Starr County is located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census,its population was 65,920. Its county seat is Rio Grande City. The county was created in 1848. It is named for James Harper Starr,who served as secretary of the treasury of the Republic of Texas.
Juan Raul Garza was an American murderer and drug lord who was executed by the United States federal government for three drug-related murders. In addition,Garza was linked to at least five other drug-related murders in Texas and Mexico. He was executed in 2001,eight days after Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.
The United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas is the federal district court with jurisdiction over the southeastern part of Texas. The court's headquarters is in Houston,Texas and has six additional locations in the district.
Jamiel "Jimmy" Alexander Chagra was an American drug trafficker,carpet salesman and professional gambler. He was implicated in the May 1979 assassination of United States District Judge John H. Wood Jr. in San Antonio,Texas.
Mier,also known as El Paso del Cántaro,is a city in Mier Municipality in Tamaulipas,located in northern Mexico near the Rio Grande,just south of Falcon Dam. It is 90 miles (140 km) northeast of Monterrey on Mexican Federal Highway 2.
Filemón BartoloméVela was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas.
Alfredo Beltrán Leyva,commonly referred to by his alias El Mochomo,is a Mexican convicted drug lord and former leader of the Beltrán-Leyva Cartel,a drug trafficking organization. He was one of Mexico's most-wanted drug lords. Beltrán Leyva was responsible for smuggling multi-ton shipments of cocaine and methamphetamine to the United States from Mexico and South America between the 1990s and 2000s. He worked alongside his brothers Héctor,Carlos,and Arturo.
Rafael Cárdenas Vela is a former Mexican drug lord and high-ranking lieutenant of the Gulf Cartel. He is the nephew of Antonio and Osiel Cárdenas Guillén,two men who at one time led the criminal organization.
JoséTreviño Morales is a Mexican former money launderer for Los Zetas,a Mexican criminal organization. He is the brother of the former Zetas leaders Omar Treviño Morales and Miguel Treviño Morales. In 2008,Treviño funded a horserace operation in Oklahoma with money he made through money laundering. Nonetheless,he was arrested by the FBI along with seven others in a horse-breeding ranch in Lexington,Oklahoma on 12 June 2012. He was found guilty of money laundering in May 2013,and was sentenced to 20 years in prison by a U.S. federal court in September of that same year.
The infighting in the Gulf Cartel refers to a series of confrontations between the Metros and the Rojos,two factions within Gulf Cartel that engaged in a power struggle directly after the death of the drug lord Samuel Flores Borrego in September 2011. The infighting has lasted through 2013,although the Metros have gained the advantage and regained control of the major cities controlled by the cartel when it was essentially one organization.
The Cowboy mafia was the nickname for a group of marijuana smugglers who operated in the United States during the 1970s. At the time they were reportedly the most prolific drug smugglers in Texas. The nickname was given to the group by the Dallas media,as the capture and trial of the group created significant media coverage throughout Texas.
The Hidalgo County Sheriff's Office (HCSO) is a local law enforcement agency serving the nearly one million residents of Hidalgo County,Texas,United States. It is headquartered in Edinburg,Texas,the county seat of Hidalgo County.
J.E. "Eddie" Guerra is the Sheriff of Hidalgo County,Texas. The Hidalgo County Sheriff's Office (HCSO) is a local law enforcement agency serving the over one million citizens of Hidalgo County,Texas,United States. On April 2,2014,the Hidalgo County Commissioners Court appointed J.E. "Eddie" Guerra,who was Hidalgo County Precinct 4 Constable at the time,to replace Guadalupe Treviño,who resigned on March 28,2014,saying both internal and external pressure started building on December 12,2012,when the Panama Unit scandal broke. On November 4,2014,Sheriff Eddie Guerra was elected by a majority of voters to the post he had held for seven months and the victory kept him in office until 2016,since former Sheriff Treviño was in the second of a four-year term. In 2016,he was up for re-election to a full term.
