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Off to prison Photo by Brandon Wade | AP
Flood waters from the Brazos River encroach upon homes in the Horseshoe Bend neighborhood, Friday, in Weatherford. Floodwaters submerged Texas highways and threatened more homes Friday after another round of heavy rain added to the damage inflicted by storms. GARZA
ZARAGOZA-SOLIS
SANCHEZ
CERDA
DIAZ
Five who worked for Zetas sentenced By PHILIP BALLI THE ZAPATA TIMES
Four Laredoans involved in a kidnapping ordered by the Zetas drug cartel were sentenced to prison Thursday in federal court. Efrain Garza, 33, was ordered by U.S. District Court Judge Diana Saldaña to serve 37 years and three months in federal prison. Ernesto “Zombie” ZaragozaSolis, 31, was sentenced to 30 years.
Also sentenced were Nicolas “Nico” Sanchez Reyes, 52, and Grace Diaz Martinez, 35. Sanchez, who was convicted in 2014 of killing a man in Laredo on behalf of the Zetas, will serve 10 years in prison for conspiracy to export firearms destined for the Zetas. Diaz was sentenced to 48 months behind bars. A fifth co-defendant, Pablo “Panda” Cerda, 38, was sentenced Tuesday to 16 years in federal prison.
Members and associates of the Hermanos Pistoleros Latinos were ordered by the Zetas to execute the kidnapping after a person stole $2 million in drug proceeds, prosecutors allege. The proceeds were delivered from Chicago to a warehouse in Laredo on Sept. 14, 2010, authorities said. The person who stole the money was supposed to deliver it to the Zetas in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Authorities said the coconspirators were tasked with kidnapping the thief and his or her family members. They were to kill them if the money was not returned. At about 11:30 p.m. Sept. 19, 2010, the Laredo Police Department received a 911 call indicating a woman had been abducted at gunpoint in the 1300 block of Eistetter Street. The woman turned
See ZETAS PAGE 12A
More rain, more serious flooding Death toll rises to 22, 13 missing after days of severe weather By JUAN A. LOZANO AND SETH ROBBINS ASSOCIATED PRESS
IMMIGRATION CRISIS
FAMILIES RECEIVE HELP
HOUSTON — Floodwaters submerged highways and threatened homes Friday in Texas as another round of heavy rain added to the damage inflicted by storms that have killed at least 22 people and left 13 missing. The line of thunderstorms that stalled over Dallas dropped as much as 7 more inches overnight. That rainfall contributed to another death
early Friday, when firefighters in a Dallas suburb said a man drowned in his truck after it was swept into a culvert. Houston-area authorities confirmed the death of an 87-year-old man who was swept away when a boat attempting to rescue him from a bayou overturned. The man had previously been counted among the missing. His body was recovered from the Houston Ship Channel. The rain also seeped
See FLOOD PAGE 12A
CRUDE OIL
Abbott wants export ban lifted Texas governor calls 40-year-old ban a ‘relic from an era of scarcity’ By JIM MALEWITZ Photo by Bob Owen/The San Antonio Express-News | AP
Mirian Escobar Perez, 23, of Honduras cries as she prays on her knees in her room as the Mennonite Casa de Maria y Marta shelter on April 2 in San Antonio. The Mennonite Casa de Maria y Marta is where immigrant women and their children stay after being released from detention centers in South Texas and participates as part of the Interfaith Welcome Coalition.
After being released from dentention, shelter By JASON BUCH SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS
SAN ANTONIO — When the vans from South Texas’s immigrant detention centers arrive at the San Antonio Greyhound station, a group of volunteers waits to greet women and children who face a long bus ride through a foreign country with little more than the
clothes on their backs. Members of San Antonio’s Interfaith Welcome Coalition offer them cell phones to call relatives, explain their bus tickets, and give them food and blankets for the journey ahead. At the bus station recently, Azuzucha Sanchez, 33, from Guatemala, threw her arms around Yanira Lopez, a friend from the Karnes
County detention center who has been staying for several weeks with the coalition, a network of local churches and religious groups that provides support for Central American families crossing the border in Texas. “I didn’t imagine she would be here,” Sanchez told the San Antonio Express-News. “I arrived and
saw people from the church, and they said come in. I was afraid of the journey, but now it’s better.” San Antonio’s bus station is the first stop for most of the women released from detention centers in Karnes County and the town of Dilley. Combined, the two centers are holding about 1,500
See FAMILIES PAGE 11A
TEXAS TRIBUNE
Texas has officially asked Congress to lift its 40-year-old ban on crude oil exports. Gov. Greg Abbott on Friday signed a resolution calling the federal ban a “relic from an era of scarcity and flawed price control policies” that should be lifted at a time when the country is awash in low-priced crude. A trio of Texans in Congress is pushing legislation that would overturn the ban. Supporters of lifting the ban – including virtually all Texas lawmakers and
industry regulators – argue that finding more buyers for U.S. crude would prompt more drilling, pouring more cash into the state treasury. Proponents of the status quo fear that a repeal could increase gas prices and spur more drilling that harms the environment. American companies may export refined petroleum products such as gasoline or diesel, but most crude here is stuck at home. That’s due to a policy dating back to the mid-1970s, when the U.S.
See CRUDE OIL PAGE 11A