McALLEN (AP) -- A federal jury on Friday convicted former Donna police
chief Marco Abel Partida on five counts of aiding and abetting drug
traffickers, extortion and conspiracy.

A co-defendant, former Donna police officer Gerardo Vigil, was found guilty
of extortion but cleared of a conspiracy charge.

An indictment handed up in November charged the two with using patrol
vehicles to escort what was believed to be hundreds of pounds of marijuana
through the city.

"This is not the end of the process," said Daniel Rodriguez, an assistant
U.S. attorney who prosecuted the case. "It's the beginning of what we're
trying to accomplish not only in the Valley, but in the whole southern
district of Texas. ... hold people, and especially public officials,
accountable."

Both face up to 40 years in prison and a $2 million fine when they are
sentenced on Thursday.

Partida, 33, and Vigil, 28, listened quietly while the verdict was read.
Partida appeared to be holding back tears.

Relatives of the two sobbed as soon as the judge and jury left the
courtroom. Both men were taken into custody and led away from the courtroom
in handcuffs.

The jury of six men and six women deliberated about 11 hours over two days.
Friday, they reconvened briefly to ask the court for a definition of
"reasonable doubt."

Luis Singleterry, Vigil's defense attorney, said he was pleased with the
lengthy deliberations and their outcome.

"Obviously, they saw problems with the way the investigation was
conducted," he said. "They (the government) were working a fine line
between being unethical and being legal."

He said the conspiracy charge was the more substantive of the two and that
he would fight a poorly argued extortion charge.

"I think we have a good record and I think there's a lot to appeal," he said.

The case stems from two apparent drug vehicle escorts for Rigoberto
Quintanilla, a convicted drug dealer turned government informant.

Audio and video tapes played during testimony captured Quintanilla,
Partida, and later Vigil as they worked the deals, escorted what they
thought were loads, and met to count out their earnings.

Partida took $500 to shadow Quintanilla in April 2001, when he was a Donna
police officer. The following November, after he had been named acting
chief, he took $2,200 to arrange for Vigil to escort a second vehicle.
Vigil took $800 for the trip.

Rodriguez said that the vehicles apparently acted as decoys against rival
drug gangs or traffic stops by other patrol officers.

Quintanilla and Partida had met while attending police academy in the early
1990s. They were longtime friends and had been best man at one another's
weddings.

After being indicted for trying to drive a tractor trailer carrying some
6,000 pounds of marijuana through a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint,
Quintanilla agreed to work with the Drug Enforcement Agency and the FBI.

Testimony showed Quintanilla told the Drug Enforcement Agency and FBI he
knew of police officers in the Rio Grande Valley who were willing to accept
bribes from drug dealers. He was dropped as source after committing a
separate offense and is currently serving a 132-month prison sentence.

Lawyers for both men maintained that the government orchestrated the crime
and therefore entrapped their clients.

Attorney Hector Villarreal, representing Partida, argued that the
government wrongly used a criminal and acted criminally itself by
pressuring the officers into an apparent drug transaction.

"I think it's a sad day when the government can get away with manufacturing
and committing crimes," he said. "To punish criminals is one thing, but who
punishes the government?"