South Texas mayor sentenced for trafficking $1 million of cocaine out of middle school

A mayor in a small Rio Grande Valley town has been sentenced to 4 years in federal prison for his alleged involvement in a $1 million drug trafficking ring, which authorities say he operated out the middle school where he worked, MySA reports. Gerardo "Jerry" Alanis has been mayor of Progreso, a tiny border town, for 8 years. And though the mini-municipality has a population of just 5,000, it harbored a large-scale cocaine operation, involving Alanis, his brother and other elected officials, according to federal officials.