SECOND ELSA CITY POLICE OFFICER INDICTED FOR ACCEPTING MONEY TO PROTECT DRUG LOAD

    MCALLEN, TX – In a separate and unrelated case, a second Elsa City Police Officer was indicted for accepting bribes to provide protection for drug loads, United States Attorney Don DeGabrielle announced today.

Ismael Gomez, 27, of Elsa, Texas, and formerly an Elsa City Police Officer, is accused in a one count indictment of receiving approximately $2,500 to use his official position on April 24, 2006, to protect a vehicle he believed to be transporting 10 kilograms of cocaine. The indictment was returned under seal by a McAllen grand jury on October 24, 2006. The indictment was unsealed today, November 1, 2006, after Gomez voluntarily surrendered himself into the custody of special agents of Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Gomez appeared before a United States Magistrate Judge in McAllen this morning and was ordered held without bond pending a hearing set for 9:00 a.m. on Monday, November 6, 2006.

Gomez is the second former Elsa City Police officer charged in recent months with receiving money to provide protection for vehicles represented to be transporting contraband. Herman Carr, 45, of Donna, Texas, was indicted in a separate and unrelated case in September 2006 for using his official position as an officer of the Elsa City Police Department to protect a vehicle loaded with narcotics in exchange for money. In that case, Carr was accused of receiving approximately $5,000 in exchange for using his position as a police officer to provide protection for a vehicle he believed to be transporting five kilograms of cocaine on August 1, 2006. Carr is pending trial.

Gomez’s prosecution is the result of an ongoing investigation being conducted by the McAllen office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant United States Attorneys Jim McAlister of the Houston Division and Jimmy Leo of the McAllen Division are prosecuting the case.

An indictment is a formal accusation of criminal conduct, not evidence. A defendant is presumed innocent unless and until convicted through due process of law.

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