Border mayor called public menace, denied bail on cocaine charges
The mayor of the border town of Progreso, charged in a cocaine trafficking conspiracy, has been denied bail by a federal judge who said Gerardo “Jerry” Alanis posed a threat to the community.
Federal agents arrested the 31-yearold Alanis on March 18. He, his brother and other defendants are charged with conspiracy to possess more than 5 kilograms (11 pounds) of cocaine with intent to distribute. If convicted, each would face a minimum 10-year federal prison term without the possibility of parole. They also could be fined up to $10 million each.
At a court hearing in Brownsville last week, U.S. Magistrate Judge Karen Betancourt declined to set bail for Alanis, saying he posed a danger to the public and must stay behind bars, Rio Grande Valley news media reported. Alanis entered a plea of not guilty to the charges.
Betancourt said there was evidence the mayor “used a public school in the United States to traffic drugs.”
During the hearing, a federal agent testified that Alanis and his co-conspirators stored drugs at a middle school in Progreso, a town of 6,000 about 230 miles south of San Antonio.
“I will not grant a bond,” Betancourt said, according to ValleyCentral.com.
Alanis, his brother Frank and two other men are named in a March 5 federal grand jury indictment that accuses them of conspiring to distribute cocaine. Frank Alanis was arrested in October after he was charged in an earlier indictment. At the time, he was president of the Progreso Independent School District board and a Progreso assistant city manager.
A new, superseding indictment names Jerry Alanis as well as his brother. It cites three dates in 2020 and 2021 on which the defendants are accused of conspiring to distribute cocaine. The amounts involved ranged from 13.62 kilograms (30 pounds) to 26.36 kilograms (58 pounds), according to the indictment.
Progreso has a history of public corruption. In 2014, then-Mayor Omar Leonel Vela pleaded guilty in connection with a scheme to shake down businesses for hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for contracts with the city and the school district.
Federal prosecutors said the mayor’s father, Jose Vela, who was director of maintenance and transportation for the Progreso school district, dominated local government and the school board through his sons, Omar and school board President Michael Vela.
Together, the Velas demanded bribes and kickbacks from contractors, while Jose Vela, the family patriarch, manipulated school board members through rewards and retaliation, prosecutors said.
After one board member defied him, Jose Vela ordered associates to run the man’s car off the road and assault him, an FBI agent testified.