Former Santa Maria school board trustee sentenced to nearly 6 years in prison for drug trafficking

McALLEN, Texas (ValleyCentral) — A former Santa Maria school board trustee who smuggled drugs for the Jalisco New Generation Cartel was sentenced to nearly six years in prison Tuesday.

Oscar Saldivar Jr., 57, of Weslaco transported 54 pounds of cocaine and 13 pounds of heroin from the Rio Grande Valley to Austin in October 2019.

“I want to apologize to my whole entire family. They didn’t raise me this way,” Saldivar said on Tuesday afternoon, when he appeared in court for sentencing. “I want to go ahead and apologize toward my community. And I also want to apologize to the United States of America, my country, which I failed.”

Saldivar served on the Santa Maria school board for about 12 years.

“You’re obviously a respected member of your community,” said U.S. District Judge Micaela Alvarez. “And you make this kind of decision?”

Based on information provided by the government and Saldivar’s own statements, Alvarez said he smuggled drugs to make easy money.

“And that’s troublesome, Mr. Saldivar,” Alvarez said. “Because, basically, what it tells me is that under the right circumstances, for the right amount of money, you’re willing to engage in criminal conduct.”

Saldivar joined the Santa Maria school board in the mid-2000s. His brother-in-law, Rambaldo “Ram” Rivera Jr., also served on the board.

At some point, Saldivar met Maria Horalia Montoya, 43, of Mission.

“And that person got him into this situation,” said attorney Ruben J. Luna of Pharr, who represented Saldivar.

Montoya worked with Ivan Ornelas-Pio, who coordinated drug shipments for the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.

Ornelas-Pio lived in Pharr and worked at the Palenque Grill in McAllen, according to DEA Special Agent Kevin Beverley, who summarized the investigation during a hearing in April 2023.

When federal agents started making arrests, Ornelas-Pio fled the country. He resurfaced in Michoacan, where he continued to coordinate drug shipments.

The drugs would be hidden in speaker boxes, Beverley said, and smuggled across the border in tractor-trailers.

Ornelas-Pio recruited people to pick up the speaker boxes and deliver them to destinations throughout the United States.

The DEA seized more than 4,400 pounds of methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin and fentanyl during the investigation, Beverley said. Prosecutors brought charges against roughly 70 people.

Saldivar transported two speaker boxes, which contained cocaine and heroin, from Edinburg to Austin in October 2019.

Agents seized the drugs and questioned Saldivar.

“They needed information, I gave them information,” Saldivar said on Tuesday, when he appeared in court. “They wanted my phone, I gave them my phone.”

The DEA, though, didn’t arrest him.

“They kept telling me: All this is going to help you. It’s going to help you,” Saldivar said. “So just live your normal life.”

In 2023, when Ornelas-Pio was arrested, a grand jury indicted Saldivar and Montoya on drug trafficking charges.

They pleaded guilty.

Saldivar, who faced years in federal prison, hoped prosecutors would credit him with providing “substantial assistance” to the government and recommend a reduced sentence.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas, however, declined to do so.

“I really can’t get into that too much,” said Luna, the attorney who represented Saldivar. “But I’m assuming they didn’t like the information he had, whatever it was.”

After his arrest, Saldivar was held without bond.

“I’m in lockdown 23 hours a day,” Saldivar said, adding that he’s taken outside for just one hour of recreation. “I volunteered to work at the cafeteria. They denied me. I volunteered to work in laundry. They denied me.”

Stuck in his cell, Saldivar said he spends all day praying and crying.

“And I always say: Why did I do it?” Saldivar said. “Why? Why did I do it?”

“Why did you do it?” Alvarez, the federal judge, asked him.

Saldivar said he simply “ended up in the wrong crowd.”

“It influenced me,” Saldivar said. “And I followed it.”

Alvarez said that’s an excuse for teenagers, not adults.

“You’re a fully mature man with a family,” Alvarez said. “And so that excuse of ‘hanging out with the wrong people,’ it doesn’t carry any kind of weight with me.”

Along with transporting drugs, Alvarez said Saldivar had been caught with cash.

Alvarez did not provide any details about the incident, which involved less than $10,000.

“There’s no law that says you can’t carry as much money with you as you want,” Alvarez said. “But apparently, here, there was a question about where that money came from. You were never able to establish where it came from.”

Alvarez sentenced Saldivar to five years and 10 months in prison.

When he’s released, Saldivar said he wants to speak with troubled students in Santa Maria.

“They just probably need somebody like me to go ahead and talk to them,” Saldivar said. “And let them know that your life can change in an instant.”