PEABODY — An Army Reserve staff sergeant now charged with taking part in a $1.1 million cocaine deal at a Peabody hotel last December made repeated trips across the border into Mexico using his military identification, then lied to his superiors, claiming he was visiting a dying grandfather, a prosecutor revealed yesterday.
Gerardo Flores, 27, of Tuscon, Ariz., an Iraq War veteran, was one of three people charged with conspiracy to traffic cocaine after police, acting on information from the Canadian Mounties, seized 11 kilograms of cocaine in a duffel bag outside the Holiday Inn on Route 1.
Flores and one of his co-defendants, Valentine Torres Munoz, 33, of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, were in Salem Superior Court yesterday, where their lawyers persuaded a judge to set bail in the case. A third suspect, Jason Grilli, 28, of Laval, Quebec, is also expected to seek bail. Grilli and Torres Munoz also face trafficking charges.
The three had been held without bail since their Dec. 21 arrests. Police believe the 24 pounds of cocaine were headed back to Canada with Grilli, and that Flores and his girlfriend were planning to drive the proceeds of the transaction to Texas in exchange for a $5,000 payment.
Prosecutor Greg Friedholm said Flores had apparently made a similar trip to Peabody in October and was paid $4,000 for that run.
Friedholm, who suggested bail of at least $200,000 for Flores, said he used his military identification, rather than his passport, to cross the border more than once, including a trip in October, after which he was confronted and forced to explain why he'd taken the unauthorized trips.
Friedholm said Flores submitted a false statement in which he claimed his grandfather had been gravely ill and then died.
"That sworn statement seems to be a complete lie," Friedholm said.
It was Flores' own attorney, Michael Hickey, who revealed that his client had also recently worked for a private security firm, Security Consultants Group, that provided security at FBI and Homeland Security offices in Phoenix.
Hickey urged Judge David Lowy to set bail at no more than $25,000, suggesting that not only does Flores have no record but that the case against his client — who wasn't nearby when police detained Torres Munoz and Grilli — is weak.
"If his role was to be a courier for the money to go to another state, where is that money?" Hickey asked.
Similarly, a lawyer for Torres Munoz, Christopher Norris, urged a $25,000 cash bail, telling Lowy that Torres Munoz has lined up an apartment in Allston and a job at Legal Seafoods if he is released.
Norris suggested that Torres Munoz may have been coerced by violent Mexican drug dealers into taking part in the operation because they knew that he was an American citizen with a passport, as well as a residence in Mexico.
Friedholm opposed any bail for Torres Munoz, suggesting that his international ties make him too great a flight risk.
Any bail, the prosecutor said, "may be viewed as a cost of doing business of this magnitude."
Lowy set bail for Torres Munoz at $90,000 and for Flores at $35,000, saying that while he was concerned about the false statement to military officials, he was also factoring in two tours of duty in Iraq by Flores.
Both men were ordered to surrender their passports and remain in Massachusetts while the case is pending.
They're due back in court on March 16.
Courts reporter Julie Manganis may be reached at 978-338-2521 or jmanganis@salemnews.com.
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