If you thought the Houston Police Department’s crime lab was the only facility in Space City with problems, think again: On Feb. 8, Jesus Hinojosa Jr., an analyst with the Texas Dept. of Public Safety’s crime lab in Houston, was sentenced to 45 years in prison for stealing a total of 26 kilos of cocaine from the agency’s Jersey City facility. Hinojosa worked for DPS for nearly five years and spent several of them stealing seized cocaine, according to DPS spokeswoman Tela Mange. Hinojosa was one of four men implicated in the scheme (but the only one working for DPS), reports the Houston Chronicle.
According to the daily, Tommy Norris, 34, accepted a plea deal for 25 years for his part in – I kid you not – “replacing the narcotics with lookalike bricks.” (How this trick worked – or didn’t, obviously – isn’t entirely clear, since Mange says that Norris was not a DPS employee.) Two other men were also sentenced to prison time for the stealing scheme: Everett Brumfield got 25 years for “engaging in organized criminal activity,” while coke buyer Roberto Reynoso was handed a whopping 45 years.
This article appears in February 15 • 2008.