FBI agents arrested a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper Thursday for allegedly assisting his father’s drug trafficking organization in Tennessee, which has ties to organized crime in Mexico.
A federal complaint filed Friday charges Pablo Talavera Jr., a U.S. citizen born in 1987, with conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute a controlled substance between May 26 and Sept. 16.
The complaint details allegations that Pablo Talavera Jr. escorted bulk cash and drugs and said that at one point he attended a family meeting to discuss his father’s drug-related kidnapping by the cartel in Reynosa.
That document says the FBI in McAllen and Jackson, Tennessee, initiated an investigation on Aug. 19, 2019, into his father, Pablo Talavera Sr., and identifies the group as the Talavera Drug Trafficking Organization (DTO).
“In the course of the investigation, FBI agents learned that Talavera, Sr. made representations that he had family members, both in corrections and with probation, that could assist him with obtaining information for the benefit of the Talavera DTO,” the complaint states. “Talavera Sr. also claimed to have an attorney friend who could get Talavera Sr. any information on any case for a fee of several thousand dollars.”
By July 21, the FBI began the investigation into Pablo Talavera Jr. after receiving information from a confidential source that his father was using the state trooper to assist the drug trafficking organization by providing sensitive law enforcement information and by escorting bulk cash and/or drug loads.
Texas Commission of Law Enforcement Records indicate he became a state trooper June 15, 2015, according to the complaint.
“Agents later conducted an operation in which Talavera Sr. discussed Talavera Jr.’s role in the Talavera DTO,” the complaint states. “The Talavera DTO trafficked in methamphetamine, cocaine, and heroin.”
The drug trafficking organization was led by the trooper’s father and his uncle, Elias S. Talavera, according to court records.
On May 26, during an FBI operation, the FBI said the uncle fronted a confidential source a kilogram of heroin and two kilograms of methamphetamine and agreed to accept a $38,000 payment from the confidential source at a future date, according to the complaint.
The FBI says in the complaint that it seized the drugs.
About a month after that, Border Patrol arrested the uncle on an immigration charge, according to the FBI.
After the arrest, Talavera Sr. began collecting on the drug debt on his brother’s behalf.
“The FBI conducted multiple operations in which Talavera Sr. collected approximately $7,000 (U.S. government funds) on behalf of the Talavera DTO,” the complaint states.
Federal authorities then arrested the trooper’s father on drug conspiracy charges, prompting another co-conspirator to begin collecting the drug proceeds from the organization, according to the complaint.
On July 30, the complaint says that the confidential source met with the trooper’s father in an operation to obtain the registration for a 2014 Silver Dodge Avenger 4-door sedan that was impounded by DPS in Live Oak and loaded with bulk cash, which the confidential source owed him.
“Talavera Sr. told (the confidential source) that Talavera Jr. could inquire into the details regarding the vehicle,” the complaint states.
The complaint alleges that on Aug. 8 the trooper’s father sent the confidential source a text message with the registration information for that vehicle written on a piece of paper, which federal authorities found after executing a search warrant on his phone.
Investigators say they have evidence that the trooper is the one who looked up the registration information and provided it to his father.
On Sept. 16, a cooperating defendant contacted the trooper and discussed the license plate number for the impounded vehicle loaded with bulk cash, according to the complaint.
“Talavera Jr. asked if the owner was trying to claim the money in the vehicle,” the complaint states. “Talavera Jr. told (the cooperating defendant) to tell the individual that they did not know anything.”
The FBI says the trooper acknowledged on two occasions that he looked up license plates for his father to obtain registration information for vehicles and later said he thought he was under surveillance.
“Talavera Jr. then told (the cooperating defendant) that sure enough Talavera Sr. was later arrested,” the complaint states.
That cooperating defendant also told investigators that in 2019, the trooper’s father was kidnapped by a drug cartel in Reynosa.
“Talavera family members gathered at the residence of Talavera Sr. and assessed Talavera Sr.’s kidnapping to be drug related. Present during the discussions was Talavera Jr.,” the complaint states. “Talavera Jr. would have known of Talavera Sr.’s involvement in drug trafficking.
“Talavera Jr. also told investigators during a 2019 interview that he was aware that the Talavera family in Mexico was involved in Organized Crime.”
Court records indicate the trooper made a first appearance in McAllen federal court Friday at 2 p.m. in front of U.S. Magistrate Judge J. Scott Hacker.
He is being temporarily held without bond pending a probable cause and detention hearing scheduled for Monday, records show.
