they took it but Abe they thought he was in control
27:41Abraham always told me that he would
27:44one day tell the police that he knows something where police would be very suspicious over and I
27:50told him that's not good for you if you do that but he didn't care
27:56one day he got pulled over for drinking and driving and he always had to talk
28:06Abraham Weavey was stopped in Thomas I got a call from a chief up there and he has a guy
28:14stop and the guy's saying some silly things about Mennonites making this Christian methods for the cartels do you want
28:22to go talk to him and I go sure why not
28:27when I first met Abraham Weavey the chief had this secluded building away from town he didn't want anybody seeing
28:35us interviewing him I remember walking in the interview and uh a farm boy he looked like a farm kid
28:44like he stood out he greeted him and he was really docile how are you doing kind of slow about
28:52his movements I guess he was really docile
28:54I guess that's what Mennonites are I guess that's kind of their makeup they're very nice very calm but it
29:00was a surprise so I was like does he know how does he know it was very weird and I'm
29:05thinking this guy's gonna give me anything
29:08I had my list of questions and I started talking to him about him he goes but that's not what
29:13you want to know and he started telling me about this top piece
29:19wholesaling mass transportation secretion methods smuggling locations trucks I'm like this guy knows
29:27stuff that we caught with top level conspirators that we intercepted nobody gets to know that stuff unless you're in
29:35it
29:35Abraham had to be involved in some way or fashion to know those details and he started talking about him
29:43being a Mennonite and I'm like I thought you guys stayed away from this stuff this is nothing in your
29:48culture he was oh no no no if you go down to Mexico we ran out of land that's all
29:55we do
29:59most of the people have moved to moving drugs for the cartels and I posed a question to
30:05him I said what if we put you at a house and had the 18-wheelers come to you what
30:13do you think
30:14and this guy wasn't nervous calm he was like yeah I could do that yeah
30:30Thomas is northwest Oklahoma it's pretty rural and this farmhouse and barn we get from the mayor
30:38the mayor offered it to us to use it it was probably four miles from in town there is nothing
30:46around maybe
30:47another house a couple miles down the road but you can't see nothing much out there so it's a setting
30:53where nobody's gonna suspect anything this barn you could pull the 18-wheeler in I told Abraham to tell
31:01Javier Morales I have a farmhouse I have a barn come look at it I want to make some money
31:07this is not
31:08going to be for free Abraham told Javier which in turn told René Cisneros René Cisneros had connections
31:16to every city in Oklahoma and other states he had all these wholesalers and small towns that he was
31:23connected to they believe it's his farmhouse his place that he's renting out they just saw a way to
31:29avoid bringing it to the city and stashing it in Thomas it was an immediate sell we had to wire
31:40up
31:40the farmhouse with cameras we had to have two surveillance teams for the inner city for the
31:46wholesalers that were picking up and a night team they were running day and night the debate truck were
31:53mainly coming in around two and three in the morning because that was not a daytime job
32:01when the truck would come in Abraham was outside helping the people there and I was
32:06right down license plates and phone numbers if I could and all that stuff we're getting a call from
32:13Abraham saying hey I got somebody from city coming right now these were times from two o'clock in the
32:21morning to five o'clock in the morning so we would have to scurry up take off to Thomas which
32:26get there
32:27in a high rate of speed so we would try to beat him to the punch to see them pick
32:31it up load it up the most drugs
32:33was heading in this human truck frame and the tires to have a pipe around the rim so that it
32:40would stay on
32:40there in all four tires it was packed the drug was packed with plastic and then they had a bunch
32:47of baby
32:47powder and then it was foil and then it was baby powder and then there were chivalets or foil in
32:54this
32:55flat package like Pacas a kilo that was like a pound size each my house had a very old basement
33:03they
33:03carried it in there and they came to and put it in black bags we had to deliver it from
33:09there sometimes I
33:12like to be sneaky because I'm a Mennonite too the 18-wheelers the beams of the trailer that spread from
33:21the back of the trailer to the front were hollow and they'd stuff the dope all the way up through
33:28the
33:29beams so when they would get to our location Abraham would use this painters pole to fish out the dope
33:37within Mennonite culture there is almost an innate ingenuity innovative kind of sense that we can
