Son of notorious Jimmy Chagra arrested in Texas for drug offenses

The son of notorious (and now deceased) El Paso drug trafficker Jimmy Chagra, 44-year-old Jamiel Alexander Chagra Nichols, has been arrested for alleged sales of cocaine, fentanyl and LSD. His clients included soldiers from Fort Bliss, Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) officials said.

The El Paso Times reports that special agents arrested Nichols on Friday, August 18th. It is currently estimated that an average of five Texans die from a fentanyl overdose every day. In April of this year, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott launched a $10 million effort, the “One Pill Kills” campaign, to combat the fentanyl crisis, including the supply of overdose (narcan) drugs all 254 counties.

News of Nichols’ arrest came after authorities allegedly found over 21,900 doses of LSD at his home in El Paso during a multi-agency drug investigation, DPS officials said. The search warrant that led to the drug seizure and Nichols’ arrest was conducted by the US Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) Fentanyl Overdose Response Team in El Paso, working with special agents from the Texas DPS. His arrest was the result of a six-month investigation, although given his parentage, it is safe to assume that Nichols has been on the government list for some time.

Jamiel Alexander Chagra Nichols, courtesy of the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office

According to El Paso County Jail records, Nichols now faces charges in four states for manufacturing/supplying a controlled substance. Nichols was released from prison on Monday on bail totaling $28,000.

Nichols’ notorious father is Jamiel Alexander “Jimmy” Chagra, who made his name as the most wanted drug dealer in El Paso in the 1970s. Las Vegas City Life once described him as “the undisputed marijuana lord of the western world” (he was also a heavy cocaine dealer).

Born into a family of rug dealers, Chagra originally worked as a rug salesman before entering drug smuggling in 1969. He smuggled drugs out of both Mexico and Colombia by plane and boat (which still happens; recently the government seized 223 pounds of cocaine and arrested two people en route from Columbia to Long Beach).

Chagra was also known for his epic, high-stakes gambling games, which he apparently not only loved but also used to launder money made from drug dealing. Before his arrest, his fortune was estimated at about $100 million ($500 million today). Charga’s downfall can be traced back to November 21, 1978, when Assistant US Attorney James Kerr was shot and killed near his home by two men who fired 19 bullets at his car. Kerr lived; His only injuries were some minor glass cuts, but law enforcement officials were ready to get Chagra senior.

In February 1979, the OG Chagra was arrested for human trafficking. He appeared before Judge John Wood, nicknamed “Maximum John” for his reputation for handing out the maximum sentence for drug crimes. Chagra potentially faced a life sentence. He tried to bribe Maximum John. It did not work. So he had him murdered and finally admitted to hiring hitman Charles Harrelson, who in this ongoing father-son story is the father of actor and cannabis lover Woody Harrelson (whose new cannabis lounge The Woods, based in West Hollywood, California, is now open for business.

LSD was found during a search of Nichols’ El Paso home, courtesy of the Texas Department of Public Safety

On May 29, 1979, Wood was murdered. He was shot in the back outside his home and died as a result. He became the first federal judge to die in an assassination attempt in more than a century. Chagra went on trial for his drug offenses and was found guilty in August 1979 and sentenced to 30 years in prison. Harrelson (Senior) was also eventually caught and convicted of shooting because Chagra spoke about the assassination when his brother Joe Chagra visited him in prison after the government bugged the rooms of the Leavenworth, Kansas prison where Chagra resided.

Joe Chagra was reportedly trying to get a deal for his involvement and was serving six and a half years in prison of his 10-year sentence. He was released but died as a result of injuries sustained in a car accident in 1996.

Jimmy Chagra’s wife, Elizabeth, was also jailed for 30 years for delivering the payout money. Charles Harrelson was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences plus five more years. And Chagra was acquitted of Wood’s murder but found guilty of obstruction of justice and conspiracy to smuggle drugs. He was released on December 9, 2003 for health reasons, amid rumors that he had been placed in the witness protection program. He died of cancer on July 25, 2008 at a trailer park in Mesa, Arizona.

While the family story is already compelling enough for a major studio to turn it into a mini-series, we must continue to delve into the Nichols case as far as the ending of the current-gen stories goes in the latest installment in the epic chagra drama.