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.