Pubdate: Thu, 03 Jan 2013
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2013 The New York Times Company
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Manny Fernandez

IN DRUG FIGHT ON TEXAS BORDER, SOME OFFICERS PLAY BOTH SIDES

MISSION, Tex. - Drug traffickers have long profited here and in other
Texas border towns. But their success has sometimes depended on
forging unusual alliances.

Some of the very officers sworn to combat the drug trade have been
illicitly earning cash by helping vehicles transporting marijuana and
cocaine avoid detection from law enforcement agents, serving as
escorts and scouts during the shipments, the authorities say.

Last month, four lawmen - two Hidalgo County sheriff's deputies and
two Mission police officers - were arrested and accused of escorting
loads of drugs in exchange for cash after a corruption investigation
led by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the F.B.I. and other
agencies. In court documents filed by federal investigators, the four
men were accused of escorting vehicles carrying cocaine for $2,000 to
$6,000 per trip.

They were not ordinary patrolmen. Officials said they were part of a
task force called the Panama Unit that was formed to fight drug
trafficking in Hidalgo County, part of the South Texas border region
known as the Rio Grande Valley. Each had been a licensed peace officer
for five to seven years and had received specialized training in
investigative techniques and firearms. The two Mission officers -
Alexis R. Espinoza, 29, and Jonathan C. Trevino, 28 - had deep ties to
local law enforcement. Mr. Espinoza is the son of the Hidalgo police
chief and Mr. Trevino is the son of the Hidalgo County sheriff.

"We're a law-abiding family, and we're devastated," said the sheriff,
Guadalupe Trevino. "If it can be proven he did wrong, by God, he's
going to pay his debt to society. But at the same time he's my son,
and I am going to support him. As a father I am going to support him.
But I can promise you and promise everybody else that we're going to
do the right thing."

The four men were the latest in a long line of officers accused of
escorting, stealing or distributing drug loads near the 1,254-mile
border that Texas shares with Mexico. Since 2007, more than 40 police
officers, sheriff's deputies, Border Patrol agents and other law
enforcement personnel have been arrested and accused of using their
positions to profit from the drug trade along or near the border, from
El Paso to the Rio Grande Valley.

In 2010, a police officer in the city of Pharr, Jaime Beas, was
arrested after using his police vehicle, uniform and radio while on
duty to escort vehicles loaded with cocaine. He was also charged with
exporting a grenade and other weapons into Mexico. In April 2011, a
former Laredo officer, Orlando Jesus Hale, was sentenced to nearly 25
years in federal prison. Mr. Hale and another Laredo officer were
convicted of conspiring to help drug vehicles avoid detection, using
their personal cars and police radios to monitor dispatch
communications during the escorts.

Two Duval County sheriff's deputies, Ruben Silva and Victor Carrillo,
were arrested for their roles in performing a pretend traffic stop in
May to steal 22 pounds of cocaine and make the owner of the narcotics
believe the drugs had been seized by law enforcement officials.

In 2011, the former Sullivan City police chief, Hernan Guerra, was
sentenced to 10 years in prison for drug trafficking. He admitted to
the authorities that while serving as the town's top law enforcement
official, he helped Mexican drug smugglers bring their marijuana loads
into the United States in exchange for cash, in part by directing his
officers elsewhere so they would not interfere with the shipments, the
authorities said.

Will Glaspy, an official with the Drug Enforcement Administration in
Houston who is in charge of the agency's operations in the Rio Grande
Valley, said he believed law enforcement corruption was happening in
the region at the same rate as in other parts of the country. When
information surfaces that an officer might be working the other side
of the law, he said, those leads are vigorously pursued.

"The overwhelming majority of the law enforcement officers, whether
they're federal, state or local, are there to do a good job and serve
the community," Mr. Glaspy said. "Unfortunately, we have a few bad
apples, like every area of the country, where bad guys become law
enforcement officers, and they tarnish the badge."

In one case, an officer in a police cruiser had to interrupt a
drug-vehicle escort to respond to a police call, because the officer
was on duty at the time. Some officers have jeopardized long careers
and violated their oaths for a few thousand dollars. Mr. Hale received
$1,000 and the other former Laredo officer, Pedro Martinez III,
$2,000. Mr. Beas, the former Pharr officer, was paid $12,000 for
escorting drug vehicles on three occasions, and was sentenced in 2011
to 12 years in prison, the authorities said.

Often, the people whom the officers believed were drug traffickers
were actually undercover federal agents or confidential informants
working with investigators. The vehicles that the officers believed
were carrying narcotics often contained no drugs at all, or
investigators had placed the drugs in other vehicles.

Al Alvarez, a lawyer who is representing Mr. Espinoza, the Mission
officer arrested last month, criticized the corruption investigations,
saying the officers were often set up and "enticed" by confidential
informants who themselves were in trouble with the law.

"We have real crime here in the Valley and there's real loads of
cocaine going north," said Mr. Alvarez, who also represented Mr. Beas,
the former Pharr officer. "It always befuddles me how we are setting
up cops with confiscated cocaine when there's real crime going on. Why
are they creating incentives for police officers to go bad?"

Mr. Alvarez said that Mr. Espinoza had not been engaged in criminal
activity and that he had been unaware there were drugs in the
vehicles. He plans to fight the allegations in court, Mr. Alvarez said.

The Panama Unit, made up of Mission police and Hidalgo County
sheriff's officials, remains the focus of a federal investigation. It
was created by the elder Mr. Trevino, the sheriff, but had operated
out of the Mission police department, officials said.

Sheriff Trevino said five deputies who were members of the unit had
resigned, including the two who were arrested, Fabian Rodriguez, 28,
and Gerardo Mendoza-Duran, 30. His son and Mr. Espinoza were fired by
the Mission police chief, Martin Garza Jr.

The sheriff said that in light of the investigation, his department
was reviewing its policies, examining arrests made by the unit and
evaluating the performance of the deputies' superiors. The authorities
said there was no evidence the four men had ties to Mexican drug
cartels, though some officers prosecuted in other cases, including Mr.
Guerra, the former Sullivan City chief, were found to have such links.
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