Ping!
Please FReepmail me if you want on or off this South Texas/Mexico ping list.
For the last 40 yrs the borders have seen trillions of dollars worth of drugs pass over...
It is not too difficult to imagine LEOs from the highest placed Feds to the lowliest prison guards taking a piece
here and there..
The temptation to make a million and then retire when so many
others are doing it...must be great..
We have needed to shut those borders down for many years now
Even before Mena...and the FOBs drugged America stupid..
imo
BTTT
Latest info.
http://www.valleystar.com/localnews_more.php?id=58207_0_19_0_M
Breaking News
10-count indictment against Cantu, four others
Valley Morning Star
Former Cameron County Sheriff Conrado Cantu and four others were indicted in federal court Thursday morning on charges that include extortion, drug trafficking, witness tampering, bribery and obstruction of law enforcement.
The U.S. Attorney’s office said Cantu, 49, former Sheriff’s Department Captain Rumaldo Rodriguez, 50, and Geronimo Garcia, 33, a former operator of the Cameron County Jail commissary, were part of a criminal enterprise that used the sheriff’s department and their positions to protect and assist persons involved in illegal activity while generating income for themselves and their associates.
Also named in the indictment are Reynaldo Uribe and Hector Solis. Uribe, 41, was arrested Wednesday at Garcia’s residence and Solis, 40, was arrested Thursday morning at Pepe’s restaurant in Brownsville.
Cantu faces fines of $5.5 million and sentences of up to life in prison.
Cantu and Garcia are charged with extorting $5,000 on July 15, 2004 from an alleged drug trafficker in exchange for giving the man information about ongoing investigation. Cantu, Garcia and Rodriguez are also charged with receiving $13,000 from other alleged drug traffickers in exchange for not arresting them.
Cantu, Garcia and Uribe are accuse of laundering drug money between June 21, 2004 and December 31, 2004, while Cantu was sheriff.
The U.S. Attorney’s office has also charged Solis and Cantu with obstructing state law enforcement, alleging that in October, 2004, Cantu told Solis that there would be no raid against a gambling establishment on a particular date.
The last count of the indictment charges Cantu and Garcia with conspriracy to possess more than a kilogram of cocaine and more than 100 kilograms of marijuana between June 1998 and December 2004. If convicted of this charge, they face a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years to life in prison and a $4 million fine.
Cantu was arrested by federal agents at about 10 a.m.Wednesday, after he left his home in San Benito. Rodriguez was arrested about an hour later at the constable’s office in Port Isabel where he works. Garcia was arrested at about the same time at his Brownsville home.
Cantu was elected Cameron County sheriff in 2000. He was defeated in his re-election bid in the 2004 primary. In March 2004, he was charged with abuse of official capacity, a Class A misdemeanor, for allegedly asking deputies and county jail personnel to assist his re-election by joining him on a block-walking campaign. Those charges were dismissed on March 4, due to faulty complaint.
Hilda Treviño, a lieutenant and supervisor of jail guards, filed a whistleblower lawsuit in January 2003, against Cantu and Cameron County, claiming that she was fired for reporting sexual misconduct between jailers and female inmates. Federal officials removed female prisoners from the county jail after these reports surfaced, costing Cameron County hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost federal payments for housing prisoners.