Irene Garza was an American schoolteacher and beauty queen whose death was the subject of investigation for several decades. She was last seen alive on April 16,1960,when she went to confession at a church in McAllen,Texas. She was reported missing the following morning. Following the largest volunteer search to that date in the Rio Grande Valley,Garza's body was discovered in a canal on April 21. An autopsy concluded that she had been sexually assaulted before being killed;the cause of death was suffocation.
JoséManuel Garza Rendón,also known as La Brocha,is a Mexican convicted drug lord and former high-ranking member of the Gulf Cartel,a criminal group based in Tamaulipas,Mexico. In 1979,he was convicted of drug-related charges in the U.S. Back in Mexico in 1985,Garza Rendón joined the Federal Judicial Police;released in 1989,he joined the Gulf Cartel. His roles in the cartel were managing drug shipments from the U.S. to Mexico and serving as bodyguard to former kingpin Osiel Cárdenas Guillén.
Carlos Landín Martínez,also known as El Puma,was a Mexican former police chief and convicted drug lord. He was a high-ranking member of the Gulf Cartel,a criminal group based in Tamaulipas,Mexico,and worked as the second-in-command of the cartel in Reynosa from 2005 to 2007. Landín Martínez was a trusted enforcer of the kingpin Gregorio Sauceda Gamboa. Among his responsibilities included managing international drug trafficking shipments from Tamaulipas to Texas,collecting taxes from independent traffickers who operated in his turf,and managing money laundering operations. Landín Martínez was also a commander in the Tamaulipas State Police,where he headed the homicide task-force. According to a witness who testified against him in court,Landín Martínez worked for the Gulf Cartel while still employed by the state police.
Gilberto Lerma Plata is a Mexican former police chief and convicted drug lord. He began his career in 1993 as a police officer in the Tamaulipas State Police when his cousin Manuel Cavazos Lerma became Governor of Tamaulipas. Lerma Plata was eventually promoted to police commander in Reynosa and Miguel Alemán. In the late 1990s,while still working for the police,Lerma Plata joined the Gulf Cartel,a criminal group based in Tamaulipas,for whom he facilitated drug trafficking operations from Mexico to the US,coordinated cash smuggling operations,and aided in the procurement of firearms.
Idalia Ramos Rangel is a Mexican business owner and suspected drug lord. According to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI),she is a high-ranking member of the Gulf Cartel,a criminal group based in Tamaulipas,Mexico. In the cartel,Ramos Rangel is known by her aliases Big Momma and La Tía. She has reportedly been responsible for coordinating international drug trafficking shipments from Mexico to the United States since the mid-1980s. Her role in organized crime is unusual,as a woman active in the male-dominated Mexican drug trafficking industry over several decades.
María Antonieta Rodríguez Mata is a Mexican former police officer and convicted drug lord. She worked as a Tamaulipas State Police officer from 1992 to 1996. During her tenure in the police,she was subject to several investigations by the National Human Rights Commission for alleged human rights violations. In the late 1990s,she became involved with the Gulf Cartel,a criminal group based in Tamaulipas,Mexico,after being hired to work under the kingpin Osiel Cárdenas Guillén. She was responsible for coordinating drug trafficking shipments from Colombia,Guatemala,and Mexico to the U.S. The drugs were often guarded by corrupt policemen and smuggled overland through Reynosa and McAllen,Texas. Her role in organized crime is unusual since she held a leadership role in the male-dominated Mexican drug trafficking industry.
Ediel López Falcón,also known as La Muela or Metro 5,is a Mexican convicted drug lord and former high-ranking member of the Gulf Cartel,a criminal group based in Tamaulipas,Mexico. He was the regional boss of Miguel Alemán and helped coordinate international drug trafficking shipments from South and Central America to Mexico and the U.S. His roles in the cartel were also to coordinate oil theft operations. In 2012,he was indicted by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia for drug trafficking activities. After fleeing Mexico to avoid gang-related violence,López Falcón was arrested in Texas during a sting operation in 2013. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 18 years in prison in 2015. He is currently imprisoned at the Federal Correctional Institution,Fort Dix in New Jersey. His expected release date is in 2029.
