Area News

Amid concern about a letter Mayor Armando “Doc” O’caña sent to his counterpart in Mazatlan, Mexico, the Mission City Council voted Monday to create a formal system for official communication. The City Council asked City Attorney Gus Martinez to create a system for reviewing and approving official communication. “Essentially, what that means is: That if…

The Mission Police Department received a strange call last month: Someone driving a city dump truck appeared to be drunk. A police officer found the white Peterbilt dump truck in an alley near the intersection of Helen Avenue and Brock Street at 2 p.m. on Aug. 23. “I approached the dump truck via driver’s side…

The La Joya City Council abruptly fired City Manager Jacqueline Bazan on Tuesday. Former Mayor Jose A. “Fito” Salinas and the City Council hired Bazan in 2019. Her two-year employment contract expired in July. “Two years have come and gone,” said Mayor Isidro Casanova, who replaced Fito Salinas in December 2019. “Opportunities were given. And…

The Agua Special Utility District hired a new general manager on Monday. After meeting with three applicants, the utility board selected Mission Public Works Director Roberto J. Salinas for the job. “He was the most qualified,” said utility board President Homer Tijerina. The utility board agreed — and voted 6-0 to make Salinas the general…

A federal judge ruled Monday that a man accused of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a 13-year-old McAllen girl is competent to stand trial. Brandon Galvez, 22, of Chalmette, Louisiana, met the girl on Snapchat during June 2020, according to McAllen Municipal Court records. Less than two weeks after they met, Galvez traveled to Texas —…

Editor’s Note: The print edition of this story incorrectly stated when former La Joya Mayor Jose A. “Fito” Salinas is scheduled for sentencing. Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 28, 2021.   Former La Joya Mayor Fito Salinas, who pleaded guilty to a federal wire fraud charge, is eligible for probation, according to a motion filed…

A federal judge sentenced a former medical assistant to two-and-half years in prison Thursday for smuggling marijuana into the East Hidalgo Detention Center. U.S. District Judge Micaela Alvarez sentenced Veronica Ortega, 45, of McAllen to 30 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. In exchange for cash, Ortega provided inmates with marijuana.…

Homeland Security Investigations caught an Alabama National Guard soldier with a kilogram of cocaine on Monday, according to the criminal complaint against him. Agents with Homeland Security Investigations, a division of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, arrested Derrick Terelle Sankey, 21, of Montgomery, Alabama, after conducting an undercover operation. Sankey and other Alabama National Guard…

A member of the Agua Special Utility District board of directors may be removed after failing to attend meetings for the past eight months. Director Adolfo Arriaga of La Joya hasn’t attended a utility board meeting since January, when he left for the Texas Department of Public Safety Academy in Austin. Arriaga missed six board…

In 2016, when a grand jury indicted him on drug trafficking charges, Rigoberto Beltran made a choice. Rigoberto, 38, of McAllen and his brothers — Ramiro, Rodolfo and Raul — smuggled marijuana. The Beltran family business, though, had become the target of a federal investigation. Faced with the prospect of spending years in federal prison,…