The mayor of a Texas border town resigned so he could be released on bond following his shocking arrest in a drug trafficking scheme that allegedly involved storing and packaging cocaine inside a local middle school.
Progreso Mayor Gerardo "Jerry" Alanis quit in an unsigned, undated letter sent to the city manager by his wife, the Valley Central website reported Friday.
The three-sentence letter said Alanis' resignation was "effective immediately" and thanked City Manager Javier Villalobos "and the City of Progreso for the opportunity to have served in this position for the past 10 years."
Alanis' move allowed him to post a $100,000 bond and be freed from custody under terms of an order that also required him to resign from office, Valley Central said.
A U.S. magistrate judge last month ordered Alanis held without bond as a "danger to the community" but he appealed the decision to a U.S. district judge who imposed conditions that also include electronic monitoring and no contact with the seven co-defendants in his case.
They include Alanis' brother, Progreso school board trustee Francisco "Frank" Alanis, and Joe Rosbel Salas Jr., a former Progreso school bus driver.
Homeland Security Investigations agents arrested Jerry Alanis last month on charges that he conspired to traffic more than 88 pounds of cocaine.
During a March 21 bond hearing, Border Patrol Agent Pablo Barrera testified that informants told the government that the mayor had stored and packaged drugs in a locked room at Dorothy Thompson Middle School.
A search of the school didn't turn up any drugs but agents found vacuum seal bags and boxes that matched a description provided by an informant, Barrera said.
Jerry Alanis' arrest was part of probe that began in 2020, when the Border Patrol caught Salas with about 30 pounds of cocaine.
Salas agreed to cooperate with authorities and pleaded guilty, according to Valley Central.
