Colfax County Sheriff Deputy busted after drug runners were stopped twice on same day

by Bill Knowles
COLFAX COUNTY, NM — Two men, transporting a large amount of money and marijuana, reported they had been pulled over twice on the same day by police as they traveled interstate highways in New Mexico, according to a report published in the Albuquerque Journal on April 3, 2015.
Court documents noted the second traffic stop, made by state police officer Joseph Garcia near Grants, New Mexico last June, led to the investigation and arrest, eight months later, of Vidal Sandoval, a Colfax County sheriff’s deputy.  Sandoval has since been accused of making deals with drug carriers and has been charged with attempt to possess cocaine with intent to distribute.
The two men, driving a green 1995 Nissan sedan with Arizona plates, were stopped on Interstate 40 by Garcia, around 9:30 pm.  During questioning they claimed they had been running marijuana purchased legally in Colorado when they were stopped around 5 pm that same day by another officer on Interstate 25 near the New Mexico-Colorado border.
They said their marijuana had been confiscated and more than $10,000 in cash had been seized by the sheriff’s deputy, and no receipt was given or citation issued during the first stop.  However, the officer did give them $600 back to pay for their travel expenses, according to an FBI statement filed in federal court.
The investigation began on Dec. 15, 2014, when two undercover agents from the FBI and State Police in an undercover vehicle with $8,000 cash were trolling around Cimarron where Sandoval was known to patrol.  Their undercover vehicle contained “… a hidden compartment in the rear of the vehicle under carpeting and outfitted with several air fresheners, which are commonly used to mask the smell of narcotics, and a digital scale of the type often used to weigh narcotics,” according to the FBI’s affidavit.
During the stop Sandoval made a call to a former police chief living in northeast New Mexico, who allegedly was asked by Sandoval to pose as a DEA agent in order to tell the undercover agents that Sandoval would seize any cash he found.   The chief is named in the court documents but has not been identified because the ex-chief has not been charged.
According to the investigators’ affidavit, Sandoval told the undercover agents he wanted to be part of the narcotics activity they were involved in and would let them pass through undisturbed with both money and drugs if they provided him with a portion of the profits.  Sandoval took the $8,000 in cash the agents were carrying.  He kept $7,500 and returned $500.
The two undercover agents, along with others encountered Sandoval in several subsequent stings, wherein Sandoval took cash in exchange for safe escort, discussed working together with them in the future, provided his cell number to them. 
Sandoval, was arrested without incident on March 13 at the Colfax County Sheriff’s Office in Raton by FBI agents and State Police officers. 
He pleaded not guilty soon after his arrest and was released under orders not to discuss his case with anyone other than the federal public defender representing him and not to leave New Mexico.
Ironically, Sandoval ran unsuccessfully for county sheriff in 2014.  In a campaign statement to a weekly newspaper, Sandoval said, “I want to modernize the report taking and record keeping as well as the chain of custody and security of evidence.”