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CARLOS CASCOS
FEDERAL COURT
Abbott’s nominee
Zapata men, 7 others convicted
Valley man chosen as Texas’ new secretary of state By PAUL J. WEBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
AUSTIN — Governor-elect Greg Abbott on Tuesday chose a Hispanic Republican as the first nominee of his nascent administration, naming a county judge from the Rio Grande Valley to be the new Texas secretary of state. Abbott spent his announcement at the Texas Capitol magnifying the credentials of Cameron County Judge Carlos Cascos as well as where he plucked the state’s next chief election officer from. Abbott spent his campaign aggressively courting Hispanics, and immigration and border security are poised to be major is-
sues of his first year in office. The outgoing Texas attorney general made a point of mentioning that his first official trip since his landslide victory last week was to the Rio Grande Valley. “Judge Cascos will give the Rio Grande Valley a strong voice in Austin. He will also show the rest of Texas the outstanding leaders produced by the Rio Grande Valley,” Abbott said. The secretary of state’s office primarily oversees elections in Texas — an area where minority leaders in Texas have especially taken aim at Abbott as attorney gen-
See CASCOS PAGE 12A
Drug trafficking operation distributed pot, cocaine By PHILIP BALLI THE ZAPATA TIMES
Photo by Brad Doherty/The Brownsville Herald | AP
Cameron County Judge Carlos Cascos smiles after Governor-elect Gregg Abbott announced him as the new Texas secretary of state in Brownsville on Tuesday. Cascos was re-elected county judge in the recent election.
PORT MANSFIELD
DEER POPULATION RISES
Photo by David Pike/Valley Morning Star | AP
Annie McKinney feed the deers in Port Mansfield in Dec. 2013. Poachers have killed a large buck and wounded at least three deer in recent months in this tiny fishing village where residents’ feeding of the animals has made them easy targets, officials said.
South Texans advised to take precaution By FERNANDO DEL VALLE VALLEY MORNING STAR
PORT MANSFIELD — Norm Lavelle loves the deer that he feeds — even the big buck that could have killed him. At his home, Lavelle feeds deer whose population has soared to about 450 in this fishing village of about 400 resi-
dents. But last January, he was standing about two feet from an 11-point buck when it suddenly gored him. “It was just nice, then it dropped his head and charged right into me,” Lavelle said. “I was horned and I was knocked down. If it wasn’t for a heavy jacket, I wouldn’t be here. Two months
earlier, I had my arm around him.” The Valley Morning Star reports Lavelle believes the buck may have been looking for a mate during rutting season, which runs from early November through late January, peaking around mid-December.
Nine men received stiff prison sentences this week in a Laredo federal court for their involvement in a drug trafficking conspiracy that, according to a ledger seized by law enforcement, had distributed about 12,500 kilograms of cocaine and had almost $42 million in drug proceeds. The men, including one described as the alleged FLORES JR. head of the trafficking cell, are among the last co-conspirators to be sentenced after their arrests in 2010, resulting from a long-term Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force investigation. Prosecutors claimed they were part of FLORES SR. an elaborate money laundering and drug operation to distribute bulk quantities of marijuana and cocaine from Texas to Georgia. During the course of the investigation, dubbed Operation El Patrón, agents seized more than $7.5 million in drug proceeds and more than 450 kilograms of cocaine, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. According to authorities, the conspirators used commercial tractor-trailers to transport the narcotics. The drug ring would then have the drug proceeds shipped back to Laredo in the tractortrailers, where organizers would find ways to launder the money, chiefly via the purchase of real estate. The money was also transported “eventually into Mexico to further the drug trafficking activity of the organization,” prosecutors said. Elbert Figueroa, the alleged head of the drug enterprise, was arrested Sept. 1, 2010, along with 20 co-conspirators. The arrests were made during an operation organized by the Drug Enforcement Administration and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Nabbed along with Figueroa were Laredoans Sergio Segovia and Jose Isabel Tobias, who were accused of being the organizers behind Figueroa’s drug trafficking cell. The two men were sentenced to nearly 34 years in federal prison in May and October 2012, respectively. From the time of the initial arrests and now, nearly all of the 21 co-conspirators in the case have been convicted and sentenced. Figueroa and the last five co-defendants in this case were sentenced Thursday by U.S. District Judge Marina Garcia Marmolejo. Marmolejo ordered Eduardo Paul Del-
See DEER PAGE 12A See DRUGS PAGE 12A
SINALOA CARTEL
Kingpin broker arrested in San Antonio ASSOCIATED PRESS
SAN ANTONIO — Authorities have arrested an alleged associate of a Mexican cartel kingpin’s sons after the suspect traveled to San Antonio with his wife for a vacation. The San Antonio Express-News reports that federal prosecutors have charged 37-year-old Jorge Torres of Guadalajara, Mexico, with money laundering conspiracy as part of a larger investigation in Chicago of the Sinaloa Cartel.
A federal judge on Thursday declined to grant bond to Torres, who is being held at a federal jail in downtown San Antonio. Authorities plan to transport him to Chicago to face the charge, which punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Torres was arrested after he and his wife arrived at the San Antonio International Airport on Oct. 28. Torres’ lawyer, Albert Flores, said they traveled to San Antonio to visit the Alamo, SeaWorld and other tourist sights. Authorities said Torres helped the
sons of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman obtain a twin-engine airplane used for transporting drugs. They said Torres made a series of wire transfers totaling $300,000 that helped Alfredo and Ivan Guzman acquire the plane from Ohio. Mexican authorities arrested Joaquin Guzman earlier this year in the resort city of Mazatlan. San Antonio-based DEA agent Patrick Curran testified that the case has been built in Chicago by wiretaps authorizing agents to intercept emails and
phone calls of cartel members or associates and from former high-ranking cartel members now cooperating with authorities. He said there was no direct contact between Torres and the Guzman brothers and that communication was filtered through an unidentified lieutenant. Flores said his client is not a member or an associate of the cartel. “At this time, I just believe the contacts with these alleged cartel members are minimal at best,” Flores said.