Former deputy sentenced for assisting drug trafficker

TYLER — A former Smith County deputy was sentenced on Wednesday to three years probation and a $1,000 fine for fraud with identification documents after entering a plea agreement. According to our news partner KETK, Luis Alberto Sandoval, 30, was with the Smith County Sheriff’s Office from November 2017 until his arrest in August 2021. He pleaded guilty in February to the federal charge after being accused of misuse of information to assist a Mexican drug trafficker. A warrant alleged Sandoval got a text message from a phone in Mexico asking him to the run the driver’s license of a known drug dealer who attempting to cross back into the U.S. One of the texts, translated from the original Spanish, said “I don’t know if you can do this, but I have a friend who moves drugs so what happened was my friend, they got his truck, they got him with a bunch of drugs, now the truck’s over here, and he hasn’t crossed. His mom and wife are crossing, we need to find out if this dude has an arrest report so I need you to check that because he sent me the dude’s ID, if you could check it out for me.” Sandoval agreed, according to the warrant, and used his peace officer login to search the Texas Crime Information Center. Sandoval was also charged with accepting a bribe, but the charge was later dismissed at his sentencing.