[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 146 (Tuesday, November 14, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2101]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                       HONORING JOAQUIN LEGARRETA

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. SOLOMON P. ORTIZ

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, November 14, 2000

  Mr. ORTIZ. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to a unique 
American who has served our nation with distinction and honor, Joaquin 
Legarreta, the Drug Enforcement Agency Deputy Attache for the United 
States in Mexico.
  Mr. Legarreta has served the United States for 30 years in one of the 
most dangerous jobs we ask our public servants to do, to stand and 
fight on the front lines of our drug war, one of the great domestic and 
international policing challenges of the 20th Century, one already 
following us into the 21st Century. Thanks to men like Joaquin 
Legarreta, the United States is safer; but he would be the first to 
tell you that the task of his agency is not yet finished.
  He began his service to our country in 1970 with the Bureau of 
Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, the precursor to today's DEA (the DEA 
was formed in 1973). His star was already on the rise when he won the 
prestigious Administrator's Award in 1980, the award that recognizes 
excellence in agents whose work brings runners, and those for whom they 
work, to justice.
  He won the Administrator's Award in 1980 for the Superfly operation. 
The DEA caught the Superfly, a ``mother ship'' from Colombia exporting 
$65,000 pounds of marijuana. A ``mother ship'' sits in international 
water and distributes its cargo to smaller ships for transport into the 
United States.
  After terms of service that took him to major cities across the 
Southwest, including Houston, Laredo, El Paso, Brownsville and 
Sacramento, Legarreta joined the Intelligence Center for DEA, 
stationed, again, a El Paso. At that point, he began an even more 
dangerous line of work, work at which he is terribly adept. Today, he 
is charged with oversight of the DEA regional offices all over Mexico, 
traveling to them and conducting business on our behalf there.
  During the course of his service, he has had numerous contracts put 
out on his life, a certain indicator that an agent is doing his job 
above and beyond the call of duty. Once, near the border, he was 
involved in a shootout in which one of his agents was shot; Legarreta 
picked him up, put him in the car and drove him to the hospital, saving 
his life.
  He recently told a story that should make all of us proud. In 
Sacramento, his team executed a search warrant on a drug lab. 
Afterwards, an agent brought him a woman who had asked to talk to 
whoever was in charge. Thinking she was upset because flowers had been 
trampled or a dog kicked, he was overwhelmed when she thanked him for 
her freedom, and that of her neighbors.
  With tears in his eyes, he recanted the story of this small woman 
with a sweater over her shoulders who grabbed his hand and said, 
``Thank you for freeing us.'' She told him that the people in the 
neighborhood had been prisoners in their own homes because of the drug 
lab. She wouldn't let go of his hand while they stood together for 
several minutes.
  That, he says, made it all worthwhile. So, while we enjoy our 
comforts here today, I ask my colleagues to join me in commending this 
brave and unique patriot on the occasion of his retirement. I also 
thank his wife, Lupita, and their children, Lorena, Veronica, and 
Claudia, for sharing their husband and father with our nation.

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