Area News

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,…

After months of delays, the federal government may dismiss lawsuits against Rio Grande Valley landowners and return property seized for the border wall. Assistant U.S. Attorney John A. Smith III — the deputy chief of the civil division for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas — briefed U.S. District Judge Randy…

The Peñitas City Council voted to keep the current property tax rate on Monday. Mayor Rodrigo “Rigo” Lopez and the City Council voted 3-0 to keep the property tax rate at 55.62 cents per $100 of taxable assessed valuation. “Obviously as the city grows and we develop, what we want is the new revenue from…

A smuggler who bribed two U.S. Border Patrol agents pleaded guilty Tuesday during a hearing at the federal courthouse in McAllen. Edwin Alejandro Castillo, 22, of Sullivan City pleaded guilty to bribery and smuggling charges Tuesday morning. Castillo and Jose Luis Duran, 25, of Mission bribed Border Patrol Agent Oberlin Cortez Peña Jr. to allow…