Friday, August 3, 2018
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Vol. 46 No. 51
Drug seizures drop nearly 90 percent at MCISD preps backpacks with supplies Border Patrol checkpoint, state says for annual Back to School Bash by Dave Hendricks
By Jamie Treviño
Drug seizures at the Falfurrias checkpoint dropped nearly 90 percent from 2014 to 2017, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety. Director Steve McCraw dropped the startling statistic in April, when he briefed the Public Safety Commission on border security data. Minutes for the meeting, which the Public Safety Commission approved in June, provided exact percentages. Drug seizures at the Falfurrias checkpoint dropped 87.77 percent, according to the meeting minutes. Drug seizures at the Sarita checkpoint plummeted too, falling 78.69 percent during the four-year period. Hidalgo County Sheriff Eddie Guerra said the numbers reflected a major shift by smugglers. “These organizations are making more money smuggling humans than smuggling narcotics,” Guerra said. Big drug busts became less common when Colorado and other states legalized marijuana, Guerra said.
Hoping to foster a more accessible education for all students, MCISD got ready for their annual Back to School Bash by stuffing backpacks with school supplies for the upcoming year. Students, faculty and administration gathered at Bryan Elementary School this past Tues. morning to put together 2,000 backpacks with basic school supplies specifically for Mission Consolidated Independent School District students. The volunteers organized everything in record time, according to Craig Verley, the director of Public Relations and Marketing for the district. “This really represents our communities coming together in support of our students, and the volunteerism there is, that people want to try and help,” Verley said. Volunteers included a “scout troop, community volunteers from H-E-B, some staff members and teachers who are still on vacation and various student organizations.” Verley said they had over 100 people helping.
Falfurrias checkpoint.
Progress Times photo by Dave
Hendricks.
Measured by weight, marijuana made up the majority of drug seizures. “You’re not seeing those big loads,” Guerra said, adding that some smugglers shifted to heroin and methamphetamine. “They’ll make more money and it’s a much smaller drug to conceal.” During the April meeting, McCraw said Border Patrol — which doesn’t publish statistics for individual checkpoints — provided the data. “Legislators also asked
us to report on marijuana seizures in the Rio Grande Valley,” McCraw said. “And this is Border Patrol data that we used. And as you can see, there was a 60 percent reduction during that period of time. In cocaine, there’s a 26 percent reduction.” McCraw credited Operation Secure Texas, the state border security program spearheaded by the Department of Public Safety, with reducing crime and drug activity.
See DRUG SEIZURES Pg. 6
Mission Pawsible helps find new homes for animals
After an exhaustive, eight-month investigation, prosecutors closed the Agua Special Utility District case on July 13, concerned the evidence wouldn’t support criminal charges. Prosecutors started investigating last year, when the district approved settlement agreements with utility Project Manager Armin Garza and utility Community Relations Coordinator Oscar “Coach” Salinas — who both serve on the La Joya school board. Garza collected $268,000, according to utility district records. Salinas received $221,000. “It looked bad. It smelled bad,” said Hidalgo County District Attorney Ricardo Rodriguez. “Obviously there was a whole lot of money that was given to these individuals. But based on the investigation, we just couldn’t find what crime they could be charged with.” Working with the Texas Rangers, prosecutors investigated the settlement agreements. They sifted through stacks of documents, searching for links between the settlement agreements and promotions at the La Joya Independent School District, where a majority of the utility board members work. And they pored over personnel records, searching for no-
The animals at the Mission Animal Shelter. Progress Times photos by Jose De Leon III.
