Shortly after taking office as Sheriff of the Liberty County Sheriff’s Department in January of this year, Sheriff Bobby Rader left no doubt in his declaration to focus the resources of his department heavily upon illegal drug trafficking in and through Liberty County. A problem that has historically plagued most cities and counties that have major highways traversing their jurisdiction as does Liberty County. Due to this firm commitment, the months of February and March have been quite productive in this effort to make it very uncomfortable and costly for drug traffickers to use the highways through Liberty County to bring narcotics into our community where it is used to threaten the safety of our youth and other citizens of our county.
On February 11, 2013, a Liberty County Deputy stopped a speeding vehicle on Hwy. 90 at Hwy. 146 in Dayton after clocking the vehicle speeding through the "bottoms" between the cities of Liberty and Dayton. Subsequent investigation generated a search of the violator’s vehicle and $31,507 was found in a bag in the trunk, as well as a small amount of marijuana.
Larry Williams, age 33, was arrested and charged with "Money Laundering", a third degree Felony. Williams does have a record for drug violations. He was coming from Beaumont and going to Houston. Information from the Deputy is that Larry Williams has since posted bond and is released.
On March 6, 2013, at approximately 11:am, a Liberty County Deputy stopped a vehicle on Hwy. 59 near Washington Ave. in North Liberty County for a traffic violation. This vehicle was occupied by Jose Duran-Aguirre, age 23, Edwin Diaz-Vargas, age 24, and Kelley Reyes-Delgado, age 22. All three were from Nashville, TN and were enroute to Houston. The vehicle they were driving was pulling a U-Haul trailer. During this traffic stop, adequate suspicion was presented to the Deputy for a complete search of the vehicle and trailer. Inside the lining of two (2) different suitcases was found approximately $140,000 in cash. Another $20,000 was found inside a TV that had all the internal electronics removed to make room for the money.
All three were arrested and charged with "Money Laundering", a second degree Felony. The two male suspects, Duran-Aguirre and David-Vargas also had an Immigration Hold placed on them. A $100,000 bond was placed on each arrested individual.
DURAN-AGUIRRE DIAZ-VARGAS REYES-DELGADO
On March 13, 2013, on Hwy. 59 at Washington Ave. in the same approximate area as the above arrest, a Liberty County Deputy stopped a vehicle for two traffic violations and during this stop, the driver, Solomon Khan, age 40 years old, from Buffalo, NY, gave conflicting stories which prompted a search of his automobile. During this search, the Deputy found a false compartment that had been installed in the rear deck of this SUV and within this compartment was found over $189,000 in cash wrapped in black tape.
Solomon Khan was charged with "Money Laundering" a second degree Felony and placed in the Liberty County jail. He will face the Judge this for the setting of a bond.
Such efforts on the part of the Liberty County Sheriff’s Department will only increase over the coming weeks and months and make the illegal drug traffic much more costly for those dealing in such activity both in drug monies confiscated, as well as jail time for those arrested.
