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Federal prosecutors allege that Progreso’s mayor stored and packaged drugs at the middle school he worked at and went into hiding after his brother was arrested last year for drug trafficking.
Those details are included in an order for detention pending trial for Gerardo Alanis, who was arrested on Monday on charges of possession with intent to distribute cocaine, possession with the intent to distribute approximately 58 pounds of cocaine and possession with the intent to distribute approximately 30 pounds of cocaine.
His brother, Progreso Independent School District board president Francisco Javier Alanis is also charged in the case and was arrested in October 2023.
On Thursday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Karen Betancourt in Brownsville found there were no conditions or combination of conditions of release that would ensure the safety of the community after Gerardo Alanis appeared for a detention hearing.
The court found “packaging materials for narcotics were found in the defendant’s workspace at the Progreso Independent School District Campus where he is employed in October of 2023.”
That packaging material is consistent with the description of packaging materials used to package narcotics at the school as described by people cooperating with the government, the order stated.
“Cooperating individuals stated the defendant was storing narcotics at the public middle school where he worked in Progreso, Texas,” the order stated. “Cooperating individuals stated the defendant was re-packaging narcotics at the public middle school where he worked in Progreso, Texas.”
The court also found that Gerardo Alanis went into hiding after his brother’s arrest in October 2023.
“The defendant’s school campus, even though the defendant was seen in person by law enforcement at the school campus where he worked on the day law enforcement searched and found narcotics packaging materials in his work area, told law enforcement that the defendant was not at school because he was out for the day attending a funeral, contrary to both the defendant being seen at the school and the defendant being followed by law enforcement around town the day of the search of his workplace in October of 2023,” the order stated.
The indictment alleges that the brothers smuggled about 58 pounds of cocaine on June 13, 2020 and another 30 pounds of cocaine on Aug. 8, 2020.
They are also accused of conspiring to smuggle cocaine from January 2020 to March 20, 2022.
