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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Archives 1995
Drug raid seizures put at over $120,000
By MARI MALDONADO
Staff Writer
PECOS, Nov. 24, 1995 - Three of seven persons arrested
Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning remain in Reeves
County Jail today, as the result of raids in Pecos and
Balmorhea that allegedly netted over $120,000 in heroin,
cocaine and marijuana.
Vehicles, drugs, weapons and money totalling over $60,000
were among the items seized from a home in Balmorhea on
Tuesday, after a search warrant was executed by local,
federal and area agents.
The drugs and other items seized resulted in the arrest of
six persons. A seventh was taken into custody a short time
later after the search of a second residence on the south
side of Pecos, in which another $70,000 in drugs and cash
were confiscated by law enforcement officials.
A two-month undercover investigation by the Permian Basin
Drug Task Force culminated at the home of Daniel Salcido
Dutchover in Balmorhea, when the drug task force entry team,
U.S. Border Patrol and PBDTF agents entered the residence at
10:10 p.m. on Tuesday, armed with a search warrant issued by
Balmorhea justice of the peace Joel Madrid.
Seized were 14 weapons, five pounds of marijuana, valued at
$17,000, one pound of cocaine, three vehicles and $1,000 in
U.S. currency. No street value for the cocaine was given,
but local Narcotics investigator Paul Deishler did mention
during an earlier interview that the street value of cocaine
is about $100 a gram, making the seized cocaine's street
value about $44,800.
The exact type of weapons seized were not listed by the task
force in their press release.
Arrested in the Balmorhea raid was Daniel Salcido Dutchover,
46, who lists an address of Route 1, Box 2B in Balmorhea,
and is the owner of Dutchover's Restaurant in downtown
Balmorhea. Also taken into custody were his son, Joseph
Daniel Dutchover, 21, Jaime Tarango, 24, Martin Hernandez
Garcia, 24, Hector Brito Pando, 43, and his wife, Yolando
Gonzalez Pando, 37.
As a result of the Balmorhea investigation, another warrant
was issued, this one by Reeves County Court-At-Law Judge Lee
Green, for the search and seizure of items at the Pando's
Pecos residence, located at 2301 Sandia Road in the Lindsey
Addition.
The second warrant search was conducted at 3:12 a.m.
Wednesday by the local entry team, composed of Reeves County
Sheriff's Department and Pecos Police Department personnel.
Seized from the Pando residence, and from an apartment in
the back yard, were about 25.5 ounces of black tar heroin,
worth over $60,000 on the street, and about $7,000 in
cocaine, along with two handguns, four weighing scales, a
cellular phone, and $3,310 in cash.
Anival Pando, 21, son of Hector and Yolando, was arrested
and charged with possession of cocaine with intent to
distribute. He is free on an $80,000 bond.
Suspect jailed after Cedar Street rampage
By MARI MALDONADO
Staff Writer
PECOS, Nov. 27, 1995 - A man who police said seemed to be on
a suicide mission wound up sending four other persons to
Reeves County Hospital on Sunday afternoon, following a
rampage down Cedar Street in which several vehicles were
struck while others were run off the road.
Micheal Ontiveros, 27, 1202 E. Sixth Street, was arrested
after having struck four vehicles and a building while on
his southbound rampage down Cedar Street. He was apprehended
after the 1981 Chevrolet Van he was driving skidded off the
road and ran into the ditch located behind the old Shell
Station on the south side on Interstate 20 at the Cedar
Street (U.S. 285) overpass.
The four victims of Ontiveros' destruction were treated and
released from hospital on Sunday, an RCH representative said
today.
Ontiveros, who did not require medical attention at the
hospital, was handcuffed and transported to Reeves County
Jail by Patrolman Billy Hull, who reported that Ontiveros
had a strong odor of alcohol on his breath and had bloodshot
eyes.
A DWI charge is still pending, as are several listed
offenses, including failing to stop and render aid, failing
to control the speed and driving on the wrong side of the
road.
Speaking for Pecos Police, Captain David Montgomery said
that these are currently listed as offenses due to the fact
that he has been charged with eight felony charges of
aggravated assault.
According to reports, police were first notified of the
incident about 2:30 p.m. They were called to the 200 block
of North Cedar Street, where Ontiveros had reportedly struck
the brick office building of Reeves County Commissioner
Bernardo Martinez.
Ontiveros then proceeded southbound, running several cars
off the road as he zig-zagged down Cedar Street.
In the 800 block of South Cedar Street, Ontiveros struck a
Chevrolet pickup, driven by 18-year-old Even Montez Mendoza.
Riding with Mendoza was Norma Valenzuela, 17, who complained
of head injuries, but refused treatment. Mendoza told police
that Ontiveros was driving on the wrong side of the road.
Two blocks further south, police investigated another
collision involving a vehicle of an unidentified model that
sustained damages to the left, rear fender after it was run
off the road. Neither of the two persons inside, identified
as Lucy Munoz Nunez, 24, and Francisco Franco, 29, were
reported injured. The vehicle was later towed by B&B Wrecker.
Jason Barnett, 23, Berle Barnett, 48, and Barbara Barnett,
47, all of New Mexico, were transported to RCH, treated and
released, after they too fell victim to Ontiveros' assault
when their 1991 Honda 4-door was struck and run off the road
on South Cedar.
Jason Barnett, the driver, reported that Ontiveros backed up
from the point of collision and drove away, heading further
south on Cedar, while one final vehicle, a 1990 Chevrolet
pickup driven by Kenneth Wade Roberts, 19, before running
the van off the road on the south side of the interstate.
Officials said Ontiveros has given no reason for his
behavior, but did say that he had been investigated the
night before on a domestic violence call.
