Drug cartel killed NC teacher thinking he was DEA agent, Mexican newspapers report
The North Carolina grade-school teacher found shot to death last week in Mexico may have been mistaken for an undercover Drug Enforcement Administration agent in the small town of Urique, according to Mexican news outlets El Sol de Mexico and El Diario.
People in the area reportedly told El Sol de Mexico that Davidson College graduate Patrick Braxton-Andrew aroused suspicion because he “asked a lot” of questions about local culture and was “a gringo (who) spoke Spanish so well, unlike other tourists.”
The town in western Mexico, roughly 2,000 miles from Charlotte, has a population of about 1,100 people
Investigators in northern Mexico have not said why 34-year-old Braxton-Andrew was killed on Oct. 28, but Chihuahua Gov. Javier Corral said in a Nov. 15 Facebook post that the person responsible was a well-known drug trafficker in that region named Jose Noriel Portilo Gil.
The same post also dispelled as “absolutely false” any idea that the teacher was killed trying to buy drugs, calling him “a totally innocent person.”
Braxton-Andrew was missing for nearly three weeks when his body was discovered last week, according to a Facebook page devoted to his case.
He lived in Davidson, North Carolina, and worked multiple jobs, teaching part time at Mooresville’s Woodlawn School and freelancing as a tutor in subjects including Spanish, reported The Charlotte Observer on November 15.
Braxton-Andrew’s family said he frequently backpacked through Latin America, and had gone to Mexico last month to attend cultural events tied to the country’s Day of the Dead celebration, the Observer reported.
The Mexican news outlet El Dario said Braxton-Andrew was in the town of Urique when he left his hotel on October 28 “and crossed paths with a drug trafficker from the Sinaloa cartel and was killed.”
The Herald of Chihuahua reports Gil’s followers came to believe the teacher was an undercover agent because of his interest in local culture and the places he visited while asking questions, including areas along the Urique River.
Gil is well-known to Urique residents for controlling “the transfer of drugs in the region through the ... armed wing of the Sinaloa Cartel,” the newspaper reported.
Mexican news outlet El Diario reported Saturday that Braxton-Andrew’s body was discovered with the help of canine tracking teams. The body was found nearly 4 miles from where the teacher was last seen, according to InfoBAE.
Braxton-Andrew had been shot with a 9 mm caliber gun, reported the Herald of Mexico.
Chihuahua Gov. Corral’s Facebook post does not make clear if investigators believe Gil himself killed the teacher or if they suspect one of the drug dealer’s associates.
Braxton-Andrew is to be buried in the Charlotte area, but his family had not announced funeral arrangements as of early Tuesday.
This story was originally published November 20, 2018 at 12:01 PM.