Someone reminded us after they bread our post on Luis Alfredo Biasi's arrest and his subsequent transport to Mexico City by the Mexico's Procuraduria General de la Republica (PGR), that this is not the first time that Fred Rusteberg's United Brownsville has been linked to unsavory characters from Matamoros.Biasi, if you'll remember, is the Director of Social Development for Matamoros Mayor Leticia Salazar. He has been linked to the murder of three American siblings and the smuggling of U.S. goods (whiskey and cigarettes). The three siblings from Progreso, Texas, were found executed after they had been seen taken into custody by el Grupo Hercules, a paramiltary group formed by Salazar and Biasi ostensibly to fight organized crime and act as a Praetorian Guard for Salazar.
The two vehicles they were driving were found in an impound lot owned by Biasi. When the parents sought to retrieve them, they were confronted by members of the Grupo Hercules and were run out of the impound lot.
The latest action by the PGR in whisking Biasi away was after they apprehended two of his workers carrying $1.6 million in pesos to deliver to unidentified "licenciados" in Mexico City. They said that they were given the money by the Matamoros' Municipal Auditor and that it was their fourth trip with the same amount they had made.During a international economic development "summit" held at Rancho Viejo by United Brownsville Coordinating Board member and IBC President Rusteberg and Carlos Marin to plug for the Bi-Ned economic development movement along the border, Biasi was out on front of the group photo as was Salazar (see photo above at left). Brownsville Mayor was in center of the picture and Rusteberg and Marin, appropriately, were in the far rear like puppet masters.
The only person missing was former UTB President Julieta Garcia, one of the other two Coordinating Board members. The other is Irv Downing, a UTB vice-president.
UTB, by the way, was the moving force in the feting of another Matamoros luminary. Garcia's University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College School of Business recognized FINSA founder Sergio Arguelles as hailed him as the creator of jobs and master of international commerce for his maquiladora industrial park in Matamoros.
But while Arguelles was being lionized at UTB, the PGR listed him among scores of "prestanombres" for former Tamaulipas Gov. Tomas Yarrington.
In January,2012, the PGR, the equivalent of the U.S. Dept. of Justice, issued a directive restricting the movement out of the country of three former Tamaulipas governors and 43 other people for their alleged connections to organized crime.The list included many prominent former government bureaucrats and not a few businessmen.
Among those was Arguelles, known as the "King of the Maquilas," one of Matamoros' most prominent businessmen with extensive business and real estate holdings in Brownsville and the Rio Grande Valley, including numerous properties in Rancho Viejo, South Padre Island and McAllen.
All that notwithstanding, on March 23, 2012 – only two months later – the UTB-TSC School of Business honored Arguelles and two other area business leaders with a Business Appreciation Breakfast and recognition.
According to the news release by the UTB-TSC School of Business issued at the time, Arguelles, a native of Matamoros, Tamaulipas, attended Texas Southmost College as a young man. He founded his firm, FINSA, 35 years ago to provide Mexico’s emerging maquiladoras with the manufacturing facilities and services they needed to grow.
There was no mention of Arguelles' being named among those with close ties to YArrington, who remains under indictment by a U.S. District Court, or of his alleged ties to the narcopolitico. Instead,. United Brownsville made him the titular head of Imagina Matamoros, the mirror image of the United Brownsville shadow government created by Rusteberg.
For years, directors of the Federal Reserve Bank in Dallas has been scratching their heads wondering how it is that the bank deposits along the boarder have chronically been higher than is warranted by the commerce of the citi\es where they do business.
Maybe they should ask Biasi, Arguelles, and Rusteberg where all the cash comes from.
2 comments:
United Browntown may or may not be a great group, depending on who is beings asked, but there is no connection between them and the crooks from across.
The Mexican animal being what it is, i.e. corrupt and crooked, there are no Mexicans worth knowing and doing business with that have not grained from corruption. If you rub shoulders with them, you are hanging out with people of low morals. That is just the nature of life in the Bally.
So, guilt by association is never a good idea down here as none of us would pass that test.
United Brownsville members surely have a connection with everything bad in Matamoros. This city bends over backward to kiss the asses of Mexican officials and there is not doubt that they have kissed the asses of some bad guys....who they thought were good guys. The connections between the two cities are too close, so our officials know those over there...good and bad. Unfortunately, our officials portray all Mexican officials as "good guys"....and then lie to our public when the bad ones are identified.
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