MCALLEN, Texas — A Texas border police detective who worked narcotics cases is facing federal charges after an undercover sting caught him allegedly helping to steal what he thought were 8 kilos of cocaine from the a Mexican cartel. The drugs didn’t belong to the Gulf Cartel, which is the dominant criminal organization in the area, but in fact were planted by federal agents with U.S. Homeland Security Investigations as part of the operation in an effort to capture the detective and his alleged accomplice, court records obtained by Breitbart Texas revealed (see document attached below).
Noel Pena a police officer with the Rio Grande City Police Department who had been assigned to a county drug trafficking enforcement task force and Hector Salinas Jr. both went before U.S. Magistrate Judge Dorina Ramos in McAllen who formally charged them and ordered they be held without bond pending a detention hearing at a later date.
The case against Pena began on April 9 when an undercover agent with HSI met with Salinas to talk about a drug rip off, court records obtained by Breitbart Texas revealed. The agent told Salinas that he had 2 kilos of cocaine belonging to a Mexican cartel. He said he needed help stealing the drugs but making it seem like the drugs were seized by police.
Salinas allegedly told the agent that he had a guy (Pena) who was a narcotics investigator that could help with that for a fee. The agent said he ended up meeting with Pena and Salinas and all agreed to stage the seizure of two kilos of cocaine so the undercover agent could keep 8 kilos and split the proceeds with Salinas and Pena.
The agent left two kilos in a car for Pena to seize and then expected the border cop to provide documentation making it seem like the seizure had been in fact 10 kilos.
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