More Texas Ex-Officers Charged in Drug Conspiracy

A federal grand jury indicted three more former South Texas law enforcement officers on drug conspiracy charges Wednesday, bringing to seven the number of members of a now-disbanded drug task force to face charges.

The superseding indictment added three more former Hidalgo County sheriff's deputies who were members of the so-called Panama Unit, a joint task force between that agency and the Mission Police Department targeting street-level drug sales in that South Texas city, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney's office.

Also added to the case were Fernando Guerra Sr. and Fernando Guerra Jr., who had been separately charged last month. According to documents filed in the elder Guerra's original case, he sat atop a drug trafficking ring that employed corrupt police to steal drugs from other traffickers. Guerra Sr. told the confidential informant that whoever was responsible for delivering the cocaine to him at the pre-determined location would be stopped by corrupt police officers and arrested.

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