Former Cameron County constable faces resentencing

BROWNSVILLE -- A former Cameron County constable and his former deputies face resentencing next month on drug trafficking convictions after a federal appeals court threw out their sentences.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found in December that U.S. District Judge Hilda G. Tagle erred in applying the sentencing guidelines for Jose Alfredo Jimenez, the former constable; former deputy constable Benito Villarreal and Jose A. Morales.

Jimenez had been sentenced to life in prison in 2004 for drug trafficking. Villarreal was given 11 years in prison and Morales received 30 years.

Resentencing is scheduled April 4 for Morales and Villarreal and April 11 for Jimenez, The Brownsville Herald reported for its Friday editions.

According to trial testimony, Morales smuggled the drugs from Mexico into the United States. The drugs were loaded into a constable's patrol vehicle at the Rio Grande before being taken to Jimenez's home. There, they were placed in another car and escorted by marked constable cars to a San Benito house for distribution.

Jimenez served as constable from 1988 through 2001, when he was convicted of state charges of aggravated assault and official oppression. He was convicted in 2003 of conspiracy to smuggle and distribute more than 2,200 pounds of marijuana from 2000 to 2002.

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 appeals court ruled. Contreras was sentenced to 49 years.