HEDRICK'S BUSTED, IN THE CLINK, $420 TICKETS TO MONTERREY, AND FLY FRONTERA GOES OFF TO HARLINGEN

By Juan Montoya
When the Fly Frontera proposal came before the Brownsville Economic Development Corporation, opponents came out of the woodwork, blogspots, and social media blasting away that the airline was represented by a "convicted felon."
They ridiculed Fly Fronter'a claims that there would be enough flying clients to warrant giving incentives to a regional airline with 34-passenger capacity planes and...oh, yes, did we tell you the representative was a"convicted felon?"
Instead, a local blogger said, the incentives should be offered to a jilted suitor, one Robert Hedrick, president of Pan American Airways, a fledgling air cargo operator who had yet to haul one load of freight in the two years he had been renting space at the city airport at basement rates.
One of the more virulent bloggers was a disbarred lawyer. Another was a Facebook operator who was a "convicted felon" himself. The "accountant" they brought out to buttress their claims turned out to be a bean counter avoided by local businessman who had done business with him in the past.
Now we learn that according to the U.S. Attorney General in Houston, their hero at Pan Am may have been dealing in child pornography with U.S. federal undercover agents for months. Today, Hedrick was arrested and charged with dealing in child pornography with undercover agents in Wisconsin and Louisiana over a three-month period last year.
And, while Fly Frontera Airlines was offering one-way tickets to Monterrey at under $150, we now learn that the average price for an AeroMexico ticket to that city averages $420 over a reservation service, while a ticket at the counter can go as high as $570.
With these new revelations coming to light, Accion America president Carlos Quintanilla (the Fly Frontera representative) who was demonized by the critics, says he will release more than 800 pages of emails and correspondence between city officials, commission members, AeroMexico and a local ad agency associated with a city commissioner put in charge of promoting the Mexican airline on the U.S. side of the border.
"They made it seem like it had just happened when they announced the coming of AeroMexico," said Quintanilla from Dallas. "But it now seems that they knew all the time that we were making our proposal that they were going to give it to AeroMexico."
Additionally, Quintanilla said that while he was maligned for a conviction more than 20 years ago in a Chicago sting operation, he had since put that behind him and started the community action organization that has helped many Hispanics, including efforts to keep children from dangerous drugs like cheese heroin.
"There were those in Brownsville who thought it better to defend the likes of Hedrick, who, if the U.S. Attorney is correct, was dealing in child pornography, and to undermine the efforts to bring a truly low-fare regional airline here," he said.
Many members of the anti-Fly Frontera airline coalition were incensed that the Greater Brownsville Incentive Corporation and the Brownsville Public Utility Board would offer Fly Frontera Airline $250,000 to bring the airline to Brownsville. Now, with at least two formal efforts underway to find out how much the city has been spending to promote AeroMexico and the involvement of certain city officials, the truth may be surprising to the Fly Frontera detractors.
The spokesman for the BEDC (Gilbert Salinas) already said that in all likelihood there will be incentives offered to AeroMexico to keep them here after the summer flying season.
"We plan to start low-cost flights from Harlingen within the next six months after the airport there offered to help us with promotional funds and operational space. It could have been Brownsville," Quintanilla said.