Indictments come down against Valley police officers

A federal grand jury handed up indictments Wednesday against the sons of the Hidalgo municipal police chief and Hidalgo County sheriff, along with other members of a joint narcotics task force.

Jonathan Treviño, 28, son of Sheriff Guadalupe Treviño; Alexis Rigoberto Espinoza, 29, son of Police Chief Rudy Espinoza; Fabian Rodriguez, 28; and Gerardo Mendoza Duran, 30, face up to life in prison on cocaine distribution charges.

They were arrested in December and accused by federal investigators of providing escorts for narcotics traffickers moving cocaine through the border county.

Informants working with federal agents paid the officers thousands of dollars in late 2012 to act as lookouts and provide escorts for vehicles transporting loads of cocaine, prosecutors allege.

All the while, federal agents monitored the smuggling or posed as smugglers, carrying actual cocaine in their vehicles, according to court documents.

The men comprised the four-member “Panama Unit,” created four years ago by the Mission Police Department and Sheriff's Office to combat street-level drug distribution, Sheriff Guadalupe Treviño said. All four have resigned.

Treviño said he has to fulfill a duty as both a father and as the county's top law enforcement officer.

“I was the one who disarmed and took the badge away from my son and turned him in,” he said. “But as a father and a family man, I have to support his son. And I and my wife will be there to support him as he goes through this ordeal.”

Along with being part of the Panama Unit, Espinoza was attached to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement task force.

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Allegations of protecting drug loads land 4 cops in jail

It was the ICE's Office of Professional Responsibility that initially received information about the alleged crimes and launched an investigation, according to court records.

Espinoza's father, the Hidalgo police chief, did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday afternoon. Attorneys for all four men were unavailable Wednesday as well.

jbuch@express-news.net

Twitter: @jlbuch