Courtesy of the DPS public information office.

18 arrested in South Texas methamphetamine case

Associated Press

Eighteen arrests have been made in a state and local bust of an alleged methamphetamine manufacturing operation in South Texas.

The arrests in Gonzales County climaxed a 1 1/2-year investigation by the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Gonzales County Sheriff’s Office and the Gonzales Police Department.

A DPS statement issued Thursday says investigators believe the suspects used family members and others to make numerous purchases of the decongestant pseudoephedrine from pharmacies. They also allegedly bought anhydrous ammonia and other chemicals used to make the drug.

The DPS says the purchases were made from pharmacies in Gonzales, Houston, Corpus Christi, San Antonio and Georgetown, among other South Texas cities.

The DPS estimates about 17 pounds of methamphetamine were made over the 18 months between November 2007 and May 2009.

Oct 15, 2009 6:41 pm US/Central

Mother & Son From Amber Alert Reunited In Florida

Reporting

JUSTIN (CBS 11 / TXA 21) -

One-year old Malakai Mascorro is now back with his mother.

Police say Mascorro’s father, Jose David Mascorro, told federal agents that he kidnapped the boy from his mother’s bedroom in Justin, between Fort Worth and Denton, Tuesday night.     U.S. Marshals finally caught the father in Tallahassee, Florida.  Police say they tracked Mascorro’s cell phone as he made calls allegedly heading toward family in the Orlando area.

The boy’s mother Wanda Coronado and her friend immediately left the DFW area after hearing of Mascorro’s capture.  About 18-hours after the ordeal ended, Coronado held her son on her lap in Tallahassee and sobbed in relief.

“I’m happy to have him and hold him in my arms,” Coronado said.  “It’s good to see him and have him here with me!  Now he’s happy! Before he was crying and now looks at him.  He’s himself.” 

“It was nerve racking,” said Coronado’s friend Roxanne Couch about the long drive halfway across the country.  “It was like every hundred miles felt like a thousand miles.  It felt like forever before we would get here.  Like i said, it was long and exhausting but we made it here by the grace of god and we’re thankful.” 

The mood change from just a day ago was evident back in Justin, too.

Wednesday a six man police force scrambled to launch a nationwide search from Justin, Texas.  A day later, the cramped offices of the city’s municipal building were quiet.

If the details of the shooting and the suspect’s description hadn’t ended up in an FM radio broadcast, Washington County Deputy Don Wass never would have heard it. But he did, and he was able to capture the suspect 75 miles from the incident.

Cathy, a Spring, Texas mother of two daughters and president of the Greater Houston chapter of Concerns of Police Survivors, decided to do something.

She didn’t want this scenario to happen to another law enforcement family.

“There had to be a way to find the offender as soon as possible,” Cathy said, “before they can hurt someone else. And there had to be a better way to inform law enforcement around the state so they will hear about a line-of-duty death from dispatch, not an FM broadcast station.” She points out that most people don’t listen to their car radio, they listen to CDs.

She repeatedly wrote to the governor’s office. Her pleas were finally heard on August 18, 2008, when Texas Governor Rick Perry signed the “Blue Alert” into law by executive order.

The Blue Alert executive order allows the Amber Alert System to be used when a law enforcement officer is killed or seriously injured and the offender is still at large. The legislation states that when “the investigating agency determines the offender poses a serious risk or threat to the public and/or other law enforcement personnel, the alert will be initiated.”

The Blue Alert will immediately forward a detailed description of the offender, the offender’s vehicle, and license plate information to state law enforcement agencies and to the public through media resources and the Department of Transportation’s dynamic message signs along Texas highways.

Cathy attended the signing ceremony. Governor Perry stated, “Today, we are gathered to restate our gratitude for members of the law enforcement community, to reiterate our support for you and your families and to take a simple step that will rally the entire state to your side.

“This simple act will speed the apprehension of a person who could harm others or even escape prosecution for their crime. Working together, Texans can show their support for the brave men and women who protect them and ensure that those who do them harm are quickly captured, fully prosecuted and appropriately punished.”

Texas joins two other states, Florida and Oklahoma, which have enacted similar legislation.

Cathy wants all fifty states to get on board. She wants to be sure that if an officer at the city, county, state, or federal level is seriously injured or killed in the line of duty, every agency in the state is quickly notified as well as every citizen.

The offender who fled after murdering her husband stole a car at gunpoint from an innocent woman. He had time to change out the license plates. He also obtained and doused his clothes with bleach in an attempt to rid himself of Barry’s blood.

Cathy says the Blue Alert will keep the next offender from having the opportunity to cover up his crime and flee.

