Española man in possession of dynamite, firearms is sentenced to federal prison
ESPAÑOLA, N.M. (KRQE) – An Española man was sentenced to 13 years in federal prison for drugs, explosives and firearms charges. Mario James Valdez, 35, pleaded guilty to possession to intent to distribute cocaine base, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition and being a felon in possession of explosive material.
APS teacher arrested after accusations of sexual relationships with students
According to court records, on August 1, 2023, Valdez was pulled over by the Pojoaque Police Department for driving with an expired registration. Officers located two ghost guns, ammunition, fentanyl, 377 blue pills marked M30 and 42 grams of crack cocaine. On September 15, 2023, Valdez was arrested again for shoplifting, and for an outstanding warrant. During this arrest, Valdez was found with fentanyl, Xanax, crack cocaine and ammunition on his person.
While in jail on recorded calls, Valdez discussed having other firearms and sticks of dynamite stored at a house in Española, according to court documents. On October 20, 2023, a search warrant was executed at the residence and officers discovered multiple firearms and six sticks of deteriorating dynamite. Law enforcement destroyed the dynamite due to its hazardous condition. As a previously convicted felon, Valdez was prohibited from possessing firearms, ammunition and explosives.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Gateway Center residents speak about their experience at facility
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – The City of Albuquerque has poured tens of millions of dollars over the past several years to create the Gateway Center, in hopes of helping hundreds of people get back on their feet and find housing. For the first time, KRQE News 13 got a chance to speak with some of the residents about their experience and how it's opening new opportunities for them. 'Homelessness does not discriminate,' said Adrienne, a resident at the center. Story continues below Community:ABQ bus driver speaks out on her experience of safety issues on Central route News:Homeland Security: 11 people arrested at New Mexico dairy were 'undocumented' Trending:Mexican gray wolf Asha gives birth to litter of pups Food: Two Albuquerque restaurants make Yelp's 'Top 50 Cheap Eats' list For 13 years, Adrienne and her partner, Lisa, lived in an apartment together in Albuquerque. That was until the day Lisa was shot in the head in October, which led to costly medical bills and an eviction notice. 'Oddly enough, we lost everything we owned,' Lisa said. After getting evicted, it was only a couple of days before they were welcomed at Albuquerque's Gateway Center. 'By God's good graces, I'm still here, and the worst that came out of this is we got to start over a little bit,' Lisa said. It's been two weeks since they arrived, and they say they're making good progress on finding a new home for themselves. Lisa says she does not have a job, identification, or a cell phone, but that caseworkers at the center are helping her. They're also working to get her an EBT card. 'If you're willing to utilize the resources that they're giving you, then you're going to succeed,' Adrienne said. 'If you're not, then you're going to go out and say all these kinds of bad stuff.' Adrienne, however, does have a job, but stays at the center as the eviction process and apartment search play out. The city has faced scrutiny over the center, with the public questioning the millions spent and its success. Lisa and Adrienne say their experience is much different than what some people may think or hear about the center. '[It] focuses on getting people's lives back together,' Lisa said. 'Focuses on what the reality of going back out there is.' According to Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller, about 500 people have gone through housing navigation at Gateway since the start of the year. About 20% of them have found some sort of housing. 'You're either going to step up and help yourself, or we're going to go ahead and rotate through and get somebody who wants to step up and help themselves,' Lisa added. The couple plans on moving to a new place in the next several months. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Divided APS board vacates coaching, governance contract. New provider to be selected in fall.
Jun. 5—After pushback from some board members, Albuquerque Public Schools won't renew its contract with the Council of the Great City Schools (CGCS), which cost the district around $50,000 over nearly three years. CGCS is a Washington, D.C.-based organization that partners with urban districts to improve students' academic performance and assist school boards' governance strategies. The district will instead put out a request for proposals allowing vendors to apply to provide coaching services and student outcomes-focused governance as APS attempts to turn around academic performance as the largest district in a state that often ranks last in the nation for education. The district's contract with CGCS will expire June 30 and applications to fill the vacancy are due by Aug. 1. The board will likely vote on a new vendor at its Sept. 17 meeting. CGCS didn't answer questions or respond to interview requests sent over several weeks but stated Wednesday that it had "no involvement in the school board's decision not to renew its contract." APS' Board of Education met Wednesday and was initially expected to vote on renewing the contract. However, it was announced May 30 in a memo from APS Board President Danielle Gonzales that the district would seek a different provider for coaching services. "This effort to establish community engagement goals was to be transparent, to be clear, and also to hold ourselves accountable to meeting these specific goals," Gonzales said Wednesday, opening the discussion. "I want to acknowledge that no board had ever done this before, and this was not happening before." She also referred to several meetings in which the board unanimously approved topics related to the contract and student governance strategies, dating back to June 2024. However, one of the contract's critics, board member Josefina Domínguez, outlined longstanding issues she has had with CGSC in an email sent from her personal address to her APS address. The email — which she told the Journal was a draft — was obtained through an Inspection of Public Records Act request. Domínguez states that CGCS, "deliberately inserted themselves into the APS Board's business" and that board leadership interpreted "coaching to suit their needs." "Key decisions within the APS Board are made with the knowledge of only four members, leaving the other three members in the dark," she wrote. "This lack of collaborative governance is evident in our board meetings." The split to which she refers concerns the three board members endorsed by the Albuquerque Teachers