FULL NAME: María Teresa Quintana Rodríguez
***
The name of Sara María Aldrete Villareal is much better
known than Maria Teresa Quintana. It was she who cooperated with police and led
to the destruction of the cult in which she was a high priestess. No photos of
her have been found by this editor as of yet.
Aldrete was tried and convicted, yet Quintana, it would
appear, was given special treatment as a witness for the prosecution, which
would explain why she plays a small role in news reports on the case and its
prosecution as it unfolded over a period of years.
According to one source, the religion practiced by the
Matamoros cult was most probably Palo Mayombe, a Cuban synthesis of ancient
Congolese practices and beliefs and aspects of Christianity. The cult referred
to themselves as “El Compañía.” [Carol White & Harley Schlanger, “Manson
revisited: the story behind Matamoros,” EIR, May 12, 1989, pp. 31-34]
The following newspaper article is one of the few
descriptions of Quintana’s role in the murderous organized crime cult that is
readily available.
***
FULL TEXT: Matamoros, Mexico – Mexican authorities planned
to expand their search for victims of a murderous occult drug gang today to
Mexico City where a suspect said that four more bodies could be found in
apartments.
Already 15 bodies - victims of drug revenge killings and
human sacrifices - have been unearthed in the Matamoros area. Among the victims
was University of Texas student Mark Kilroy, 21, of Santa Fe, whose body was
found on the Santa Elena Ranch 20 miles west of here last Tuesday.
Matamoros police said they have wrapped up their
investigation and the probe has shifted to Mexico City.
A spokesman for the Mexico City Attorney General’s office
said Maria Teresa Quintana, 20, told Mexican authorities that four men, all
drug dealers, had been slain in apartments in the Colonia Roma, in the southern
part of the city.
Police arrested Quintana Sunday [April 16, 1989] at a Mexico
City apartment belonging to Adolfo de Jesus Constanzo, 26, the alleged
godfather of the cult.
“She said she was totally involved in the occult practices.
She said there were more murders in the capital. I don’t know how many,” said
Commander Juan Benitez Ayala in Matamoros.
Fernando Arias, spokesman for the Mexico City Attorney General,
said Quintana gave the names of the supposed victims. But police will not
release the names unless bodies are found. The search is slow, he said, because
Quintana was not able to give exact details of where the bodies are located.
“She says the bodies are in apartments or condominiums, but
she doesn’t have exact addresses,” he said.
“She talks about things like the corner with the little
store across from a certain avenue. We don’t want to alarm the families until
we are sure that these people are dead.”
Quintana was the sixth person arrested in Mexico or the
United States in connection with the grisly killings.
All of the victims so far have been found in shallow graves
on farms owned by suspected gang members near Matamoros. The mutilated bodies
of 13 of the victims were found last week on Rancho Santa Elena. Two others
were found Sunday at another ranch about two miles away.
Police suspect that the gang shipped as much as 2,000 pounds
of marijuana into this country per week. Many gang members participated in a
bizarre cult that believed that human sacrifices would protect them from
police.
Authorities in both countries, however, believe that all the
slayings - except Kilroy and three others - resulted from drug trafficking.
Meanwhile, in the United States, a federal grand jury
Tuesday returned drug-related indictments against 11 suspected gang members.
The four-count indictments returned in U.S. District Court in McAllen allege
that the 11 suspected gang members imported, possessed and conspired to import
marijuana into this country.
Those indicted were Sara Villareal Aldrete, 24; Constanzo,
26; Alvaro de Leon Valdez, 22; Elio Hernandez Rivera, 22; Serafin Hernandez
Garcia, 20; Sergio Martinez, 23; David Serna Valdez, 22; Ovideo Hernandez
Rivera, 28; Serafin Hernandez Rivera, age unknown; Mario Fabio Ponce Torres,
20; and Martin Quintana, 23.
Elio Hernandez Rivera, Serafin Hernandez Garcia, Martinez
and Serna Valdez are in custody of Federal Judicial Police in Matamoros and
were arraigned there on Tuesday. Serafin Hernandez Rivera is in the Harris
County Jail in Houston.
Cameron County sheriff’s officers searched Serafin Hernandez
Rivera’s Brownsville home Tuesday. Sheriff Alex Perez said that three cars and
the house, valued at $100,000 were seized.
“There were six dogs starving in there, and some parrots.
There was beautiful furniture, but that’s all that we found,” Perez said.
Authorities in both countries are seeking at least nine
other suspects.
Constanzo, the cult’s leader, is believed to be traveling
with de Leon and Martin Quintana. The three flew from McAllen to Mexico City on
April 10, one day before the discovery of 12 bodies on Rancho Santa Elena – a
day after Elio Hernandez Rivera had been arrested on drug charges in Mexico.
Mexican authorities believe that the three then flew to
Miami.
U.S. authorities said Tuesday that they still are seeking
Aldrete although Mexican officials now believe that she probably is dead. No
body has been recovered.
“It seems likely that she is dead. But we won’t know for
sure until we find the body,” said Jose Piedad Silva, a narcotics investigator
in Matamoros.
[Cindy Rugeley, Ana Puga, “Matamoros cult murders/Search
shifts to Mexico City where suspect says 4 drug dealers were slain,” Houston
Chronicle (Tx.), April 19, 1989, Section A, Page 16, 2 Star Edn.]
***
[1587-1/6/21]
***