She recalls how difficult it was to know Barry’s killer had escaped and having to wait for word of an arrest. She doesn’t want other law enforcement families to have to endure what her family did. “The Blue Alert will help catch a criminal quickly. Hopefully, it won’t be an all-day event like it was for us.”

San Antonio Express-News

Your Turn (Editorial)

- Rebecca Reyes

No right to privacy?

Re: “In a crash? You could be getting a phone call” (Front page, Oct. ): With the growing numbers of identity theft and telephone solicitors these days, I don’t believe that our phone numbers and personal information should be made public by the Texas Transportation Commission.

If I need to contact a doctor or an insurance company after an accident, I will do so myself and don’t want to field phone calls from these businesses.

It’s ridiculous for DPS to say that this information should be made available for police officers’ needs. The police have the access to our personal information if they need it. It does not need to be made public information on accident reports.

San Antonio Express-News

Mexican drug cartel suspect pleads guilty

Arrested in 2000, Jesus Labra was extradited to the U.S. last Dec. 31.

BY ELLIOT SPAGAT

Associated Press

SAN DIEGO, Calif. — A suspected figure in Mexico’s Arrellano Felix drug cartel has pleaded guilty to a drug charge in San Diego.

Defense attorney Eugene Iredale said Jesus “Chuy” Labra entered the plea Thursday in federal court.

Labra pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute at least 100 kilograms of marijuana and at least 100 grams of cocaine. Iredale said money laundering and racketeering charges against Labra will be dropped.

Labra was arrested while watching his son’s soccer game in Tijuana in 2000, when the now weakening cartel was near the height of its power.

He was extradited to the United States on Dec. 31, 2008, and is expected to get five to 40 years in prison when he is sentenced in January.

Labra tapped extensive connections with Colombian cocaine traffickers and Mexican marijuana growers and regularly participated in the cartel’s major business decisions, according to his 2003 indictment.

He was accused of smuggling marijuana across the border to the United States beginning in the 1970s. Labra later moved into cocaine when Colombian suppliers shifted trafficking routes from the Caribbean and Florida to ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border, according to John Kirby, a former federal prosecutor who co-wrote the indictment.

“He was one of the people who knew how to move stuff across the border,” Kirby said.

At the time of his arrest, Labra and two others who also were indicted in 2003 made the cartel’s key decisions about where to buy drugs and how to get them to the U.S., Kirby said.

Benjamin Arellano Felix was arrested in 2002 in Mexico, and U.S. authorities have been trying to get him extradited for years.

Manuel Aguirre Galindo remains at large.

The Arellano Felix cartel has seen its grip on drug smuggling along the California-Mexico border slowly erode since 2002, when Benjamin was captured and Ramon Arellano Felix was killed. Ramon had a reputation has a ruthless killer.

Labra and nine others were extradited last Dec. 31, bringing the number of suspects sent from Mexico to 95 in 2008, the highest ever.

Labra’s attorney initially challenged the extradition, saying a treaty between the U.S. and Mexico requires that a verdict first be reached on criminal charges that Labra faced in Mexico. Labra had been in Mexican prison for nearly nine years when he was extradited.

“I assume the Mexicans are probably happy not to deal with him,” Kirby said. “They don’t need the headache.”

High-speed chase ends in ditch, charges filed

By cassia Micek and Stefanie Thomas

Updated: 10.15.09

EAST COUNTY – An 18-year-old New Caney man led Precinct 4 deputies on a high-speed chase through East County Thursday afternoon before crashing his vehicle into a ditch because, he said, he was trying to kill himself, officials said.

Deputies first noticed Michael Jeremy Heck in the courtroom of Precinct 4 Justice of the Peace Judge James Metts, Precinct 4 Constable Rowdy Hayden said.

“They observed a suspect in the courtroom they knew had outstanding warrants for sexual assault,” Hayden said. “… We don’t know at this time why Heck was in Judge Metts’ courtroom in the first place, but there was a woman in court who recognized Heck as the man who had sexually assaulted her in the past. She alerted the bailiff …

“They tried to take him into custody and when they were in the process of confirming the warrant he got loose and fled on foot.”

Heck was able to reach his vehicle in the parking lot, leading officials on a 10-15 mile chase with speeds reaching 90 mph, Hayden said.

Montgomery County Sheriff’s deputies joined the pursuit, which led authorities south on U.S. 59 to FM 1314, then back north to FM 1485 and finally east on FM 1485, Hayden said. Heck wrecked his Chevrolet extended-cab pickup truck at Lazy Creek Drive and FM 1485 right before the San Jacinto River bridge on the Montgomery-Harris county line.

“He left the roadway, ran into a ditch and struck a telephone pole,” Hayden said. “He later told deputies he was trying to kill himself.”