33:45make do with whatever we got they're really good at making false walls really good at mechanics and
33:53finding spaces and carburetors and engines for dope try to surveil something from a mile away we had
34:01surveillance binoculars and we're seeing this happen this is a year-long investigation
34:09in 1999 I get contacted by the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics we start discussing their investigation a
34:17little bit in detail and they said well we'd like you to come down because we really haven't dealt with
34:20Mennonites so we're gonna fly up to Detroit and meet up with you talking about Mennonites what to
34:26expect how to deal with them how the hierarchy works it was golden to have him connect the dots for
34:32us
34:32because I mean we're not Mexico we did not know they were in Canada he was able to name the
34:38people
34:39because he knew them historically like a month later I get the call they did their first buy
34:46they sent me pictures and that's more than we've ever saw we learned it was going to Florida
34:54Chicago Mississippi Seattle Colorado New Mexico that's when they realized holy cow this is going
35:01everywhere this is bigger than we all thought
35:11as the case was ending we had been doing this for almost nine months I know I'm physically tired
35:17I'm working during the day getting up at two or three in the morning working for three hours sleeping
35:23two hours Abraham's protecting the dough calling me so I'm sure he's exhausted he has to drink with
35:30these guys when they're hanging around and he's forming a friendship the only friend he's developing
35:35is Javier and getting closer to him Abraham would approach me about hey when are you gonna do the
35:44rest are you gonna take down Javier Morales at that moment when he asked me I knew there's something
35:51there he's trying to protect Javier if I would have said yeah I'm gonna tell you when arrest everybody
35:57he would have told Javier in the case we would never arrested anybody so I was never gonna tell
36:04Abraham or Helen even though Abraham was consistent about asking in the very last month Abraham was
36:12getting so depressed and he didn't want to deliver this stuff anymore he didn't want to talk to them
36:18anymore not to Javier Morales not to the agents I guess he didn't know which way to go
36:32towards the end of the wire as you're identifying everybody in town and collecting the evidence you reach
36:38a point where there's nobody else to identify my admin and all the case agents made decision to make a
36:45complete
36:46and target date to round everybody up.
36:56This is a joint investigation.
36:58We've been working hand-in-hand with OVN,
37:00trying to get the dope off the street.
37:01This tonight is a major step,
37:03because this is a major, major load that's been taken out.
37:1122,000 pounds in the total of the case.
37:14We had 2,300 pounds of cocaine.
37:17There was a little bit of heroin,
37:1928 arrests of all wholesalers,
37:2218 search warrants of locations.
37:35Abraham and his wife, Helen,
37:37I met with him, and I told him,
37:39we're going to put you in a protection program.
37:41We were living at that point in a hotel,
37:44in Oklahoma City,
37:45right beside Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics.
37:49And then we didn't know what to do
37:51until Abraham got to the point
37:54that he wanted to go to Mexico.
37:55But I said, no, it's not a safe place for you.
37:58He was just getting so mad at me.
38:00Okay, he said,
38:01I will leave you here,
38:03and I will go by myself.
38:04He didn't care about me or anything
38:07at that point.
38:16After the arrest,
38:17Abe showed up at the shop,
38:19and he said he was going to Mexico.
38:22And I told him,
38:23if they see you down there,
38:24I said, you know that they know what happened.
38:28You're tying the rope on here,
38:30and I said,
38:30they're going to finish you off down there.
38:32And he said,
38:33nobody is going to do that to me.
38:35Then he was kind of upset,
38:37and he just got his vehicle and laughed.
38:53We went back to the campo
38:55of where he grew up.
38:59He called.
39:00He was in Mexico.
39:01It's an argument.
39:02What are you doing down there?
39:03Why would you go down there?
39:04This is your family.
39:05Now, Mexico's big.
39:08In his mind,
39:09if I could live somewhere,
39:10not say any word,
39:11he'd be fine.
39:17But I don't know
39:17if you've been in the Mennonite community.
39:19They all gossip.
39:20They're all close-knit.
39:21They all share information.
39:25So I'm sure somebody told somebody
39:28where they were going,
39:29and that's how they learned
39:30they were in Mexico.
39:38There is a lot of good Mennonite people
39:41down there,
39:42but there's a lot of bad ones, too.
39:44A lot of them.
40:00We had a car.
40:01It was a Dodge Dynasty.
40:03It was a beautiful car.
40:04I loved it.
40:05And then we got a Mexico.
40:08He wanted to sell it.
