Cops Facing Slots Corruption Charges

Two Laredo police officers have been arrested on a 53-count indictment by a Houston based federal grand jury. The veteran officers are part of a slots sting that Laredo has been working on, obviously not expecting to catch two of their brothers in the process. Lt. Eloy Rodriguez and Sgt. Alfonso Santos went before the magistrate on Monday, and are being held in federal custody without bail.

They have been accused of accepting bribes, public corruption, drug distribution, etc, as it pertains to illegal slots and gambling interests. They were named by Rosalio Reta, 17, who was an American assassin for a Mexican drug cartel, who had pled guilty to murder. He has allegedly corroborated other evidence against the officers in the illegal slots scheme.

Laredo has plenty of slots rooms around, and allegedly the officers took bribes to protect these slots rooms from the police. They assisted the slots rooms in continuing to operate, and shared law enforcement information with the owners of said slots rooms. They also stole slots parts of confiscated machines, and distributed cocaine. Slots are obviously illegal in Laredo, and supposedly after a slots bust in 2003, the officers hooked up with the owners and had been assisting them in running their illegal slots business ever since.

The officers face up to 20 years in prison as well as $250,000 in fines for each count of public corruption Their attorneys say that they were surprised by the arrests and that they will “answer to each and every allegation.” However, they have seemingly already been tried by their peers, as several officers said that they are an embarrassment to themselves and the uniform.
 

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