Federation union and the four backed by business community entities, such as the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce and the local chapter of NAIOP, a commercial real estate organization. That divide was on display Wednesday as the three union-backed board members present — Domínguez, Heather Benavidez and Ronalda Tome-Warito — discussed the issues they had with CGCS. Domínguez and Tome-Warito stated that CGCS didn't offer enough to help students who are minorities, specifically Native students, and Benavidez took issue with the divisiveness caused by coaching. "I would like a coach that is not going to pit board members against each other; that's going to foster cohesion," Benavidez said. "I think that needs to start with the board, the board members. We cannot be productive as a board if we don't get along." The discussion over the contract dominated the meeting, which took place among the five board members present. Crystal Tapia-Romero, who has now missed the past three meetings, was not in attendance, nor was Janelle Astorga, who is on maternity leave. The trio of union-backed members successfully pushed for discussions on a few items, including revising the timeline for student-focused outcomes, reflecting on the contract with CGCS and establishing criteria for a new vendor to be presented to the board at its July meeting, but in doing so, earned the ire of the board's vice president, Courtney Jackson. "I haven't slept for two stinking days because of the headspace and the time and the energy," Jackson said. "I am trying so hard to focus on effective governance, and this has spun so far out of control because of narratives, because of misunderstandings, because of hurt feelings." She also called CGCS one of "the leading organizations in the nation" and added that the organization has a "proven" record of turning around student academic performance. "I represent 90,000 roughly constituents. You know what they want me to be focusing on?" Jackson said. "They want to make sure that our kids can read. They want to make sure that our kids can do math. That's what they want me to do."
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Divided APS board vacates coaching, governance contract. New provider to be selected in fall.
Jun. 5—After pushback from some board members, Albuquerque Public Schools won't renew its contract with the Council of the Great City Schools (CGCS), which cost the district around $50,000 over nearly three years. CGCS is a Washington, D.C.-based organization that partners with urban districts to improve students' academic performance and assist school boards' governance strategies. The district will instead put out a request for proposals allowing vendors to apply to provide coaching services and student outcomes-focused governance as APS attempts to turn around academic performance as the largest district in a state that often ranks last in the nation for education. The district's contract with CGCS will expire June 30 and applications to fill the vacancy are due by Aug. 1. The board will likely vote on a new vendor at its Sept. 17 meeting. CGCS didn't answer questions or respond to interview requests sent over several weeks but stated Wednesday that it had "no involvement in the school board's decision not to renew its contract." APS' Board of Education met Wednesday and was initially expected to vote on renewing the contract. However, it was announced May 30 in a memo from APS Board President Danielle Gonzales that the district would seek a different provider for coaching services. "This effort to establish community engagement goals was to be transparent, to be clear, and also to hold ourselves accountable to meeting these specific goals," Gonzales said Wednesday, opening the discussion. "I want to acknowledge that no board had ever done this before, and this was not happening before." She also referred to several meetings in which the board unanimously approved topics related to the contract and student governance strategies, dating back to June 2024. However, one of the contract's critics, board member Josefina Domínguez, outlined longstanding issues she has had with CGSC in an email sent from her personal address to her APS address. The email — which she told the Journal was a draft — was obtained through an Inspection of Public Records Act request. Domínguez states that CGCS, "deliberately inserted themselves into the APS Board's business" and that board leadership interpreted "coaching to suit their needs." "Key decisions within the APS Board are made with the knowledge of only four members, leaving the other three members in the dark," she wrote. "This lack of collaborative governance is evident in our board meetings." The split to which she refers concerns the three board members endorsed by the Albuquerque Teachers Federation union and the four backed by business community entities, such as the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce and the local chapter of NAIOP, a commercial real estate organization. That divide was on display Wednesday as the three union-backed board members present — Domínguez, Heather Benavidez and Ronalda Tome-Warito — discussed the issues they had with CGCS. Domínguez and Tome-Warito stated that CGCS didn't offer enough to help students who are minorities, specifically Native students, and Benavidez took issue with the divisiveness caused by coaching. "I would like a coach that is not going to pit board members against each other; that's going to foster cohesion," Benavidez said. "I think that needs to start with the board, the board members. We cannot be productive as a board if we don't get along." The discussion over the contract dominated the meeting, which took place among the five board members present. Crystal Tapia-Romero, who has now missed the past three meetings, was not in attendance, nor was Janelle Astorga, who is on maternity leave. The trio of union-backed members successfully pushed for discussions on a few items, including revising the timeline for student-focused outcomes, reflecting on the contract with CGCS and establishing criteria for a new vendor to be presented to the board at its July meeting, but in doing so, earned the ire of the board's vice president, Courtney Jackson. "I haven't slept for two stinking days because of the headspace and the time and the energy," Jackson said. "I am trying so hard to focus on effective governance, and this has spun so far out of control because of narratives, because of misunderstandings, because of hurt feelings." She also called CGCS one of "the leading organizations in the nation" and added that the organization has a "proven" record of turning around student academic performance. "I represent 90,000 roughly constituents. You know what they want me to be focusing on?" Jackson said. "They want to make sure that our kids can read. They want to make sure that our kids can do math. That's what they want me to do."
