Special Investigation: Betraying the Badge

OFF THE WIRE
BY: Jordan Williams
Source: krgv.com

WESLACO - They're sworn to serve and protect. Police officers are accused of making their own rules.

Now, the Federal Bureau of Investigations is looking into the allegations of corruption and possible ties to cartels.

CHANNEL 5 NEWS requested hundreds of pages of police dispatch logs for the first half of 2010.

We learned Weslaco police aren't just patrolling their city; they're also in Harlingen, Donna, and San Juan.

A city hall insider tells CHANNEL 5 NEWS they leave the city sometimes to take care of personal business.

"They had the ability to keep things hidden from the public to the extent that they could do what they wanted and have little fear about it," the man says.

He says it all started with Corporal Baudelio Castillo. He served as the Assistant Police Chief from July 2009 to March 2010.

"Castillo did send police officers out of the jurisdiction of Weslaco in order to pursue his personal interest," says the insider.

The insider says those interests involved cartels. He says officers provided protection for people who had or have ties to the drug cartels.

These are claims CHANNEL 5 NEWS continues to investigate.

We got a copy of a Weslaco Internal Affairs investigation into the patrols.

In a sworn statement, an officer complained Castillo wanted his help on a special assignment.

He writes "Commissioner Rene Rodriguez Jr. had an issue with the Zetas... (they) were trying to abduct Commissioner Rene Rodriguez Jr.'s wife."

The officer says Castillo also asked another officer to "take a Weslaco Police unit outside Weslaco city limits to a safe house where the commissioner, his wife, and his family were being kept by Castillo."

CHANNEL 5 NEWS went straight to Castillo looking for answers.

"Well, I'm still employed with the city, and I really can't discuss any issue, sir. I apologize," says Castillo.

CHANNEL 5 NEWS also tried to speak with Rene Rodriguez Jr.

"I'm not involved in any kind of business like that. I'm a school teacher, and you know I would never get involved in anything like that. Ever," he says.

We went to Weslaco City Manager Leo Olivares and asked him about Baudelio Castillo.

"He is still a city employee. He is on administrative leave with pay. There is no action that's being taken against him," says Olivarez.

He wouldn't go into detail on the internal investigation, neither would the city's attorney Ric Navarro.

CHANNEL 5 NEWS did get an email Navarro sent the city manager. In it, he says "It is equally important that the Chief both seal and maintain this (investigation) as a privileged file investigation, and that the city make the commitment to protect it from disclosure against any and all efforts to get it."

The investigation remains open, we are trying to get the facts behind it.