Blog dedicated to reporting on Mexican drug cartels
on the border line between the US and Mexico
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Saturday, November 7, 2015

Border agent charged with capital murder in decapitation death believed to be tied to a cartel

A Border Patrol agent with alleged ties to a Mexican drug cartel has been arrested in connection with the beheading of a Honduran man in March.

Joel Luna, 30, was taken from his Hebbronville home on a charge of possession of a controlled substance Thursday by Cameron County sheriff’s deputies, Texas Rangers and federal agents.

On Friday morning, Luna, who had been transferred to Cameron County, was charged with capital murder, engaging in organized criminal activity and tampering with physical evidence. He is being held without bail.


Joel Luna
The investigation into Luna, an agent for the past six years assigned to a checkpoint in Hebbronville, began shortly after the June arrest of four men who would later be charged with capital murder in the death of Franklin Rodriguez Palacios Paz of Honduras.

At the time, Cameron County Sheriff Omar Lucio declined to comment on the possible involvement of organized crime in Mexico. But on Friday, he said investigators now believe that the case is connected to a drug cartel across the border.

Palacios was reported missing days before his headless body was pulled from the Laguna Madre off South Padre Island by a fisherman. His chest had been mutilated with a sharp object, suggestive of organized crime violence in Mexico, officials said.

Palacios had a criminal history, including drug- and immigration-related arrests, and he had been detained by the Border Patrol for being in the country illegally. His common-law wife said he was in the country unlawfully at the time of his death. His remains were identified by his fingerprints in a federal database. His head has not been found.

Fernando Luna Rodriguez
In the course of the investigation, sheriff’s deputies found that Palacios has been killed in Edinburg, where he and four of the men who stand accused of ending his life worked in Veteran’s Tire Shop.

It was also revealed that two of the men charged in the case, Fernando Luna Rodriguez and Eduardo Luna Rodriguez, are brothers of Joel Luna.

Through interviews with the accused, investigators learned of a safe that Joel Luna allegedly had hidden in the home of his mother-in-law in San Juan. Stashed in the safe was a kilogram of cocaine, an undisclosed amount of methamphetamine, two handguns and nearly $90,000, all of which was seized by authorities.

The Border Patrol released a statement in response to the Luna arrest, stating that corruption and abuse are not tolerated within the agency. Luna will be placed on administrative leave, the agency said.

Eduardo Luna Rodriguez

San Antonio Express News

51 comments:

  1. If your dirty, I hope they hang your ass out there as an example for all the others who where the badge and cross the line. He needs the death penalty if convicted. But, in Texas, capital murder is either death or life without parole, so if convicted, either way justice is served. P.O.S. you give the honest ones a bad name.

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    1. 6:08. Totally agree with you. If he is guilty of selling drugs and mirder...it is capital murder. It does give the good agents a bad rap. This guy is totally a pycho. Grazie BB.

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    2. Desde Tierra Caliene,
      How is posible this man go to work as a migra? The work it is federal is it not? Very bad filtros to not find this man has problemos. The gringos tell Mexico they have bad police. But look at this.

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    3. By coincidence, Joel Luna looks more prepotent unrepentant and defying than his brothers, or is it my imagination?

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    4. Every barrel of apples has a few bad, no matter the occupation or walk or life.

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  2. POS the Texas Rangers should have ended his life.

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  3. . there is a lot of good ones only a few bad ones

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  4. The border patrol should be put in administrative leave, their agent has been found out he should be in prison and his levers that got him hired investigated, especially because he is Hispanic and gives a bad name to other hispanics that are not corrupt or work in law enforcement...but nice job catching these mathaphakas...

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    1. I hear ya, 12:03. How is it somebody's under investigation for SIX years???

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    2. He had been a Border Patrol Agent for SIX years. NOT investigated for SIX years

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  5. Luna will be placed on administrative leave ? If you let him out on bail he'll do just that, leave.

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  6. This just proofs the USA police from a cop to a DEA agent are corrupted i wounldnt be suprised if chapo guzman was eating at the most expensive restaurant in hollywood has we speak ,
    USA PATRIOT

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    1. Esta mierda ya valio pirañas. Este mundo es manejado por rratas de dos patas. Ke hacemos??

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    2. No country is immune 2 corruption. - El Soldado Perdido

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    3. Especially in an age dominated by stupidity, anger and greed, Lost Soldier.
      Peace....

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    4. Legalize corruption, it may be the only way it fails...

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    5. On China, they tax corruption or the mere appearance of corruption with a death penalty, no matter how evenly you spread around the butter, you is always at risk, and your gang too, isn't that loverly?
      --I don't know, but the amerikkkan global vulture pirate capitalistas looove that, over there, not over here, specially not for themselves...or their own...

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    6. Its called union at work. He is guilty under our eyes but has not been convicted. If he bails out (he will not, he was the only one with a good job out of all family members) he will be cleaning the kennels and picking dog shit.

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    7. Proof of what? Are you serious dude?The world knows there are corrupt police in the good ole USA..as anywhere else in the world..But the comparison between corruption in the us and mex is non existent..

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    8. --Sue the Union and see their backs running back to malpractice their pendejadas somewhere else...
      --but nooo, their members make a lot of money on the side and are quite a few votes in the bag for their puppet masters

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  7. I do not know about a data base, but I have been following these arrests for years. they happen more often then you think. It is rare that it is not a Hispanic that has been caught being corrupted. Who else would a true narco, drug or human smuggler trust other than another Hispanic? It only makes sense. Perfect place to place an insider is in the border patrol. Not a racist thing. Just a fact.

