![Robert Chavez](/images/resized/images/news/2016/52_apr01/29_100_100.jpg)
Alamogordo, NM – Attorney General Hector Balderas announced March 28 that an Alamogordo judge, the Honorable James W. Counts, assessed $605,000 in penalties against brothers Joe and Robert Chavez, nicknamed “the AZ Boys”, who ran a meth-trafficking operation between New Mexico and Arizona.
In 2014, both were convicted at trial of felonies including racketeering, conspiracy, drug trafficking, and multiple counts each of money laundering. The Office of the Attorney General jointly prosecuted these criminal cases with the Twelfth Judicial District Attorney’s Office.
The civil penalties, sought by the Office of the Attorney General, are believed to be the first ever assessed in...