HOUSTON – Federal agents say for years members of the Zetas drug cartel paid a veteran Houston police officer to supply them with guns, bulletproof vests, cars and police intelligence.
Testimony came Monday during a bond hearing for officer Noe Juarez. Juarez was arrested last week after he was indicted in New Orleans for conspiracy to distribute 5 kilos or more of cocaine.
Juarez is a 20-year veteran of the Houston Police Department, and in 2009 was named as one of the Houston Police Officers Union's Officers of the Year for his work with the Central Division Tactical Unit.
FBI agent Jose Garcia introduced video secretly recorded two years later showing Juarez, in uniform, delivering two assault rifles to a government informant he allegedly assumed was a major drug trafficker. Garcia said Juarez received a total of $4,500 for the guns and was told they were being shipped to Mexico. Garcia said Juarez later supplied ammunition, magazines and pepper spray.
In June and July 2011, Garcia testified that the informant asked Juarez to run two license plate numbers through the HPD database to locate someone the informant claimed owed $800,000 in drug money. Garcia said Juarez supplied a name and address from one of the plates in exchange for $500.
In subsequent questioning by a FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration agents, Juarez denied providing the information.
DEA special agent Larry Johnson testified Juarez was connected to cartel members Efrain and Sergio Grimaldo. Beginning in 2005, Johnson said Juarez began acting as a "straw buyer" to purchase automobiles for the brothers or their employees.
Juarez allegedly bought four automobiles, and insured two others on the Grimaldo's behalf and was in turn paid by them.
In September 2014, Efrain Grimaldo was sentenced to 33 years in federal prison by a New Orleans judge after being found guilty of smuggling 1,640 kilograms of cocaine that was distributed in Jackson, Mississippi, Pensacola, Florida, New York City, Detroit, Baltimore, Maryland, Dover, Delaware and Houma, Louisiana
In Houma, prosecutors say the Grimialdos were the primary suppliers of cocaine to a violent street gang named "Up Da Bayou Boys" (UBB).
Sergio Grimaldo was indicted along with Juarez and is awaiting trial on the charge of conspiracy to distribute cocaine.
In the bond hearing Monday, Juarez's attorney George Murphy argued that the former officer of the year did not know he was doing business with drug dealers.
"He had no idea these people were associated with any drug activity at all and if he had know he wouldn't have done it," Murphy said.
Juarez' sister testified Juarez was a former Marine and a veteran of the Gulf War. She said she and his family is prepared to provide money to post a bond.
Judge Beverly Stacey ruled that Juarez is entitled to be released on $50,000 bond on the condition he wear an electronic monitor, but Stacey stayed her ruling at the request of prosecutors who are appealing it to the presiding judge in New Orleans.