40:09A guy supposedly was from Rubio.
40:13He came by and wanted to buy it.
40:16And the guy supposedly was buying the car.
40:19He was going with him to the border.
40:24But they never got there.
40:26We were calling to the United States.
40:29We had to go to a different compel
40:31to make the phone call
40:32because we didn't have no phones
40:34at that point still.
40:35And we were trying to communicate
40:37with his aunts and uncle
40:39and sister and brother.
40:41And there was nothing.
40:46Six days after Abraham left the house,
40:50my mother-in-law got up that day.
40:52She was so surprised.
40:54She was screaming so badly
40:57that the window was broken.
40:58And then she came into my room
41:01screaming,
41:02Girl, get up.
41:04Let's come and see what had happened.
41:06And then we found the rock.
41:08There was that ladder attached to the rock.
41:11And then that's what made the window broken.
41:13That was laying there under the pew
41:15close to the table.
41:18In November 22nd of 99,
41:21Señora Weave,
41:22para más informarle,
41:25que Abraham está bien
41:27y le manda muchos saludos,
41:29pero si usted vuelve a hablar
41:32para los Estados Unidos,
41:34vamos a matar
41:35y a Abraham
41:38y usted con todo
41:40y familia,
41:41porque la estamos cuidando aquí
41:44y allá de muy cerca,
41:47usted sabe si habla
41:49o wa.
41:52Después nos reportamos.
41:54Anyway, I told her,
41:55get your stuff.
41:56I don't care what you have
41:58in your pocket money-wise.
41:59Get your kids.
42:00Come to the border.
42:01Cross the border.
42:02Just get out now.
42:05I had a source in Cuauhtémoc,
42:07and that source told me
42:09that they had kidnapped Abe,
42:11beat him, tortured him
42:12over-cooperated,
42:14went over what he gave,
42:16hit him on the top of the head
42:17with a bat,
42:18threw him in the lake.
42:20Abe was killed
42:21and thrown in the lake.
42:34This is an organisation
42:38run by ruthless people
42:41who will kill
42:43in order to protect
42:45their operation
42:46and the money
42:48that is generated
42:49by that operation.
42:52Abe Weeby,
42:53he was working
42:54with somebody,
42:55and the person
42:56he was working for
42:56was working
42:57for someone else.
43:00And then,
43:01of course,
43:02it goes back
43:02to arms.
43:08Do you hold
43:09Enrique Harms
43:10responsible
43:10for
43:11Abraham Weeby
43:12disappearing?
43:14I was told
43:15by the source
43:16and Rene Cisneros
43:18that he had him killed,
43:19and I had
43:20the other
43:21reporter telling me that.
43:22So,
43:23yes,
43:24I believe
43:25he did it.
43:27How dangerous
43:28is Enrique Harms?
43:29Enrique Harms
43:30is dangerous
43:31like every other
43:32cartel member.
43:33to have resources
43:34that can harm
43:35anybody they want.
43:36Enrique was emerging
43:38as the kind
43:38of the heir apparent
43:39to his dad.
43:42But,
43:43unlike his father,
43:44wasn't sheepish
43:45about his wealth.
43:46He wanted to show
43:48others
43:48that he was
43:49a powerful man.
43:50What was the source
43:51of his power?
43:52Money.
43:53How did he arrive
43:54at that money?
43:55Through narcotics.
43:56He was the
43:57stereotypical godfather,
43:59and that he was
43:59a dangerous man.
44:03Enrique was a visionary.
44:05They made a strategic
44:06decision to diversify
44:08into heroin,
44:10cocaine,
44:11and of course
44:12that meant
44:12that they needed
44:14to establish
44:15even deeper links
44:16to Mexican cartels
44:17and other criminal
44:18organizations
44:19operating both in
44:20Canada and the
44:21United States.
44:23they diversified.
44:25They became
44:26more ruthless.
44:27And it didn't matter
44:29who they harmed
44:30and what they had
44:31to do
44:32to satisfy
44:33their thirst.
44:36You guys recording?
44:38Yeah.
44:39Come on, Mark.
44:47My name is
44:48Johan Harms
44:49and my dad's
44:50name is
44:51Abraham Harms
44:52and I'm here
44:53to set the record
44:54straight.
45:04The End
45:04The End
45:07The End
45:24Transcription by CastingWords
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