Adolfo de Jesus ConstanzoThe Godfather
MATAMOROS, Mexico: The leader of a bloodthirsty band of sadistic drug-runners was young and handsome bisexual Constanzo, a Miami-bron career criminal and self-proclaimed psychic and cultist. He was known to those who served him as either El Cubano (The Cuban) or El Padrino (The Godfather). Constanzo's activities stretched from from Mexico City to the impoverished areas around Matamoros, near the U.S. border.
As is usually the case with ritual-based cults, the victims were slaughtered in meticulous and elaborate cerimonies. In this case, the roots of the cult rituals were based in a conglomeration of Afro-Caribbean Voudun, Mexican witchcraft (for lack of a better description), and the bloodiest of satanic rituals (because everyone knows you cannot have a blood cult that kills unless it involves at least a cursory mention of satanic involvement). Constanzo was a skilled charlatan. He was brought up with a background of santeria and palo mayombe, the widespread occult-based Afro-Carribean island religion heavily based on animal blood sacrifices known collectively as Voudun.
Cults rely on the charisma of their leaders to recruit and control their followers. For a number of reasons, stretching from sheer and utter fear to an echoing sadism, the cult members tend to follow their leader's every order without question or hesitation. This might have something to do with the threat of death that accompanies a hint of anything but total obediance.
Constanzo had a high priestess as well. Sara Villareal Aldrete, 24, was a college student in Brownsville, Texas who lived two separate lives, one on each side of the border. She was also known as The Godmother.
Between the two of them, they frightened their superstitious and less-educated underlings by claiming to possess supernatural powers and organizing complicated and messy rituals. Constanzo convinced his followers that a ritual known as escudo magico de sangre - the magical shiled of blood - could render them invisible and invulnerable to both rival gangs and police. To begin the ritual, he gathered his groupies at the deserted ranch. They chanted what he told them was an ancient African dialect while he blew marijuana in their faces. At the start, the group used goats, roosters, dogs, even turtles, to gather the blood neccessary for the rituals. But it wasn't long before they needed to increase the potency of the sacrifices. Obviously, they needed human sacrifices to work the kind of magic neccessary for such a large undertaking.
Police believe that the cult's first human sacrifice was a 25-year-old Mexican hitchhiker they plucked off a highway. He was probably taken to the ranch where Constanzo presided over the ritual bloodletting. Because we don't have a witness account of what occurred at the ranch during these rituals, speculation has allowed for what most likely happened. The victim was probably forced to ingest some form of herb or narcotic, even a poison of some form. Then his throat would have been cut and the blood collected in a large container or cauldron. It is unknown whether the entire group would have participated in the feast of blood, or if only the high priest and priestess actually consumed the blood.
The number of victims is unknown, although police forced Constanzo's followers to dig up at least fourteen separate remains from around the ranch. Some of the bodies were beheaded and trussed with chicken wire. Others were totally dismembered, hearts, brains, and other vital organs wrenched from their tortured sacrifices, at least a few of them were more than likely alive during the process. Still other had obviously been skinned while alive. In a nearby shed, other decomposing human organs were found in blood-caked vats and cauldrons. The stench around the ranch was over-powering.
As it turned out, the cult's activities were given away by one of its own members who had been picked up by law enforcement on another matter. While under questioning, Hernandez Garcia told the police officials about the cult's bloody activities.
The manhunt was on for the fleeing cabal at the same time the ranch property and the shed of horror were being exorcised and burned by the curandero, a Mexican mystic - medicine man. Constanzo was flushed out of hiding with several accomplices in Mexico City. But they did not give up without a struggle. After a violent shoot out, Constanzo and one of his lovers, Martin Quintana Rodriguez were found inside the apartment, their bodies riddled with bullet holes. Sara Aldrete amd four others were arrested later. She claimed throughout the arrest and trial that she had been held against her will by Constanzo and knew nothing of the cult's activities.
Due to complex legal manuverings, Aldrete and other key members were confined in a Mexico City jail for an entire year before the trial took place. After the succession of long trials and the frantic plea bargains, they were all convicted on charges ranging from murder and manslaughter to conspiracy and drug-dealing. They all received stiff sentences, the specifics of which are unavailable.
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