Bandera deputy indicted in federal drug sweep

By Guillermo Contreras
gcontreras@express-news.net
Published 03:45 p.m., Tuesday, October 4, 2011

County deputy is accused of providing sensitive law enforcement information to the Texas Syndicate prison gang, whose members in Uvalde and Hondo were swept up last week in a federal racketeering investigation.

U.S. Attorney Robert Pitman announced the new details Tuesday, after his prosecutors in Del Rio obtained two indictments against more than 20 members or associates of the gang.

One alleges 11 members participated in a racketeering and drug-trafficking conspiracy that included four murders. The second indictment alleges 15 other people were involved in trafficking drugs — including Thomas Cuellar, a deputy with the Bandera County Sheriff's Office for about five years.

Besides conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine, Cuellar, 41, of Hondo, was also charged with unlawful use of a government computer for allegedly giving criminal background information and other sensitive law enforcement intelligence to the gang.

“He was not authorized to go into some of those databases,â€