Prosecutors say US marshal disclosed agent's ID


BROWNSVILLE, Texas (AP) — A deputy U.S. marshal accused of disclosing to his father, a convicted drug trafficker, the identity of an undercover federal agent testified Wednesday that he regretted sharing the information.

Lucio Moya took the stand in his own defense on the third day of his trial in Brownsville on charges of obstruction and accessory after the fact.

Moya explained that in October 2011, his father, who had been released from prison less than a year before on drug trafficking charges, came to him offering information about a drug trafficker. Moya said his dad was interested in becoming a paid informant.

Moya's father gave him copy of a driver's license for the man he said he suspected of drug smuggling. The license had actually been given to drug smugglers by a man they had hired to drive a tractor trailer load of marijuana to Houston. Moya took the document to work and asked colleagues about how to run a check on it.

"My intent was to pass on the information," Moya said. But when two colleagues looked at the photo Moya showed them, one recognized him as an agent with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

"My blood kind of dropped to my ankles," Moya testified.

As his colleagues were escorting him to the Office of the Inspector General, Moya said he texted his dad asking where he had gotten the information. As he was leaving that brief meeting, Moya said he texted his father again: "This guy is an agent. Don't talk to anybody."

What exactly Moya texted with his father remains unknown, because in a moment of panic, Moya said he deleted the exchange.

That evening his father came to his home and Moya said he told his dad he had to come with him to work the following morning to explain himself. But his father was arrested that night as authorities moved on the drug ring having been warned that their undercover operation had been compromised.

"I never thought in a million years, a million years that my father would put me in the predicament I'm in now," Moya said.

His father, Juan Norberto Moya, pleaded guilty in February 2012 to possession with intent to distribute marijuana. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

The younger Moya was a U.S. customs officer and a Zapata County sheriff's deputy before joining the U.S. Marshals.

Closing arguments were expected Wednesday afternoon.