McALLEN — A former U.S. Border Patrol found guilty of threatening a federal agent will be sentenced in June, according to court documents.
A little more than a month after a federal jury found Daniel Polanco guilty of influencing a federal official by threat, the Court reset Polanco’s sentencing hearing to June, after it was originally set for May 22, records show.
During a brief two-day trial in early March, jurors found Polanco was guilty of threatening a Homeland Security Investigations agent at a court hearing in Houston in early October 2019, records show.
Polanco was in court in October in Houston, just having been convicted in July on an unrelated drug conspiracy case from an earlier investigation into Polanco and several other corrupt law enforcement officers.
His co-defendant in that case, Hector Beltran, a former Edinburg police officer, was also convicted in July and was sentenced to a 10-year federal prison sentence.
According to an Oct. 7 filing, Polanco allegedly threatened a U.S. Department of Homeland Security Investigations agent at the conclusion of a scheduled court hearing related to Polanco’s July conviction in a drug trafficking case.
Polanco, of Edinburg, was in Houston on Oct. 3, 2019 for a hearing related to the aforementioned drug trafficking case.
The 38-year-old ex-Border Patrol agent was in Houston to argue for a motion for a new trial that the court subsequently denied.
After the hearing, Polanco was headed toward the exit when he turned to an HSI agent, who had been present during the jury trial in July, and made comments that the agent took as a threat.
The complaint read that Polanco walked toward the special agent, “who was sitting in the last row of the courtroom closest to the exit,” following U.S. District Judge Keith P. Ellision concluding the hearing.
“When (Polanco) was feet away from (the special agent), he stopped, pointed at (the agent) and said: ‘This is gonna come back to you m——————. You’ll see,’” the complaint further read. “(Polanco’s) tone was angry and menacing. (Polanco) then opened the exit door and walked out of the courtroom.”
The HSI agent, according to the complaint, felt “alarmed, concerned, and threatened,” by Polanco’s statement and gesture.
At the time of his indictment in May 2016, Polanco had been an agent for nine years.
Operation Blue Shame was also recently responsible for putting former La Joya Police Chief Geovani Hernandez behind bars.
Polanco is scheduled for sentencing June 17, in Houston before U.S. District Judge Ellison.