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  8. At least here in the U.S. we do something about corrupt law enforcement. Unlike Mexico

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    Replies
    1. Yeah? Like what? Aye, Trompetas que cantaleta tan harta la tuya!

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    2. 5:11 ay que cantaleta...like in ay, ay ay, ay...,
      Aye? Aye, aye...

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  9. http://valleycentral.com/news/local/border-officer-sentence-for-purposely-allowing-pot-into-us


    Right now he is only guilty of lending his mother in law his safe to put her belongings in it.
    No wonder the agency as a whole declined to use body cameras on the field. Crooked southern border cops are a dime a dozen. Hahahaha a " dime."



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    1. Crooked is in their job description :-)

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  10. Ehh... juarez cartel is that you? ^ ^ ^ ^

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  11. If, true, he is one sick piece of work and needs to stay in prison, permanently. Who ever the people are that let this guy have a job and keep it can't be exactly clueless about his goings on.

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  12. I have been saying all along these people with badges are the same as those across the fence. Yeah but nobody says anything!! This will go down quiet only local news will air it. The government pays these news outlets not show it in first page.

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  13. CBP and any cartel guy with bundle of benjamins are amigos remember that people. Money talks anywhere!!!

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    1. @3:24 Do your words apply 2 your mom as well?????

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    2. $ talks only if you are easily corruptible and immature.

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    3. Really @8:40, so childish to bring someones mom into the conversation.

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    4. Sorry 2 say but money does'nt talk everywhere That's just a fact. So don't contradict yourselves you wise sholars.

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    5. I am easily corruptible, i'll take your money, the problem is I will not deliver because I am affraid and scared of prison, and I will sing without waterboarding or tablazos en las nalgas...
      --Mexicans as a whole need to be kept out of government positions on the border with mexico for the benefit of all involved...
      --amerikkkans should be kept out of mexico for the same reasons, it has never worked for mexico, it has always worked for the US...
      --a few crooked mexicans working for them US is something they can afford...
      --Mexico can not afford the few corrupt mexicans working for the US from their lofty mexican governing narco-mierdocracia positions...

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  14. That would be interesting. The job certainly has potential for lots of corruption, that's for sure.

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  15. Here's a fact: "True" narcos don't trust.

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  16. @ 7:59 don't forget 99.9 % of the time they r local cats from the border area...and u r right about what u said...its not racist its just fact

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  17. Corrupt fed" wait until you hear the deals we make with this pigs" we give them the $$ and they let millions of dollars worth of drugs come across your beautiful America. .

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  18. I hate these stories where a Mexican whether Mexican-American or just a Mexican who received citizenship do this. Not only is that agency getting a bad review, but so is the Mexican race. It puts distrust in hiring them in positions of power. There were a few stories on BB where Mexicans had positions of power and this takes place. Like the other border agent that let illegal drugs through and had a cousin or a relative of some sort linked to the Cartels. This will only make it hard for honest Mexicans and make agencies scrutinize over honest Mexican applicants in the future. The dumb idiots would have done this over and over again if need be as if they would never get caught. That is the main problem. How stupid.

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    1. @730 good point; gavachos do it too though, and unless you don't take into consideration how the history of the US took its shape, it goes without saying gavachos are some of the most corrupt motherfuckers alive, for generations back to founding of the US... My point is, everyone does it, Mexican Americans doing it only resonate more profoundly because this is a Mexican cartel blog. A good one, I might add.

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  19. You don't say, crooked border patrol? Hahaha. These motherfuckers are how that shit gets into the US, it's all one big cartel mofos

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  20. There is another fact, the cupola that makes it bearable affordable le and rentable to be a drug trafficker/money launderer, money manager/investor Combo, do get arrested and promptly released, no matter what any print, Internet, radio, tv media has to say, it is all becomes a conspiracy theory passed around by sore asses that do not share the same "endowments of nature"...

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  21. by the way do not know if they mentioned it but he was in the military before becoming a border patrol agent, he is a disgrace to all law enforcement and military that risk there life and then this piece of work comes along and gives Law enforcement as a whole a bad rep

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  22. The US government that begat the CIA rogue agents gives the people's government of the people by the government for the benefit of the rich, gives a stench of corruption that can't be helped, no wonder its skies are so full of vultures all over the place, no room for eagles...

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  23. People remember its not always a case of a GOOD cop being corrupted by money...SOMETIMES its a criminal trying to gain as much money and POWER as he can by joining law enforcement..meaning he was already a crook.

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  24. Question came up "are their any statistics"?
    Try looking up bordercoruption cironline its a . Org by investigative journalists. The site has a wall of shame of federal usa officers arrested and conconvicted.

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  25. There is also a HALL OF SHAME FOR THE SCHOOL OF THE AMERICAS GRADUATES...
    I only checked it for the photos and the Latin American gorillas...

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  26. Yeh yeh, when they get cogidos everybody discover they never were cops..
    --But when they catch up with others they get presidential pardons, billions of dollars in bank bailouts, millions in subsidies for "high risk startups" and more billions to steal corporations in hostile takeovers, with plenty of tax breaks...

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  27. I knew Franklin the dead guy hope they find his head so he can rest in peace. Poor guy all his life all he wanted was his own tire shop. Nothing RIP Paz Edinburg Tx

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