Family Supports Brothers Facing Drug Charges

As two brothers sat in a courtroom, shackled up in their blue jumpsuits and facing federal drug charges, their family is left wondering how their loved ones got tangled in this nightmare.

“I love ’em both but it’s totally different when it comes down to my cousin Ulises,” Marylou Escudero said.

Investigators charged her cousins, Ulises Lopez, 22, and his older brother Raymundo Lopez, 33, with conspiring to import and sell more than two thousand pounds of marijuana.

Federal agents armed with machine guns stormed into Raymundo Lopez’s far eastside home on Thursday.

“I can’t speak for my cousin Raymundo, because I really don’t know what’s really going on,” Escudero said.

But after leaving with Raymundo’s brother, Ulises, for a year, she said she is sure of his innocence. “He’s a very good kid, no matter who is around him. He knows what’s right and wrong. I can guarantee this has nothing to do with him at all.”

Dozens of family members sat in the back of the El Paso federal courtroom Friday afternoon as a judge ticked off the list of drug charges the pair face.

“I know his face when he wants to break down and cry and I know as soon as we walked through that courtroom, he just wanted to let it all out,” Escudero said.

One person who was not at the federal courthouse Friday is Raymundo Lopez’s 13-year old son.

ICE investigators said they detained him, but only until his family returned from Mexico.

“He’s a 13 year old. Of course he’s gonna get traumatized with all this going on, Escudero said. “This is really big and this is really hurting all of us.”