Texas State Trooper Pablo Talavera Jr. is potentially facing drug trafficking charges for his alleged role in disseminating sensitive law enforcement information and protecting drug shipments for his father’s drug smuggling syndicate.
On November 1, 2021, Talavera Jr. appeared before a U.S. magistrate judge who set his bail bond at $75,000. This was Talavera Jr.’s second hearing. He has been in custody for the past two weeks.
A judge formally notified Talavera Jr. of his charges.
Talavera Jr.’s case started in August 2019, when the FBI began investigating his father, Pablo Talavera Sr., the alleged leader of a drug smuggling group that ran operations from South Texas to Jackson, Tennessee. According to a criminal complaint filed in federal court, this drug smuggling organization was connected to Mexican cartel groups.
Federal officials also claimed that the Talavera’s had other relatives connected to the smuggling organizations.
According to Ildefonso Ortiz and Brandon Darby of Breitbart News, authorities asserted that Talavera Sr. would mention how he had relatives in law enforcement who could provide the necessary information to conduct his smuggling operations.
Although the court documents did not specify which Mexican cartel the Talavera’s were involved with, it is public knowledge that cartel members in Reynosa kidnapped the trooper’s father back in 2019. As Ortiz and Darby noted, “ the only criminal organization that operates in Reynosa is the Gulf Cartel.”
The Gulf Cartel is one of the most prominent drug cartels in Mexico. According to Insight Crime, the Gulf Cartel is most active in Tamaulipas’ northeastern Mexican border state, with key operational bases in Matamoros, Nuevo Laredo, and Reynosa.
Per reports from authorities, Talavera Jr. would allegedly use government databases to provide his father with information concerning license plates and other sensitive data. Furthermore, FBI agents asserted Talavera would escort or track cash shipments heading south or drug shipments going northward.
This case is unique in how it deals with the alleged corrupt behavior of a state law enforcement official instead of a federal or local authority, which has usually been the case in South Texas.
