Indicted South Texas Sheriff Resigns

McALLEN, Texas (AP) – Starr County commissioners on Monday accepted the resignation of a South Texas sheriff indicted on drug trafficking charges and a federal judge ordered him held without bond.

Sheriff Reymundo Guerra, arrested last week by FBI agents at his Rio Grande City office, submitted his resignation over the weekend, said his attorney Philip Hilder.

On Monday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Dorina Ramos granted the government’s motion for Guerra to be held without bond. Hilder said he will continue to try to get bond set for his client.

Guerra faces three counts of a sprawling 19-count indictment implicating him and 14 others in a drug smuggling conspiracy. At his arraignment Friday, Guerra pleaded not guilty.

A federal prosecutor has said that Guerra made it easier for the Mexican Gulf Cartel to operate in his county and endangered fellow law enforcement agents by sharing names of confidential informants.

An indictment accuses Guerra of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine and marijuana; accessory after the fact, for an alleged suggestion he made to a co-defendant to use false documents to avoid apprehension; and facilitating the drug trafficking conspiracy through use of a telephone.

The first count alone carries a minimum of 10 years in prison and a maximum of life as well as a $4 million fine.

FBI agent Katherine Gutierrez has testified about recorded phone conversations between Guerra and co-defendant Jose Carlos Hinojosa, a Mexico native living in Roma, Texas. Investigators allege Hinojosa worked for a member of the Zetas – the Gulf Cartel’s enforcers.

Hilder has said Guerra shared information with Hinojosa because he believed he worked for the Mexican equivalent of the district attorney’s office. Hinojosa had helped Guerra locate fugitives in the past, Hilder said.

But Gutierrez said the recorded conversations were not like those between fellow law enforcement officers.

The Monitor in McAllen reports in its Monday online editions that Chief Deputy Rene Fuentes, who had been directing the department since Guerra’s arrest, has been appointed to serve as acting sheriff.

Guerra is the sole candidate for sheriff in the Nov. 4 election, but Hilder said that his client has “no designs on furthering his career as sheriff.”

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)