More than 1,000 cats and dogs in the cities of Mission and Alton have found a forever home thanks to a non-profit program in the city. That’s according to Homer Garza, chairman on the advisory board for Mission Pawsible, the program that was created last fall dedicated to saving animals in the area. “We’re an advisory board for the city of Mission consisting of a group of passionate animal lovers and advocates,” Garza explained. “We work in conjunction with the animal control and health departments in the city. It’s a great program.” Mission Pawsible was created last fall, after the cities of Mission and Alton chose not to renew their agreement with Edinburg’s
Palm Valley Animal Center. This was due to the center wanting to charge the cities $10,000 per month to house animals the city’s animal control picked up instead of the usual $150 per animal the city had been charged for. When that happened, Garza and other animal lovers banded together to ensure the dogs and cats at the city’s animal shelter would find a home. “We were tired of hearing about all these dogs being put down and seeing our city slammed on social media because of it, so we decided to come onboard, work with the city and advise them on what to do and how to incorporate these programs,” Garza said. “When we came onboard in November, we started a rescue transport system.” The rescue transport system Garza said, includes
ons Club, an immunization clinic put on by the Hidalgo County Health Department where students can pay $5 per immunization, a mobile clinic run by Ashley Pediatrics which will provide sports physicals for $20, late online registration and additional information for every MCISD campus.
See BACKPACK PREP Pg. 8
Volunteers from throughout the Mission CISD stuff backpacks with school supplies and load them into boxes for the annual Back to School Bash held this past Thurs. Progress Times photo by Jamie Treviño.
District Attorney's Office closes Agua SUD case without any criminal charges by Dave Hendricks
By Jose De Leon III
“It would be great [for it to grow],” Verley said. “Because that just means we are serving more students. A lot of it will depend on the community.” Started by former MCISD Superintendent Ricardo Lopez five years ago, the Back to School Bash involves free haircuts for kids given by cosmetology students, free eye screenings from the Li-
local foster homes for the dogs where residents voluntarily house the dog while a transport unit comes from either Colorado, Arizona, New York and other states and take the dogs. The dogs and cats in the program go across the nation to reach their final destination and are picked by their respective owners through the Mission Pawsible website. Interested adoptees need only pay a $50 adoption fee that covers spaying and neutering, rabies vaccination and a microchip. “I’ve seen animals on social media that go from the streets of Mission to a penthouse in Manhattan, so we’ve had some great success stories,” Garza said. Garza said the popularity of the program has reached neighboring cities.
See MISSION PAWSIBLE Pg. 6
INSIDE
show jobs. “There was nothing there that we could make a case on,” Rodriguez said. The Texas Rangers weighed a first-degree felony charge against former Executive Director Oscar Cancino, according to Texas Department of Public Safety records. Prosecutors also reviewed whether or not the utility board violated the Texas Open Meetings Act. Ultimately, though, prosecutors didn’t believe the evidence would support criminal charges.
The utility district welcomed the news, describing the decision as “vindication.” “While we have not received any official notification in writing, we have been advised that the investigation regarding the Agua Special Utility District has been closed, indicating that the District has been cleared from any wrongdoing,” utility board President Roger Hernandez said in a statement. “This is the vindication that we have been waiting to hear for many months.
Oscar Salinas
Armin Garza
See AGUA SUD CASE Pg. 10
Revision of “Fear of ICE causes low turnout at Operation Lone Star”
In last week’s article, Dr. Richard Male was incorrectly cited as the Chief Medical Officer of Operation Lone Star 2018. Dr. Male is a member of the Texas State Guard with Medical Brigade, who works
under the Texas Department of State Health Services during Operation Lone Star. The Medical Officer for Operation Lone Star is Emilie Prot, DO, MPH, the Regional Medical Director for Region 11 in the DSHS.
SISD Bus Drivers get pay increase
Mission Parks and Recreation
Starting pay for bus drivers in the Sharyland Independent School District has been raised in an effort to keep current drivers and attract new ones. Jose De Leon III has more details.
See the newest information from the city’s Parks and Recreation department and find out how you can stretch out the last days of summer outdoors.
We have several articles featured in this week’s issue with updates and the latest news coming from Mission. Keep up to speed with what’s going on in the city, inside.
See Pg. 5
See Pg. 4
See Pg. 4
INDEX
Entertainment | pg. 2
Lifestyle | pg. 3
Obituaries | pg. 9
City of Mission News
Classifieds | pg. 10
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