SIX HERNANDEZ VOTE-HARVESTERS NABBED AND CHARGED WITH VOTER FRAUD BY STATE-FBI TASK FORCE

By Juan Montoya

State and federal sources have confirmed that six politiqueras  with a long association with the Ernie-Norma-Erin Garcia Hernandez vote-harvesting machine have been placed under arrest by state and federal agents and are being charged with voting fraud offenses under state law.
The arrests were the result of an ongoing coordinated effort between the U.S. Attorney's Office, the Texas Attorney General's Office and the Cameron County District Attorney's Office.
This makes eight politiqueras who have been arrested and who have toiled collecting mail-in votes for the Hernandezes.
The first was Margarita Rangel Ozuna in state court followed by Sonia Solis in federal court.
The six politiqueras being processed in Cameron County's Rucker-Carrizalez Correction Center on voter-fraud charges are:
Tomasa Ramirez Chavez, 84, 13 cases,

Facunda Banda Garcia , 54, one case

Bernice Garcia (daughter), 29, three cases

Ozuna, 63, six cases

Sara Virginia Perales,  51, two cases

Vicenta Guajardo Verino, 53, 10 cases

Reports indicate that Chavez and the other defendants were arrested by agents of the joint state and federal task force and were being booked today on the voting-fraud charges.

Federal grand juries usually meet every Tuesday. It is unknown if the federal or state jurors issued indictments against the politiqueras. State sources indicate that the charges stem back to the 2012 primary and runoff elections.
However, the indictments against the six women have been sealed and specifics were unavailable for inspection by the media.
Based on comments made during the Solis sentencing in federal court, it is believed that they concerned the mail-in on hauled-in senior day care votes harvested by Chavez and her associates on behalf of Erin Gracia Hernandez, Carlos Masso and Abelardo Gomez.
Masso was running against current D.A. Luis Sanez. Garcia-Hernandez was running against Yolanda Begum and Gomez was running against Peter Avila.
During the sentencing, Solis told federal judge Hilda Tagle that she had been introduced to the Herandnezes and taught how to collect fraudulent votes.
The federal investigators' report noted that Solis had told them that before the runoff election she had been invited to meet with "TC, HB, NH and MO at EH's business where she was told who to vote for and TC showed her how."
Based on those initials, it is obvious that Solis met with Tomasita Chavez, Herminia Becerra, Norma Hernandez and Margarita Ozuna" at Fiesta Graphics, which is owned by the Hernandezes.
They said that Solis than picked five members of her family, including her son, and then filled out mail-in applications and forged their signatures.
During the Solis sentencing, Asst. U.S. Attorney William Hagen pressed for a 12-month prison sentence and relied on the pre-sentencing report indicating that the federal guidelines allowed judge Hilda Tagle to impose it on her.
Tagle, citing her concerns that Solis was "a little cog in a very big wheel," instead imposed a six-month sentence of home confinement where she would have to wear a GPS device and five years of probation after that. She also said she had concerns about her health.
But it was while Solis' defense attorney (and former Cameron County District Attorney) Ray Cantu objected to the narrative outlining the context of his client's actions that gave a glimpse into broadening investigation that includes numerous politiqueras and elected officials that caught listener's ears.
Cantu objected to the pre-sentence narrative that indicated that federal authorities reported it was the investigative work of JP 2-2 candidate YTB (Yolanda Teran Begum), her associates, and Citizens Against Voter Abuse activist Mary Helen Flores that triggered the federal and state investigation. A detailed statistical work on the mail-in vote was performed by Laura Miniel, working for Begum.
Begum first went to the FBI after several women (politiquereas) sought her out and promised her to haul in elderly voters or deliver mail-in votes on her behalf for $125 a week. She said she had refused.
Cantu said that the fact that there were "many more  people included in this and this has been going on for many years...This is normal in Brownsville and in the Valley."
This is the first time that federal investigators have showed their hand or confirmed that the investigation has broadened to include the other politiqueras.
After the 2012 runoff for JP, the CAVA and Begum workers' suspicions were piqued when they discovered that five people lived at the same address in Shidler Drive that Solis had written down and where she claimed she had assisted them with their votes. Begum and CAVA volunteers sought out the apartment and learned that even though they were claiming disability, the apartment had only one bedroom on the second floor.
During the course of the group's probe, an interview with the manager of the apartment complex indicted that only two people lived in the apartment in question and that seven people could not have lived there.
"If they were disabled, how could they go up an down the stairs," he told them.
At the time Solis was sentenced, Tagle and Hagen indicated that she was part of a larger picture.
"A vote is sacred," Tagle agreed with Hagen. "(You) are asking me to indulge in a fantasy...I can't accept that she didn't know it was wrong. It is a nasty and reprehensible business. Until and when others... who participated on a much greater basis (and) who have escaped prosecution to date (are prosecuted by the government), I believe she is a she is a small cog in a very large wheel. She is a small part in a much bigger operation."
Hagen, for his part, refused to disclose any further details on the individuals involved who might be targets of the government probe.
"I don't want to comment on an active investigation..." he said.
State sources indicate that the latest round of indictments is only the first part of the joint state-federal investigation that will continue seeking indictments against other involved in casting fraudulent mail-in votes and illegally assisting elderly voters to cast their ballots.