Baytown police arrest 3 linked to Mexican cartel for 2004 murder

Police said three men who are connected to a violent Mexican cartel are in custody after being linked to a 7-year-old murder case in Baytown. Arturo Chavez Jr., Juan Carlors Magana and Daniel Torres have all been charged with murder for the 2004 death of Santiago Garcia, according to Baytown police. Garcia, 21, was found on Nov. 15, 2004 with multiple gun shot wounds outside of a house in the 2000 block of Georgia Street in Baytown, officials said. Police believe the three men murdered Garcia because he owed money to Chavez. The three suspects and Garcia were known to be part of a human smuggling operation, police spokesman Lt. Eric Freed said. The three suspects have ties to the the violent Zeta drug cartel, which operates throughout Texas and in Baytown, Freed said. Police had few leads on Garcia’s murder until Torres, 31, emerged as a suspect, confessed to Garcia’s murder and linked Magana and Chavez to the crime. Chavez, 32, was a person of interest in 2004, but he was never directly linked to the murder. He was taken into custody on Feb. 16 by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives on a weapon charge warrant after being pulled over for a traffic stop in Baytown. Juan Carlos Magana, 29, was already in custody for a separate federal crime. Garcia’s mother Margarita Gonzalez from Baytown said her son was a good boy. She called his murder cowardly because he was shot in the back without a chance to defend himself.  She said she wants justice, but she doesn’t want the suspects’ mothers to go through the same pain she has been through. She said her son told her before he died that he was afraid of the people he had been hanging around because of the activities they were involved in. He denied that he participated in them, she said. “He rebelled a bit like all kids do and started hanging out with bad people, but he was a good boy, just a little rebellious,” Garcia said in Spanish. “He wasn’t perfect like no one is.”