Feds arrest Hidalgo County drug task force commander for smuggling and money laundering
McALLEN — Attorneys started preparing termination paperwork Thursday morning for disgraced Hidalgo County Sheriff's Office Cmdr. Jose Padilla, said Sheriff Lupe Treviño.
Federal agents arrested Padilla early Tuesday morning, when prosecutors unsealed an indictment against him for marijuana smuggling and money laundering. Agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration and Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducted the investigation.
Padilla worked with a Weslaco-based drug trafficking operation run by Tomas "El Gallo" Gonzalez, who co-owns a trucking business called T&F Produce. The drug traffickers moved marijuana and cocaine from Texas to Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and other states, according to federal court records.
Sheriff Treviño said he expected the attorneys from McAllen-based law firm Atlas Hall and Rodriguez to finish the termination paperwork Thursday. They'll also have to determine whether to attempt to deliver the documents to Padilla — in federal detention — or his attorney.
More at http://www.themonitor.com/news/local/article_479a0f36-6e4e-11e3-baab-0019bb30f31a.html .
Another account of the story:
MCALLEN — Federal authorities say they've arrested the second ranking officer of a South Texas sheriff's office who was also the head of an embattled drug-fighting unit.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson Nina Pruneda says Hidalgo County sheriff's Commander Jose "Joe" Padilla was arrested early Tuesday on federal charges of money laundering and conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute marijuana.
Padilla headed the Panama Unit, the target of a broad federal investigation in which nine law enforcement officers have been convicted of conspiring with drug traffickers to steal drugs from rival gangs and resell the narcotics.
During the August trial of deputy Jorge Garza, Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Trevino testified that he had no knowledge of wrongdoing even as his son was a member of the unit.
More at http://www.mrt.com/statenation/article_c6398db2-6cdc-11e3-8eab-0019bb2963f4.html .