Grant administrator hired by county
By ROSIE FLORES
PECOS, Nov. 27, 1995 - Reeves County Commissioners approved
the appointment of Nicholas Granado as Administrative
Assistant to Reeves County Judge Jimmy B. Galindo and
Kimberly Gonzales as the new judge's liaison during this
morning's regular commissioners court meeting.
Granado will also serve as Reeves County's Grant
Administrator at an annual salary of $16,000. He will handle
grant applications for state and federal funds sought by the
county.
Granado is a former Pecos resident, graduated in 1987 from
University of Texas at Austin with an accounting degree; was
financial analyst for Scott Paper Company in Philadelphia
for five years and went to law school at George Washington
University in Washington, D.C.
"I've done a lot of things since then, I did some legal work
for FDIC, GTE Corporation and now I've decided to come
home," said Granado, who will be taking his bar exam in
February.
Kimberly Gonzalez is currently the judge's secretary and
will be the liaison between the county judge and the Reeves
County Detention Center.
In other personnel changes, Bobby Jenkins was approved as a
full-fledged deputy at the same rate of pay. Jenkins passed
his state exam and will be carried as a deputy.
Five arrested for theft of car with kids inside
By PEGGY McCRACKEN
Staff Writer
PECOS, Nov. 27, 1995 - In a midnight ride that drew almost
as much attention as Paul Revere, two parolees and three
juveniles got themselves into deep trouble on Interstate 10
late Sunday night and early this morning.
Steve Baily, chief deputy for Jeff Davis County, said he got
a call at 12:01 a.m. today that a man had driven off from
the Cherry Creek Chevron on I-10, 45 miles southwest of
Pecos, in a car that had been left running with three young
children inside.
Reeves County Sheriff's deputies and Department of Public
Safety officers were also en route, and between them they
arrested the driver and his four companions -- who were in
yet another stolen car.
Baily said the parents of the three children, aged seven
months, five years and seven years, were traveling east from
Arizona, where they had spent Thanksgiving, to their home in
Rosenburg, near Houston, when they stopped at the Cherry
Creek service station.
While they were inside the station, Brian Casey Piper, 20 of
Ashland, Ore., jumped into their car and drove away.
The mother reportedly commandeered another car and followed,
although Baily would not comment on that aspect of the chase.
The father of the children placed the initial 911 call,
which was taken by the Pecos police dispatcher shortly after
11:30 p.m.
At one point the stolen car was reported to be at the
I-10/I-20 junction, four miles east of the station, but then
returned to Cherry Creek, where the mother regained custody
of her children and the seven officers took Piper and his
companions into custody.
It was unknown if Piper returned to the station on his own,
but radio reports at about 12:30 a.m. said the suspect was
being pinned inside the vehicle until a DPS officer arrived.
Christopher John Meyers, 20, of Redding, Calif., and Piper
are charged with unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. The
vehicle they were driving was reported stolen in California,
Baily said.
The three juveniles were in the Reeves County Juvenile
Detention Center this morning, while Piper and Meyers were
taken to the Presidio County Jail in Marfa.
Teen claims abuse by task force during raid
By PEGGY McCRACKEN and MARI MALDONADO
Staff Writers
PECOS, Nov. 28, 1995 - The teenage son of an alleged drug
dealer is claiming that the local narcotics entry team
abused him and other occupants of his parents' Pecos home
during a warrant search.
David Pando, 14, son of Yolanda and Hector Pando, was sound
asleep when police kicked in the door to his parents' home
to search for drugs early Wednesday morning.
The entry team came through a carport door of the house,
located at 2301 Sandia Road in the Lindsay Addition. The
warrant was obtained after Reeves County Narcotics
Investigator Clay McKinney presented evidence to a local
judge following a Tuesday night drug bust in Balmorhea by
the Permian Basin Drug Task Force in which his parents and
four other people were placed under arrest.
Pecos Narcotics Investigator Paul Deishler said Monday that
it is normal procedure to handcuff everyone found in a
residence during a raid, "until the area is secured," or
danger is no longer eminent. "It's for the officers' safety."
David Pando claims that Deishler held a gun to his head,
kicked him and bruised his elbow.
"They threatened my little brother and me if we didn't
cooperate they would take us away from our parents," David
Pando said. "They put the gun to my head and threw me on the
floor."
When Pando protested, Deishler told him he had no rights, he
said.
"What if that gun had gone off?" Pando asked. "After I told
him I was a minor, they told me they didn't care and said
some bad words."
Pando was thrown to the floor, said Deishler, and "I cuffed
him after another officer brought the cuffs." All was done
in the hallway, he said. He denied putting a gun to the
youth's head.
"I didn't know if he was 14 or 25," said Deishler, because
of the boy's size. He added that he did not use abusive
language toward the teenager.
Deishler said the boy was taken to the living room after he
was cuffed and then uncuffed after the entire area was
secure. "We execute all search warrants the same way. If we
had to do it all over again, we'd do it the same way."
McKinney said that a .22-caliber handgun was found
underneath the teenager's mattress.
Two more juveniles were in the house at the time of entry,
said Deishler, and neither were handcuffed.
Anival Pando, 21, David's brother, was apprehended in a
small apartment located behind the residence. McKinney said
he tried to shut the door on the officers and put up a fight.
"There was a struggle," said McKinney, adding Pando was
sprayed with pepper spray during his apprehension.
However, he denied David Pando's claim that officers sprayed
mace on his two-year-old niece as she lay in bed with her
mother in the apartment.
Pecos Enterprise
Mac McKinnon, Publisher
Division of Buckner News Alliance, Inc.
324 S. Cedar St., Pecos, TX 79772
Phone 915-445-5475, FAX 915-445-4321
e-mail news@pecos.net
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Copyright 1998 by Pecos Enterprise
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Pecos Enterprise