Authorities in Texas say a fellow law enforcement officer is facing criminal charges related to allegations that he engaged in bribery and a drug-smuggling scheme.
According to the San Antonio Express News, 30-year-old Armando Trevino was a sergeant in the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office and had been with the agency for five years at the time of his arrest on Saturday.
Among the public corruption allegations against him was an ongoing plot to smuggle drugs — specifically heroin and the addiction-recovery drug Suboxone — into the county jail. Investigators believe his scheme spanned several years during his employment at the sheriff’s office.
Sheriff Javier Salazar held a news conference confirming the arrest, adding that Trevino had been a person of interest for some time.
Upon learning of an alleged plot to meet with a drug dealer earlier on the day of his arrest, authorities reportedly set up a surveillance team and caught him. He was reportedly still in uniform at the time of his arrest at a gas station.
The man he allegedly went to meet — a civilian identified as 33-year-old Rudy De La Cruz — is facing his own criminal charges after he was arrested.
“He’s very resourceful,” Salazar said of Trevino. “He went to great lengths to conceal his crime.”
The sheriff went on to say it was “pretty clear to everybody that he was on his way to work to smuggle these drugs into the Bexar County Jail, but we placed him under arrest before that could be completed.”
Following a string of arrests involving county authorities, Salazar reiterated his dedication to ridding his agency of individuals “totally disrespecting everybody that wears that badge.”
Both Salazar and De La Cruz are expected to be charged with felony counts including possession of a controlled substance, delivery of a controlled substance, and bribery, according to WOAI.
[Featured image: Armando Trevino, Bexar County Sheriff’s Office]
