HIDTA officer accused of drug trafficking pleads guilty - Monitor
Hector Salinas-Hinojosa, of Roma, was also charged with conspiring with Peña and pleaded not guilty in May, according to court records. Peña and Salinas-Hinojosa conspired to hand over a falsified police report to an undercover officer they thought was a cocaine trafficker and who told them he needed help stealing the majority of a 22-pound load of cocaine he was holding for drug... The duo agreed to assist the undercover agent April 9 by providing a police report that would make it look as if the cocaine had been seized by HIDTA. Peña was arrested by federal agents April 18, and immediately was terminated from his position, Police Chief Noe Castillo had said. “It’s always bad when one of our own gets arrested,” Castillo said previously, adding that he was surprised by Peña’s arrest since he came across as a quiet individual with no other officers having any “issues” with him. Federal agents found almost $21,000 in cash, some in marked bills, and cocaine in his bedroom and patrol car, according to court testimony from Homeland Security Investigation agents who raided Peña’s home in Rio Grande City. One agent also testified that they interviewed Peña’s fellow Rio Grande City police coworkers, who told them that they’d joke that Peña’s busts were. Source: www.themonitor.com
