Sentences handed down for family of drug smugglers

McALLEN — Two brothers accused of helping a former McAllen police officer manage a “small army” of drug traffickers were each sentenced Tuesday to more than 17 years in federal prison.

Ruben and Juan Antonio Meza often filled in for their sibling — ex-officer Francisco Meza-Rojas — in running day-to-day operations for their family narcotics smuggling organization, prosecutors said.

Their family business is believed to have moved more than 7 tons of marijuana and 1,000 pounds of cocaine into the United States from 1998 to 2006.

“The brothers were almost always there,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Toni Treviño said.

The Meza family drug smuggling organization drew the attention of investigators not only for the high quantity of drugs it brought into the country each year but also because of the day jobs held by many of its high-ranking members.

Its leader — Meza-Rojas, 44 — had worked for the McAllen Police Department up until 1992. His brother — 35-year-old Jesus Lorenzo Meza — was arrested in April 2006 on the job as an Edinburg police officer and had only recently returned from military service before becoming involved in drug trafficking, Treviño said Tuesday.

Despite these careers in public service, the Mezas became one of the predominant smuggling families in western Hidalgo County, according to a nine-count federal indictment handed down against them in 2006.

For eight years, they moved as many as three drug loads a week across the Rio Grande near Peñitas using tubes, rafts and boats and marshaled a staff of dozens of lookouts, surveillance experts and drivers — who often responded aggressively to law enforcement efforts to intercept their cargo.

Several co-defendants who were also sentenced Tuesday admitted to trying to run police officers off the road for attempting to stop vehicles carrying their drugs.

During Tuesday’s court hearing, attorneys for both 43-year-old Ruben and 38-year-old Juan Antonio Meza maintained that while their clients had helped Meza-Rojas from time to time, they should not be held responsible for all of the organization’s drug loads.

U.S. District Judge Randy Crane rejected that argument, saying each of the six indicted brothers share responsibility for their organization’s smuggling operations.

“There was an army — a battalion — who worked for the Meza drug trafficking organization, but the central corps remained the same,” he said. “There were different loads and different people, but it was all the same conspiracy.”

Jesus Lorenzo Meza, the former Edinburg officer, was sentenced last year to two years in prison.

Another brother — Miguel Hernandez-Rojas — is scheduled to receive his punishment Thursday, while one more — Osvaldo Meza — remains at large.

Meza-Rojas managed to escape from the East Hidalgo County Detention Center in La Villa in 2006 along with five other inmates and eluded re-capture until late last year.

He remains in custody in Mexico pending possible extradition to face charges in the United States.

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Jeremy Roebuck covers courts and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4437.