SOURCES SAY ARRESTED OFFICER PART OF MAJOR DRUG OPERATION

EDINBURG -- The local police officer who was arrested earlier this
week as part of a federal drug sting is the youngest brother in a
major family drug operation that dates back at least a decade,
several sources said Thursday.

Edinburg police officer Jesus Lorenzo Meza, 32, is the youngest of five.

The second oldest, [Name redacted], 41, is the head of the "Meza Drug
Trafficking Organization," an operation the U.S. District Attorney's
Office for the Southern District of Texas says worked years smuggling
drugs from Mexico to an area south of Mission, between Granjeno and Penitas.

[Name redacted], a McAllen resident also known as "El Ocho" or
"Chacho," worked with his brothers to smuggle, transport and store
large quantities of cocaine and marijuana for other drug trafficking
organizations, the U.S. Attorney's office said in a statement
Thursday. The indictment, which names the five brothers and four
other men, was sealed.

The three other brothers, all from Mission, are identified as [Name
redacted], 40; [Name redacted], 45; and [Name redacted], 35.

[Name redacted], of Mexico, was also charged in the indictment as a
smuggler who coordinates the movement of the drugs across the Rio
Grande. Also charged were Mission residents [Name redacted], 41;
[Name redacted], 24; and [Name redacted], 27.

All nine of the defendants are charged with conspiracy to import and
possession with intent to distribute more than five kilograms of
cocaine and more than 1,000 kilograms of marijuana. These type of
charges carry penalties as severe as life sentences and millions in
dollars of fines.

A grand jury returned a sealed indictment against them on Nov. 22. It
was later unsealed, according to the U.S. Attorney's office, and then
resealed again.

But Thursday the U.S. Attorney's office offered some details:

The alleged smuggling began in July 1998 and lasted about seven years.

Someone it identifies as only "El Aguila" in the indictment entered
into a contract with the Meza family to bring cocaine and marijuana
into the United States. The Meza family would then deliver the drugs
to other trafficking organizations in the United States.

The remaining eight federal felony counts accuse [Name redacted] and
unnamed others of possessing with intent to distribute hundreds of
pounds of marijuana on eight separate occasions between June 2001 and
November 2003. The largest shipment weighed 1,485 kilograms in October 2003.

The Drug Enforcement Administration led the sting arresting the Meza
brothers Wednesday. Officials there referred all calls about the
investigation Thursday to the U.S. Attorney's office.

Jesus Meza was arrested first at 4 a.m. Wednesday while working at
the Edinburg jail. DEA agents questioned him about the location of
four of his brothers, the layout of their houses and who would be
inside, according to local police. Edinburg and Mission police and
Texas Department of Public Safety troopers helped DEA agents conduct the raids.

Local officers did not know anything about the raids until minutes
before they were carried out.

Some speculated the charges against Jesus Meza may be part of a DEA
strategy to persuade him to give information against his brothers.

[Name redacted] and [Name redacted] were processed at Hidalgo County
jail Wednesday afternoon, according to jail records, and held on
cocaine charges.

It was unclear where the other seven men were held. They all made
first appearances Wednesday before a U.S. magistrate in McAllen.
They'll be arraigned at 9 a.m. Monday.