SHERIFF LUCIO CASHES IN ON MONETARY (AND POLITICAL) WINDFALL

By Juan Montoya
It's the kind of publicity that you just can't buy.
A border sheriff haunched over a microphone announcing to the world that the Cameron County Sheriff's Dept. will get $5.9 million in cash confiscated from the capo de capos of the Gulf Cartel.
The lawman, our own Sheriff Omar Lucio, said the money is meant to be used by his department as required by federal regulations to "hiring more officers, paying more overtime, or buying equipment."

That bonanza was part of the county's share of the $50 million in cash and goods forfeited that was part of the judgement against Gulf Cartel head Osiel Cardenas Guillen. Some $30 million in cash were also seized.

Lucio added a little spice to the press conferecne by claiming he had heard taped recordings of Cardenas Guillen where he had ordered a "hit" on his Cameron County undercover investigator after he was shortchanged some $50,000 in a drug deal in Houston and the money never came back to him. In another confidential recording, Lucio said that he heard the Cartel capo threaten a Mexican citizen's family if the man did not help authorities capture the informant.

Now, there is no way that any reporter or neutral observer can verify any of this intriguing information divulged by Lucio to the media> But if it is true that the investigator had joined the department in 1994, it would be simple enough for someone to find out who he was by doing simple rpresonnel records search.

But that was probably just a red herring of thrilling condiment to wow the readers.

It would seem that the only people profiting from the drug trade and the violence that is besieging the residents on both sides of the border are the drug dealers and now, law enforcement. Lucio's deputies now know that there is money for overtime at the bridge detail or for patrolling the remote areas of the county. Will there be enough to address the guard-to-prisoner ratio at the jails so that the county taxpayers won't have to foot the bill?

If there is, then it's a win-win-win situation for the sheriff as he seeks re-election. Not only does he take money away from the drug dealer and announces it in  press conference with an oversized check, but he also assures his deputy force that there eis money in the kitty for overtime, a nice bone to throw out at election time.

On top of that, if he can promise tax payers that part of the money will be used to lighten the load on their wallets, you can't beat this kind of election-time propaganda with a nightstick.

When the cartel bosses lose money, they have to make it up by smuggling yet more drugs across the border to cut their losses. That means that the supply of drugs never ends.

When law enforcement gets a cut of the forfeited money taken from drug lords, they get more pay and goodies. And the spiral continues. Seems just about everybody wins here except for the people on both sides of the river who have to put up with the violence and social dysfunction that results from the give and take of resources by both sides.