MCALLEN, Texas — Texas Border Sheriff’s Deputy Amy Reyes is facing federal drug smuggling charges following her recent arrest at a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint just north of Laredo, Texas where agents claim they found drugs in her vehicle.
Reyes’ arrest marks the most recent stain to the image of Texas border law enforcement which has been trying to clean up its image following a long history of corruption.
According to court records obtained by Breitbart Texas, Amy Reyes was a deputy with the Starr County Sheriff’s Office when she was riding in a personal vehicle driven by her brother Bobby Reyes and they came up to the U.S. Border Patrol Checkpoint in Hebbronville. A police dog tipped off the agents toward a suspicious area under the seat in Reyes’ car and during a secondary inspection they found two secret compartments. Out of the compartments federal agents seized 24 marijuana bundles weighing more than 75 pounds.
During questioning by agents with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Reyes said that she was going to be paid $1,000 to move the drugs from Rio Grande City to Houston.
Breitbart Texas reached out to the Starr County Sheriff’s Office which confirmed that Reyes had been a deputy but had been fired as soon as they had learned of the arrest.
The name of Texas border law enforcement took a severe beating this year when Hidalgo County Sheriff Guadalupe “Lupe” Trevino got sentenced to five years in prison for taking money from a Texas based Gulf Cartel capo. Along with Trevino, his commander, and chief of staff, federal agents also took down an entire drug unit that was seizing cocaine loads only to sell them on the side in a related but separate conspiracy. The de-facto leader of the drug unit was in fact Trevino’s son Jonathan Trevino.
In addition to Reyes, Starr County has seen its share of corrupt cops in 2013 Romeo Javier “RJ” Ramirez, a Sheriff’s captain who was in charge of the jail division pleaded guilty to bribery charges for having taken money from the Gulf Cartel in exchange for law enforcement sensitive information.
Just a year prior, 34-year-old Nazario Solis, a sheriff’s deputy was arrested for working for a Gulf Cartel boss in Mexico by trying to find assault rifles and helping his drug shipments. Solis was also tied to bribery charges for tipping off underground casinos about upcoming raids allowing them to move their operation beforehand.
In 2008, former Starr County Sheriff Reymundo “Rey” Guerra was arrested at the sheriff’s office and eventually convicted of drug conspiracy charges for giving free passage through his county to members of the Gulf Cartel
Guerra’s predecessor Eugene “Gene” Falcon was taken down in 1998 for taking bribes from bail bondsmen, and in that same year, his counterpart in Zapata County Romeo Ramirez went to prison for taking kickbacks from federal agents posing as cartel smugglers.
The list of dirty Texas Border cops also includes former Cameron County Sheriff Conrado Cantu who was arrested in 2005 for taking money from the heads of the Gulf Cartel in exchange for protecting their smuggling operations and underground gambling establishments
In 1994, former Hidalgo County Sheriff Brigido “Brig” Marmolejo was convicted of bribery and racketeering charges for taking cash bribes from a drug capo in exchange for letting him use his office at the sheriff’s department to have sex with various women.
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