Yo, peep this! Jamiel Alexander Chagra Nichols, the son of the notorious El Paso drug trafficker Jimmy Chagra, got himself caught up in some serious trouble. This 44-year-old hustler was arrested for allegedly slanging cocaine, fentanyl, and LSD. And get this, he had some high-profile customers, including soldiers from Fort Bliss and even officials from the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS). Talk about running a wild operation!
According to the El Paso Times, special agents swooped in on Nichols on Friday, August 18. Now, let me drop some knowledge on you. Fentanyl overdoses are no joke, man. On average, five Texans die every day from that stuff. So, back in April, Governor Greg Abbott launched a big campaign called “One Pill Kills” to combat the fentanyl crisis. They even sent out these overdose-reversing meds called Narcan to every county in the state. That’s how serious this is, fam!
But let’s get back to Nichols. The authorities found over 21,900 hits of LSD at his crib during a major drug investigation. Oh yeah, it wasn’t just the local police on his case. The Fentanyl Overdose Response Team from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) teamed up with the Texas DPS special agents to take this dude down. It took them six months of undercover work to bring him in. But let’s be real, with his family history, it’s no surprise that Nichols has been on their radar for a minute.
So now he’s facing four state charges for manufacturing and delivering controlled substances. He got locked up initially but was released on Monday after posting a $28,000 bond. This ain’t his first rodeo though. Nichols comes from a long line of hustlers. His old man, Jimmy Chagra, was one of the top drug traffickers in El Paso back in the ’70s. They even called him the kingpin of the Western world! He was all about that green, but he dabbled in cocaine too, ya feel me?
Jimmy Chagra started out as a rug merchant, just a regular salesman. But then he got into the drug game in 1969 and never looked back. He was moving that work from Mexico and Colombia, using planes and boats to stay one step ahead of the feds. Sound familiar? Just recently, the Coast Guard seized over 200 pounds of cocaine from a boat coming from Colombia. It’s like history repeating itself, man.
But Chagra wasn’t just about drugs. He was also a high-rolling gambler. He loved hitting up those casinos and using his winnings to clean that dirty money. This dude was worth around $100 million back in the day, which is like half a billion today! But his luck ran out when he tried to bribe this judge named John Wood. That didn’t work out too well for him.
Wood got shot in 1978, but he survived. Law enforcement smelled a rat and were ready to bring Chagra down. In 1979, they caught him on drug charges and he ended up facing Judge Wood in court. This dude had a reputation for giving out the maximum sentence, so Chagra wasn’t looking too good. He tried to bribe the judge again, but when that failed, he decided to have him killed.
Believe it or not, Chagra hired hitman Charles Harrelson to take out Judge Wood. And get this, Harrelson is actually the father of actor Woody Harrelson! Talk about a crazy family connection. But yeah, they got caught and Chagra ended up getting convicted for obstructing justice and conspiring to smuggle drugs. He got off on the murder charge though.
Chagra’s brother, Joe, also got mixed up in all this. He served some time in prison for his involvement but got released. Sadly, he died in a car accident in 1996. Jimmy Chagra’s wife, Elizabeth, even went to prison for 30 years for delivering that bribe money. And Harrelson? He got hit with two life sentences plus five more years.
As for Jimmy Chagra, he got released from prison in 2003 due to health reasons and rumors started flying that he entered the Witness Protection Program. But he couldn’t escape fate. He died from cancer in 2008, living out his last days in a trailer camp in Arizona.
Now, as for the next generation of Chagras, we’ll have to keep an eye on Jamiel Alexander Nichols’ case. This family drama ain’t over yet, my friends. Stay tuned for more updates on this wild story!
Peace out!