Heck took out a fire department sign as well as the telephone pole, Hayden said. Heck was transported to a local hospital by ground ambulance to be treated for minor injuries.

Throughout the chase, Heck allegedly rammed police vehicles and endangered civilian motorists.

“At one point in time he was attempting to ram deputies’ cars,” Hayden said. “ … A deputy shot his rear tire out (after failed attempts to do so with spike strips). They disabled his rear tire and he continued to flee on its rim.”

The details in the cases are similar to four other home invasions this year in Lavaca and Leon counties. In Leon County a 77-year-old woman was raped in July and an 80-year-old woman in September.

Authorities say DNA evidence linked at least one of the Lavaca County attacks with a Leon County attack.

Bell County officials are communicating with the other agencies but stop short of affirming the crimes are all linked.

“There is no DNA match to say they are 100 percent connected,” Lewing said. “We’re not at that point.”

DNA has helped investigators eliminate potential suspects living in Bell County and other counties but has not helped them pinpoint a suspect, Lewing said.

Bell County investigators have been careful with the information released through the sheriff’s office because there are indications that the person involved in the crimes here desires publicity and there is a concern that giving it to him could cause him to strike again, Lewing said.

TEXAS CITY, Texas — Nearly $5 million in federal funds will help pay for repairs to a Hurricane Ike-damaged dike in Texas City.

Mayor Matt Doyle says the city commission on Wednesday is expected to discuss a contract with an engineering firm.

Texas City and Galveston County face figuring out how to pay for the overall repair job, estimated at $11.3 million, pending 13 months after Ike slammed the Galveston area.

Federal Emergency Management Agency spokesman Brad Craine said FEMA awarded $4.5 million to repair an associated road and embankment.

Some funds will pay for repairs to five boat ramps, including the Sansom-Yarbrough ramp. A Texas Parks and Wildlife Department survey found that ramp, handling 7 percent of all the boats launched in Galveston Bay, was the busiest on the state’s coast before Ike.

Despite law, it coud take years for school buses to get seat belts

By Robin Pyle | AVALANCHE-JOURNAL

Friday, October 16, 2009 Story last updated at 10/16/2009 – 1:07 am

Thousands of Lubbock children riding buses to school won’t be buckled in anytime soon, despite a state law requiring seat belts that takes effect next year, local and area school district officials said.

School transportation officials said it could take a decade to build a full fleet of new, more expensive buses equipped with the required lap and shoulder belts.

But officials assured parents that current buses remain very safe.

“The safety of students is the highest priority for Lubbock ISD, and school buses are the safest way to transport students between home and school,” spokeswoman Nancy Sharp said.

The law requires all buses purchased after Sept. 1, 2010, to be equipped with lap and shoulder belts.

Districts don’t plan to buy all of the new buses at once.

Lubbock-Cooper Independent School District officials estimated it would take five to 10 years to replace their 28 buses, said John Baker, the district’s director of transportation.

Lubbock has 130 buses, and Frenship runs about 60.

Each bus usually lasts about 11 years, Baker said, and the district generally buys three new buses each year.

The Cooper district will buy new buses next summer before the new law takes effect, so it won’t have any seat belts in any of the school buses next school year, Baker said.

Equipping buses with seat belts will be costly, he said, because current buses are not structurally designed for them.

Baker estimates each new bus will cost between $16,000 to $20,000 more than the district pays now, bringing the price up from $85,000 to at least $100,000.

The legislation requiring seat belts in school buses was contingent upon the Legislature providing funding for the seat belts, and funding has not yet been provided.

“Regular school buses are not prone to rollover. They’re very stable. They’re very heavy. They absorb a lot of energy,” Baker said.

“As long as they stay within that compartment, they’re safe,” Baker said.

A study by the highway safety administration found the combination of lap and shoulder belts could reduce head injuries.

But lap belts alone appear to have little, if any, benefit in reducing serious and fatal injuries in frontal crashes.

They could increase serious neck injuries among young passengers in severe frontal crashes.

If misused, even the combination of seat belts could contribute to serious neck and possible abdominal injuries.

“My issue with it is making sure the kids are seat-belted in,” Baker said. “Monitoring (50 to 60 children on a bus) is going to be an issue.”

Mexico extradites drug cartel suspect to US

MEXICO CITY — Mexico has extradited a woman wanted in Texas for allegedly smuggling $2 million in cocaine-trafficking profits for a drug cartel.

Olga Lerma allegedly is a top financial officer for Ignacio Coronel, a suspected leader of the Pacific drug cartel. She was captured in western Jalisco state in June.

The Attorney General’s Office says Lerma was handed over to U.S. marshals in Mexico City on Thursday. She faces trial in Texas.

Tela Many

Chief of Media Relations

Texas Department of Public Safety