Former state trooper from Brownsville sentenced to prison

BROWNSVILLE — A former state trooper was sentenced Tuesday to more than seven years in federal prison.

A shackled and chained Jesus Rafael Larrazolo, 35, of Brownsville, appeared before U.S. District Judge Andrew S. Hanen, who sentenced the former Texas Department of Public Safety trooper to 87 months in the Federal Bureau of Prisons. The sentence comes nearly a year after Larrazolo was arrested on a charge of dealing cocaine.

A four-year veteran of the DPS, he apologized during the court the proceedings, saying, “I regret my actions. … I used bad judgment and made a mistake.”

“I believe every man gets a second chance,” he added, saying he hoped his second chance would come once he is released from federal prison.

Hanen told Larrazolo he shouldn’t let his conviction ruin his life or that of his family.

The former peace officer pleaded guilty to one count in a federal indictment charging him with possession with intent to distribute 26 kilograms, or 57 pounds, of cocaine on Jan. 15, according to court documents. The drugs had a street value of $1.64 million.

Details of the plea agreement were unavailable because the document was a sealed by court order.

Larrazolo was employed as a DPS trooper when Brownsville police and the FBI arrested him Nov. 21 last year in the parking lot of the Best Buy store in Brownsville as he loaded his car with cocaine. Brownsville police said he had just received the drugs from another man, who fled the scene. Police said they do not know the identity of the other man.

Brownsville police were conducting unrelated surveillance when they saw Larrazolo with suspicious suitcases that turned out to contain cocaine, according to police. Larrazolo, dressed in plains clothes, identified himself as a DPS trooper and displayed his credentials when arrested.

His attorney Noe Garza had tried at a previous hearing to get the former trooper’s bond reduced, but the judge denied that request.

During that same hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney James Lancaster asked that Larrazolo be held without bond because of fears he would flee to Mexico.

Federal authorities previously said the man’s relatives in Mexico were powerful and wealthy enough that he would be in a position to safely hide out and avoid prosecution.

Larrazolo has been in federal custody without bond since his November 2008 arrest.

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Laura B. Martinez is a reporter for The Brownsville Herald.