Ex-teacher pleads guilty to coordinating transport of tons of marijuana from border to Houston

Ex-south Texas teacher guilty of drug trafficking

McALLEN, Texas — A former south Texas fifth-grade teacher who coordinated the transportation of tons of marijuana from the border to Houston faces at least 20 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy.

Federal agents arrested 30-year-old David Rey Ramirez at a Rio Grande City elementary school in late January.

He admitted in a plea agreement last week to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute at least 1,000 kilograms of marijuana.

The plea agreement says Ramirez recruited truck drivers and scouts and supervised the transport of tons of marijuana at a time from Rio Grande City to Houston.

Prosecutors attributed 44 tons of shipped marijuana in all to Ramirez and his co-defendants.

Officials in the school district where he’d worked for six years say they were stunned.