Beatriz Alvarado

Corpus Christi Caller-Times

REFUGIO — A federal investigator testified the former Refugio police chief is the one who sparked a years-long probe that resulted in the raid of two restaurants in town.

After about six years as chief in his home town, Andrew "Andy" Lopez Jr., resigned days before Department of Homeland Security executed search warrants at two of Alfredo Plascencia-Leon's businesses — the Gumbo Seafood Restaurant and Taqueria Guadalajara. Both are located on U.S. Highway 77.

Agents also searched Plascencia-Leon's residential property as part of the Feb. 21 raid. Some restaurant workers paid to live there, according to court documents. Seventeen people, including Plascencia-Leon, were detained that day.

Lopez submitted a resignation letter to Refugio Mayor Wanda Dukes Feb. 16. His resignation took effect Feb. 28.

"After the completion of some lengthy investigations and after much assessment, I have concluded to tender my resignation," Lopez stated in the letter. "I plan on pursuing other avenues, which have recently been presented to me."

Lopez could not be reached for comment. His father, Andrew Lopez, said he is no longer living in Refugio.

Anne McGee, a special agent with the Department of Homeland Security, said she began investigating Plascencia-Leon in 2013, after Lopez asked her to do so, according to a transcript of Plascencia-Leon's Feb. 27 preliminary and detention hearing.

“(Lopez) believed there were a lot of illegals working at the taqueria and being harbored,” McGee said.

McGee said Plascencia-Leon went to the Refugio Police Department after some of his workers had been arrested and asked, "why the chief couldn't just write them a ticket and let them go?" McGee did not specify the offense for which they were arrested.

"He said that is what had been done in the past with the past chief," McGee said of Lopez's predecessor Chris Brock.

Brock, who was chief about nine years, in 2012 was sentenced to three years in state prison for recklessly misusing fiduciary funds seized on the field by the department, which was brought up during McGee's testimony.

McGee said Lopez was under the impression Plascencia-Leon was trying to bribe him.

"He (Lopez) said that he was asking if (Plascenio-Leon) had meant if he was going to bribe him so that the chief would help him in an illegal matter and he (Lopez) said that was not going to happen," McGee said. "(Lopez) felt like that's what he was trying to ask him.”

Lopez is an Army veteran who joined the Texas Department of Public Safety in 1983. He was a Texas Ranger for 13 years.

As a trooper, Lopez was awarded the Medal of Valor by DPS and the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement. The South Texas band Smiley y la Fuerza Musical composed a corrido, or ballad, about a deadly shoot-out between Lopez and one of three men he pulled over. The Sept. 21, 1991 incident earned him the Medal of Valor.

Lopez pulled a vehicle over on U.S. Highway 77, between Woodsboro and Refugio. The traffic infraction led to Lopez searching the trunk of the car. The search escalated to a shootout after one of the men pulled out a gun.

Lopez shoved the man and after throwing him off balance, he reached for his gun holster as he dodged bullets. Lopez's swift actions were showcased in the Fox network TV series "World's Scariest Police Shootouts."

"All I could think of was drawing my gun," Lopez said during an interview for the reality TV series episode.

He became chief in Refugio, a town of 3,000 people about 40 miles northeast of Corpus Christi, in 2010.

During Alfredo Plascencia-Leon's first hearing, three Refugio residents testified the father of two would not be a flight risk if he were released on bond, according to the transcript. Last month, the U.S. Attorney's Office appealed a federal magistrate judge's decision to set Plascencia-Leon's bond at $100,000.

Plascencia-Leon remained behind bars on Friday.

Many in Refugio paint a different picture of Plascencia-Leon, one that starkly contrasts the 18 federal counts against him.

A maintenance supervisor for the Refugio County courthouse, a medical records director at Refugio County Memorial Hospital and a longtime Refugio resident appeared in federal court in the February hearing. Two letters of support also were submitted. Refugio resident Margaret Castellano stated in her letter that "(Plascencia-Leon) has been a good person and always helped people in our town."

A second letter was submitted by the Refugio County Fair Association and its board of directors. It states Plascencia-Leon "has been a major supporter of 4-H and FFA (Future Farmers of America) projects. He has supported the Refugio County Fair Association for many years. He has continued to help see to it that our county youth programs grow each year."

Plascencia-Leon's father, Jose DeJesus Plascencia-Melendez, said his son helped open the first family restaurant in Refugio in 1995. The Plascencia family is originally from Jalisco, Mexico.

Plascencia-Melendez earned his American citizenship when he was about 55. He is now 69.

Taqueria Guadalajara prospered, so the modest building the Plascencias first bought was remodeled and expanded. According to McGee's testimony, more than $1 million is deposited annually into a bank account that corresponds to the taqueria's revenue.

Plascencia-Leon purchased the Gumbo Seafood Restaurant in 2009, according to county records.

The yearslong investigation into Plascencia-Leon yielded 18 federal counts against him. The 46-year-old on Thursday pleaded not guilty to 16 counts of harboring immigrants in the country illegally, one count of conspiring to conceal, harbor or shield the 16 immigrants from detection and one count of furnishing firearms to an undocumented person.