Security guard who brought marijuana to Mission High School pleads guilty to drug charge
Mission TX May 30 2023
A security guard who brought marijuana to Mission High School pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor drug charge last month.
James Guerrero, 26, of Alton pleaded guilty to possession of less than 2 ounces of marijuana in a drug-free zone, a Class A misdemeanor, on April 3. Hidalgo County Court-at-Law Judge Federico “Fred” Garza Jr. placed Guerrero on community supervision for 18 months.
Guerrero couldn’t be reached for comment.
The Mission Police Department arrested Guerrero on March 22, when Officer Raymundo Garza responded to a call at Mission High School. Assistant Principal Jesus Cantu showed him text messages between Guerrero and a 15-year-old student.
In the text messages, Guerrero offered to sell the student marijuana, according to a criminal complaint filed with the Mission Municipal Court. Guerrero also sent the student prices for different types of marijuana.
“The defendant provided a video/audio statement, where he admitted that someone had delivered the marihuana to him at the school bus barn,” according to the criminal complaint, which summarized an interview conducted by investigators on March 23. “The defendant also admitted that he had offered to sell ‘bud’ to the student for $50 dollars.”
They found two baggies of marijuana, which weighed about 1.2 ounces, in Guerrero’s lunch box.
It wasn’t the first time Guerrero had been caught with marijuana.
In May 2022, when Guerrero crashed a Ford F-150 on South Shary Road, officers found 15 baggies of marijuana and a small amount of cocaine in the truck.
Guerrero claimed the marijuana, which weighed nearly 2.4 ounces, was for personal use, according to court records.
After his arrest, Guerrero spent more than three months in the Hidalgo County jail.
Prosecutors agreed to drop the drug charges if Guerrero pleaded guilty to forgery of a financial instrument, a state jail felony, in another case. He accepted the deal.
State District Judge Mario E. Ramirez Jr. sentenced Guerrero to time served, fined him $500 and placed him on community supervision for five years.
Ramirez also deferred further proceedings in the case, which allowed Guerrero to avoid a felony conviction.
The Hidalgo County jail released Guerrero in August 2022. Within months, Guerrero had accepted a job with MLG Protection Services, which provided security at Mission High School.
MLG Protection Services fired Guerrero after his arrest.
“This employee came to us fully licensed from DPS, which means a federal background check was made by DPS as well before issuing him his license,” according to a statement released by the company in March, which referred to the Texas Department of Public Safety as DPS. “Mr. Guerrero, however, was immediately terminated and offered no severance of any type, and we will continue our strict adherence to our policies and procedures to prevent this type of situation from re-occurring.”
