Deputies face felony drug, burglary charges after botched raid

EDINBURG — Omar Salazar held his hands against his face as he walked into the jail courtroom Tuesday afternoon.

Salazar had just been fired as a robbery investigator with the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office as he was booked at the jail.
Along with fellow former investigator Herbierto Diaz, the pair stood to face charges that they allegedly engaged in organized criminal activity and stole hundreds of pounds of marijuana during an illegal search of a Mission house last month.

Both men were 11-year veteran deputies until a five-week investigation by local and federal authorities uncovered their alleged drug trafficking side business.

Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Treviño said investigators do not know how long Salazar and Diaz had allegedly been involved in stealing at trafficking drugs.

“It is pretty hard for me to believe that they are going to go out there and steal 500 pounds on their first rodeo,” the sheriff said. “I don’t think so.”

THE BUST

The criminal complaint and arrest warrant filed by authorities Monday details a suspicious raid at a Mission stash house Oct. 15 that ultimately led investigators to arrest the deputies.

The deputies had called for help with a foot pursuit after they had raided the house looking for marijuana. Several people reportedly ran off on foot after they arrived at the scene.

Investigators would later learn that the supposed foot pursuit happened about 40 minutes before Diaz and Salazar radioed for backup, Treviño said.

A Mission patrol officer arrived and found father and son Joel and Jorge Duncan stepping out of the garage, casually carrying out bundles of marijuana, the criminal complaint the case states.

Both Duncans noticed the Mission patrolman and stopped loading the drugs. Then they walked toward the door into the house.

“Mission police, stop!” the officer yelled. The men went inside the house.

Believing the men would try to escape through the back of the house, the Mission officer ran around back.

There, he found Diaz and Salazar, dressed in street clothes, but wearing black “Sheriff” vests.

Diaz and Salazar told the officer they were unaware of anyone loading the pot bundles in front of the house. The Mission officer went back around front and radioed a dispatcher, telling other officers to pull over a black Chevrolet pickup truck that just took off from the scene.

Minutes later, a Mission police patrol car pulled over the pickup truck. Inside were the Duncans.

Mission police brought the men back to the Ottumwa Street house for questioning.

Salazar then told the Mission officers that the Duncans were confidential informants.

“Rightfully so, the Mission police officer did what any other officer would,” Treviño said. “He released them.”

The Mission officer then left the house and turned over the case to sheriff’s investigators. A sheriff’s narcotics investigator collected the marijuana, which weighed in at 354.5 pounds.

Listening to the radio traffic that day was Mission Police Chief Leo Longoria, the sheriff said. Longoria proved instrumental in launching the investigation into the deputies, saying what had transpired at the house appeared suspicious, Treviño said,.

“He recognized immediately that something was not right,” the sheriff said.

THE PROBE

The sheriff launched an investigation with the FBI and Drug Enforcement Agency into Diaz and Salazar on Oct. 16, the day after the drug bust. Both men were suspended with pay until they were fired Tuesday, the sheriff said.

On Nov. 2, a sheriff’s lieutenant told investigators that Diaz’s 14-year-old son had been kidnapped while visiting his in-laws in Valadeces, Tamps., a Mexican community south of the Rio Grande from La Grulla. Diaz reported the kidnapping, as well, when he showed at the FBI’s McAllen office to report the kidnapping two days later, according to the criminal complaint.

Witnesses later told investigators that Salazar had allegedly organized the 14-year-old’s kidnapping as a way to stop him from cooperating with investigators, Treviño said. The teen was later returned.

Investigators also talked with people who were at the Mission house when Salazar and Diaz raided it Oct. 15.

A witness said one of the deputies was aggressive and threatened to arrest a woman who answered the door if she refused to sign off on a voluntary consent to search the house.

“We are going to get in the house one way or another, so you better sign the paper,” the witness recalled the deputy saying that day, according to the complaint.

Finally, on Wednesday, Diaz gave a voluntary statement to investigators, saying he’d received calls from sources Oct. 15 who said there was marijuana at the Ottumwa Street house.

Diaz and Salazar allegedly met up at a store.

“What do you think?” Diaz recalled Salazar saying to him that day, according to investigators. “Should I call some friends to steal the dope if we find any?”

The duo allegedly hatched a plan to steal the marijuana alongside the Duncans, the supposed informants.

Jorge Duncan told investigators that “I want to say that if the Mission cops had not been there, Omar and the other investigator would have let me and my dad take all of the marijuana that was in the garage and also what was inside the house.”

THE FALLOUT

Eighteen federal agents and three sheriff’s deputies arrested Diaz and Salazar on Tuesday.

Treviño said he fired both of them as they were booked at the Hidalgo County Jail.

Authorities are talking to a third deputy, who likely will not face criminal charges, but could be dismissed under suspicion he knew of the illegal activities without reporting it — a violation of administrative policy, the sheriff said.

The criminal cases investigated by Diaz and Salazar could face challenges in court, as well. For instance, Diaz’s name appears on arrest affidavits of eight men accused in a pseudo cop home invasion that occurred in September.

“The issue of credibility is going to be brought up and rightfully so,” Treviño said. “We’ll just have to see how this plays out.”

Justice of the Peace Rosa Treviño charged each man with engaging in organized criminal activity, burglary of habitation and felony possession of marijuana during an arraignment Tuesday afternoon at the Hidalgo County Jail.

Each man was given a $1.5 million bond for the three felony charges. The most severe charge, engaging in organized criminal activity, carries a maximum sentence of life in prison and a $10,000 fine upon conviction.

Authorities also obtained arrest warrants for Jorge and Joel Duncan as well for participating in the alleged organized criminal activity with the former deputies.

Treviño said exactly how long Diaz and Salazar had allegedly been performing their drug activities remains under investigation.

“I am not going to tolerate any kind of corruption or any kind of misconduct within my department,” the sheriff said. “I am going to do everything I can to seek it out and do away with it.”

Both Salazar and Diaz were hired at the sheriff’s office in 1998, records show.

As a patrol deputy, Salazar was featured in December 2005 as part of a five-part series published in The Monitor about crime in Hidalgo County.

A photo cutline from one of the stories told of Salazar as he arrested a suspected human smuggler. Salazar found the man after he pretended to drive off when the smuggler’s vehicle pulled into a gas station upon seeing him.

When asked why he found the vehicle suspicious, Salazar responded: “You have to think like a criminal.”