Names of Socorro Police officers arrested have been released
(Oct. 2012 Story)
The names of the City of Socorro Police officers and communications shift supervisor arrested Tuesday night have been released.
Their names and charges, according to jail records and Texas Department of Public Safety:
Raul Huerta-communications shift supervisor, arrested for alleged delivery of marijuana greater than 5 pounds but under or equal to 50 pounds
Lt. Jose Enrique Alvarez, arrested for alleged official oppression
Sgt Refugio Orta, arrested for alleged official oppression
Officer Israel Delgado, arrested for alleged oppression and tampering with governmental records
Detective Javier Varela, arrested for alleged official oppression and tampering with government record with intent to defraud or harm and aggravated perjury
The City of Socorro has 27 police officers.
Tuesday night the Texas Department of Pubic Safety executed multiple search warrants and arrested four people at the Socorro Police headquarters.
Socorro city spokesman Dave Garcia said the Texas Rangers looked through computers, boxes and files at the Police Headquarters located at Poona and Calcutta streets in Socorro. After they arrested the four individuals, the Rangers moved their operations to the Rio Vista Socorro Police Sub-station, where they continued the investigation. Garcia saidDPS may have been moved to the Rio Vista location because that’s where Socorro’s computer server is located.
A DPS official did not provide information on the investigation but did inform the media that some of the Rangers at the scene were undercover agents.
Wednesday afternoon a ‘closed’ sign was displayed in the window of sub-station while DPS agents continued to carry out crates filled with documents and pack them into a mobile storage container.
A small group of kids stopped to check out the action across the street before heading into the the Rio Vista Community Center to attend a Halloween Party.
“In my opinion its disgusting, because we should have protection,” said SusanaLester, who was seated at table in the back of the community center.
Lester and a group of parents talked about the arrests, while they watched their children laugh and dance dressed-up in costumes.
“Now we’re not going to be able to talk to the police,” said Lester. “Because what if we have one of those kinds of police?”
“These are administrative officers and they’re some of the most reliable officers we could find when we hired them,” said Garcia. “They’re not the ones jumping over the fence chasing bad guys down, we have plenty of those officers.”
View mugshots of the arrested Socorro Police employees by clicking on the media gallery under Related Content
(Oct. 2012 Story)
