Former constable to be resentenced for drug trafficking

Former Cameron County Constable Jose Alfredo Jimenez and two cohorts will get another day in court.

Jimenez has been serving a life sentence since 2004 for drug trafficking, however, a resentencing is scheduled for April 11 in Judge Hilda G. Tagle's court in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in Louisiana in late December vacated the sentences of the ex-constable from La Feria, his former deputy constable Benito Villarreal and Jose A. Morales. Morales was not a law enforcement officer, but worked with Jimenez and the deputy constables, arranging for drugs to cross the Rio Grande within Pct. 7, the appellate court record shows.

Morales' and Villarreal's resentencing is scheduled for April 4, also before Tagle.

The appellate court found that Tagle erred in the application of the sentencing guidelines.

Former deputy constable Juan Contreras also appealed his sentence, but did not raise the argument regarding the sentencing guidelines in the initial brief as required, the appellate court ruling indicates.

Villarreal was sentenced to 11 years in prison.

Morales received 30 years while Contreras received 49 years for his role in the drug-trafficking scheme.

Their 2003 convictions were not overturned.

Court-appointed attorney Kimberly S. Keller of The Keller Law Firm represented Jimenez in the appeal and Noe D. Garza Jr. will be representing him in the resentencing.

Garza was not available for comment.

The appellate court's ruling notes that the government conceded that the district court erred in mandatorily applying the sentencing guidelines and did not contest that Jimenez, Morales and Villarreal would have to be resentenced.

Jimenez served as constable from 1988 through 2001, when he was first convicted on state charges of aggravated assault and official oppression.

His 2003 federal conviction was for conspiracy to smuggle and distribute more than 2,200 pounds of marijuana from 2000 to 2002 and carrying a firearm to further the drug offenses.

Once the shipments, mostly of marijuana, reached the United States, the deputy constables took possession of them, according to court documents. They then delivered the loads to drug traffickers and escorted them to stash houses.

The court record shows that Jimenez commanded the operation while Contreras and Villarreal retrieved the loads of drugs from the river's edge.

Investigations began in 2000 when Border Patrol agents noticed a pattern of suspicious activity on the part of the deputy constables. They were frequently spotted near the river where they had no business being.

"On more than one occasion Border Patrol agents found the (deputy) constables hiding in the brush near the river, armed with rifles and wearing unmarked camouflage fatigues," the appellate court's ruling states.

 Brownsville Herald archives show that in 2001, Jimenez received a 14-year sentence for the state conviction.