Lubbock’s own Christian Castro—a man who treats the local judicial system like a frequent flyer program—has finally been grounded. A federal judge recently handed the 30-year-old a twelve-year sentence for distribution of over 50 grams of meth. Apparently, selling “glass” to a confidential source in early 2025 is where the feds finally draw the line, even if local authorities were historically much more “flexible” with his extracurriculars.
For those with short memories (or those who’ve successfully suppressed them), Castro is the same “person of interest” from the 2012 Mark Ysasaga tragedy. Back in 2015, in a move that can only be described as “Peak Lubbock,” Castro managed to parlay his knowledge of where a 15-year-old’s body was buried into a $10,000 Crime Line reward and a “get out of jail free” card for unrelated kidnapping and robbery charges. He even celebrated by posting a selfie with the cash, because if you don’t flex your blood-money-bounty on social media, did it even happen?
The fallout from Castro’s 2015 “consulting fee” was a masterclass in Hub City incompetence. It led to the demotion and retirement of Police Chief Roger Ellis, the suspension of an Assistant Chief, and the “accidental” deletion of a police report. Meanwhile, the guy actually charged with the murder, Jose Simental, walked away with a measly seven-year sentence for tampering with evidence after the murder charge was dropped.
You really have to admire the hustle. Most people go to the police to report a crime; Christian Castro went to the police to negotiate a career pivot. Only in Lubbock can you be the roommate of a murderer, have the victim’s blood found in your bedroom, and somehow walk out of the station with ten grand and a clean slate.
It took a federal meth charge—something Lubbock has in more abundance than blowing dirt and optimism—to finally put Castro behind bars for more than a weekend. While the LPD was busy “accidentally” hitting the delete key on his arrest records a decade ago, Castro was clearly playing the long game, graduating from “mysterious tipster” to “federal narcotics statistic.”
Twelve years in the federal pen is a long time, but don’t worry—the sentence runs concurrently with any state charges. We wouldn’t want to be too hard on a guy who once helped the city’s top brass lose their jobs while he funded his lifestyle with Crime Line checks.
Is it really a Lubbock news story if it doesn’t involve a meth pipe, a deleted police report, and a guy getting paid $10,000 for “helping” solve a crime that happened in his own house?