Three Texas toughs have been slapped with hefty prison sentences for a bungled home invasion that ended with one man dead, U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani announced. The tragic shootout, linked to a drug-stealing scheme, occurred back in 2012 but the gavel only came down on the trio recently in a McAllen federal court.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of Texas, Juan Antonio Moreno, 41, Jesse Joe Mata, 32, and Alberto Vela, 43, admitted to conspiring to snatch over 100 kilograms of marijuana, and to firing a gun during the crime. The deadly drama unfolded after Moreno tapped members from the notorious Tri-City Bombers to break into the Edinburg pad to pilfer the pot stash they believed was inside, carrying out the fatal heist almost a dozen years ago. When the homeowner put up a fight, guns blazed and he was killed while Vela caught a bullet.
In a statement, Hamdani laid it on the line: "For most of us, our homes are our sanctuaries. We could never imagine, not for one moment, armed gang members breaking down doors and shooting us to death in such a sacred place." He decried the "dirty, greedy and violent business of drug trafficking" as an evil with no placeholders for redemption or mercy.
Special Agent in Charge Aaron Tapp of the FBI's San Antonio Field Office echoed Hamdani's sentiment. He praised the collaboration between agencies saying, "Our citizens deserve to feel safe in their homes, and the violent acts committed by the defendants in this case deprive everyone in community of that right."
The stern hand of justice doled out 235 months to Moreno, while Mata received 212 months behind bars. Vela, shot during the incident, got a lighter sentence of 12 years followed by three years of supervised release – a small mercy compared to the permanent loss faced by the homeowner's family. The case was a combined effort, spearheaded by the FBI-led OCDETF alongside local Texas law enforcement partners, and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Anibal J. Alaniz and Casey N. MacDonald.
