A U.S. Border Patrol agent told jurors Friday in federal court that she had been involved in the pursuit of a tractor she said was driven by Artis Ryan Miller.The pursuit started when Agent Judy Sepulveda’s canine unit alerted her to the presence of marijuana in a tractor Aug. 2, 2007, at the Border Patrol checkpoint on U.S. 59 near Freer, she said in court. Sepulveda identified Miller in court as the driver of the truck. An agent sent the truck to secondary inspection, but the driver drove off on the highway, Sepulveda said.
27/10/2007
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His voice breaking, the man who had helped bring drug traffickers to justice as a top official in the Laredo multi-agency Narcotics Task Force stood in federal court Friday, apologizing to the court and to his family for taking money from undercover federal agents who he believed were smuggling cocaine into the U.S. from Mexico.Julio Alfonso Lopez, the task force’s former deputy commander, stood in a black suit and cowboy boots next to his co-defendant, Meliton Valadez, who admitted to brokering the transactions.