'Project Deliverance' Nets Drugs, Cash, Cop

Federal law enforcement officials said they have arrested more than 2,200 people as part of a 22-month multi-agency drug trafficking investigation – including the arrest of a Valley area police chief.

The coordinated drug sting case, named "Project Deliverance," ended with arrests in at least 18 states, including dozens of arrests in Texas. The cross-border operation targeted Mexican cartels, and those doing business with them to bring drugs across into the U.S. and to export weapons and money back into Mexico. In all, federal law enforcement officials say they have seized roughly $154 million in currency, 69 tons of pot, 2.5 tons of cocaine, 1,410 pounds of heroin, and 1,262 pounds of methamphetamine.

Among the arrests in Texas was that of Sullivan City police Chief Hernan Guerra who has been charged along with at least a dozen others of conspiracy to distribute large amounts of pot. Guerra, who has been chief of the small Hidalgo Co. community since 2004, was detained just before the FBI raided his office on Wednesday morning. (Interestingly, notes the Brownsville Herald, this is the second time in as many years that a Valley top-cop has been popped for dealing with drug cartels. In 2008, former Staff Co. Sheriff Reymundo Guerra – no relation – was arrested as part of a similar drug operation, the paper reports.)