BPD STOPS EL DIABLO'S DOWNTOWN BREAK-INS, DRUG SALES

Special to El Rrun-Rrun
For the past few months, City of Brownsville Police Department investigators have been on the trail of one Juan Neiro Briseño – AKA '"El Diablo" – the sweetheart pictured above.

Downtown merchants had reported burglaries, which often happened in the early morning hours and arrests of users of crack and cocaine were pointing in this direction. But they had never caught the perpetrator(s) in the act and they apparently made sure that when they – like Briseño – made their moves when outside the range of the city's $450,000 camera surveillance system in the downtown area.

Downtown beer joint patrons recall that El Diablo often entered drinking establishments selling pack of fajitas and steaks at rock bottom prices, the HEB label still on the packages. But since itinerant salesmen of everything from chile piquin, machacado, quesos, Mexican candy, car washes, etc., were frequent at these locales, they thought nothing of it.

"He was giving it really cheap," said one. "But who buys fresh meat on the street?"

Then El Diablo slipped and fell on the broad road of perdition.

About two weeks ago – in the early morning hours – he forced up the metal corner of a bar's door and slithered in the small crack between the door jamb and the upwards-bent door, and he was in. He had the bar to himself and ransacked the place, finding a bank deposit bag containing the daily change for the business, bags of chips and Fritos, and a cache of disposable lighters, said Ernie Avalos of the Sportman's Lounge. 

But all that heavy lifting had made him thirsty and Avalos said that when he came in the bar the next morning – he opens at 10 a.m. daily – he discovered the break-in.

"I found two empty Dos Xs beer bottles, one on a table and another at the bar, where he had left them during the burglary," Avalos said. "I made sure that I didn't touch them and saved them so the cops could use them for prints. I wonder if he put songs on the jukebox while he drank his Dos Xs.""

Avalos need not have worried about detectives IDing the dehydrated Diablo. 

While the city' surveillance missed the break-in, a high-resolution camera in the business nearby – Chef Ricardo's Restaurant across the alley – had caught the slippery Diablo in action. Using those images, police detectives were able to link Briseño to the Sportman's, and another burglary. 

When detectives finally came upon the alleged burglar in his demon's lair, they found the zipper money bank bag with some money still in it, a box of potato and corn chips from the bar, and a bunch of lighters he had taken from the bar. (Apparently, the lighters are prized by crack heads to light their pipes and they are constantly looking for a lighter.)

But in the course of executing the search warrant, they also found that El Diablo was dealing in controlled substances (coke and crack), and nabbed him with the goods. He is now being held at the Rucker-Carrizales Detention on three charges: Possession of a Controlled Substance ($8,000 bond), and two Burglary of a Building charges ($5,000 bond each.)

But don't think that the small amounts of the bonds will result in his release. Apparently, this demon is in the country illegally and an immigration hold was put on him by federal authorities. Avalos said detectives had told him that Briseño was on this side of the river after getting into hot water with the criminal element in Matamoros. He will probably roast in Cameron County hell until he faces a judge in court.