After ADT executives were incarcerated in Mexico, the security company could have
quietly tried to put the matter behind it. Instead, ADT fought back—
winning a $112 million RICO claim.
Border
WARS
By Andrew Longstreth
Photograph By Robert Seale
In
the summer of 2008, Thomas Ajamie was in Mexico City taking a de-
position for his client, the Mexican affiliate of ADT Security Services Inc. Ajamie
was interviewing Juan Reyes, one of ADT’s former executives. Reyes, looking ner-
vous at times, described how over the past four years a handful of ADT execu-
tives in Mexico had been arrested and incarcerated, including himself, on charges
related to a contract dispute. Reyes had reason to feel uneasy. His four-and-a-half
days in a Mexican jail were a horrific experience. But there was another cause for
his anxiety: The Mexican businessman, Jesus Hernandez Alcocer, who Reyes said was responsible
for the arrests, was sitting just a few feet from him at the deposition table.
ADT insisted that
armed off-duty
sheriffs guard its
lawyers, including
Tom Ajamie, during a
three-week trial.
