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Illegals arrested following brawl

By JoeMax Tomlin/Reporter Staff Writer
Two men were arrested Wednesday morning after a drunken brawl on F.M. 419 outside of Sweetwater.

According to Mark Taylor, criminal investigator for the Nolan County Sheriff's Office, the two Hispanic men, Anthony Ibarra, 31, of Haltom City, and Richard Gallego, 29, of Fort Worth, were reported by witnesses to have been fighting in the 1300 block of F.M. 419 just off the road.

Taylor, an arresting officer, was the first to respond to the scene, while fellow criminal investigator David McDonald soon followed.

According to Taylor, the men had been traveling together, and evidently entered into an argument, eventually pulling over along the eastside of F.M. 419 to “settle the dispute� via a fistfight.

After arriving on the scene and detaining a semi-resistant and “obviously drunk� Gallego, Taylor noticed a bleeding cut above the right eye of Gallego, Taylor said.

After restraining and patting down the man, Taylor held him while keeping a visual on Ibarra who had exited the vehicle and was ordered to stop, and show his hands. McDonald soon arrived on the scene to assist Taylor by detaining Ibarra.

Enough evidence was presented against the two men, along with a partially empty bottle of Bacardi rum in the vehicle, to arrest the men for public intoxication. After further investigation, it was found that both men, originally from Mexico, were in the United States illegally.

Gallego received three stitches for his wound and both men were incarcerated in the Nolan County Jail.

While the vehicle was picked up by a local wrecker service, investigators learned the truck was not a registered to either man. Both Gallego and Ibarra were later picked up by immigration agents for the Border Patrol on illegal entry charges.

It is unknown what brought on the dispute between the two men, but it was the red flag that got them noticed my local witnesses, causing the arrest and subsequent deportation, Taylor said.