By now we know that when you beat someone to the story that Cameron County District Attorney Luis Saenz went back on his public promises that he would not sell the eight-liners and other gambling devices he confiscated from Cameron County operators, they will spin all they can to take over the story with an embellished follow-up.
Let us be clear.
We heard that the Cameron County District Attorney's Office had sold eight liners and other gambling devices and that some of them had ended up in Starr County where a former investigator for that office had negotiated a deal.
And there are other indications that other sales may have also been made and that the machines may have eventually ended back in the hands of the people (or the owners) who they originally belonged to.
So much is indisputable.
That there was another sale to a Georgia-based corporation with a subsidiary represented by attorneys Carlos Masso and Rick Zayas is just fleshing in the obvious: the confiscated machines after resale are still doing business in South Texas because it would be almost prohibitive to transport them all across three or four states to satisfy Saenz's unenforceable caveat that the machines be taken out of the state. Once you buy something, what you do with it is your business.
In fact, Saenz confirmed as much earlier today when I spoke with him at the steps of the Cameron County Courthouse.
"I just wanted to make sure they were out of my jurisdiction," he said.
In fact, Saenz confirmed as much earlier today when I spoke with him at the steps of the Cameron County Courthouse.
"I just wanted to make sure they were out of my jurisdiction," he said.
The fact that the Cameron County DA's Office has utilized forfeiture funds to purchase law-enforcement tools and to financially reward select staff members such as secretary Melissa Landin, First Assistant Edward Sandoval, and chief investigator George DeLaunay, and others, was pointed out because former DA Aramndo Villalobos was criticized for doing exactly the same thing. In the case of Villalobos, it was rumored that he had some love interests in the different sections within the departments that he rewarded with those funds.
That does not mean we are blinded to the Big Story by this side issue. It means that because of the Big Story, the DA's Office had access to the cash to make those disbursements. There's nothing illegal about that.
Why are we not surprised that Masso and Zayas are involved in the April 11, 2014 purchase from the DA's Office of 505 machines for a cool $100,000 non behalf of Lowkes Manangement LLC?
Masso is the registered agent for Brownsville-based Grey Gaming LLC. in which Lowkes Manangement LLC also owns interests. And Grey Gaming Design LLC – whose registered agent is Rick Zayas – is also based in Brownsville.
Now – for those recent arrivals among us – Rick Masso, Carlos Masso's Masso's nephew, now lives in Las Vegas, Nevada. Lowkes International remains a valid corporation in Nevada listing the same directors.
If you remember, Rick Masso moved to Las Vegas after it got a little hot for eight-liners here. Before that, he was one of the biggest eight-liner operators, even getting to the point where he rented the machines to other operators.
Zayas was Rick Masso's lawyer then, and apparently, still is.
But even then, Saenz said that he has not touched a penny of the machines he has sold.
"All the money from that sale is still there," he said. "We haven't used a penny of it."
Another blogger has posted that documents at the Texas Secretary of State indicates that Lowkes relinquished the authority to do business in Texas in 2006. So?
Now, how does the name Robert Cuellar (of Hidalgo County) get involved in this? Cuellar has been identified as one of the biggest eight-liner operators in South Texas. As such, he would have been interested in purchasing some of these bargain-priced machines for his business.
In fact, we are following up a lead that indicates that some of the machines are currently operating in La Grulla, in Starr County. Did Lowkes or another subsidiary sell them to the operators there (the Cuellars?)? Did Saenz know? How about Zayas or Masso? We still don't know.
Zayas knew what he was doing, as did Masso. Saenz should have known better given both of these attorneys' association with the eight-liner industry.
Here are a few caveats.
It is not illegal for the Cameron County DA to sell the machines after he finds out it will be difficult to convince the Texas Water Quality Board (not the EPA) that heavy metals will get into the subsoil and the water. That excuse, if not totally believable, is still plausible.
Saenz said that after the Brownsville Police Department told him that the warehouse (the old Levi's plant near the Brownsville airport) was getting too crowded with the machines, he took a county crew to try to demolish them. He said that after spending one hour trying to demolish just one machine, he saw that it would not do and started looking around for buyers. In steps Zayas and Masso.
There is nothing Saenz can do to stop the use of the machines by the owner after they leave his hands. So far, so good.
But we are not dealing with what is legal and what is not. He can destroy them, eat them, sell them, or whatever. The operators can put them to work if they operate within the laws of the state.
But the kicker is this: Sanez has used his "crusade" against the eight-liners to build up his public relations image to stamp out organized crime's use of the machines for money laundering and other crimes.
Couldn't his public relations advisor have told him that selling the devices to someone represented by Masso and Zayas – already deeply enmeshed in the eight-liner trade – would raise some eyebrows? Or did they serve him badly and now he has to answer in the court of public opinion to justify himself going back on his campaign pledges?
The rest is just smoke.
That does not mean we are blinded to the Big Story by this side issue. It means that because of the Big Story, the DA's Office had access to the cash to make those disbursements. There's nothing illegal about that.
Why are we not surprised that Masso and Zayas are involved in the April 11, 2014 purchase from the DA's Office of 505 machines for a cool $100,000 non behalf of Lowkes Manangement LLC?
Masso is the registered agent for Brownsville-based Grey Gaming LLC. in which Lowkes Manangement LLC also owns interests. And Grey Gaming Design LLC – whose registered agent is Rick Zayas – is also based in Brownsville.
Now – for those recent arrivals among us – Rick Masso, Carlos Masso's Masso's nephew, now lives in Las Vegas, Nevada. Lowkes International remains a valid corporation in Nevada listing the same directors.
If you remember, Rick Masso moved to Las Vegas after it got a little hot for eight-liners here. Before that, he was one of the biggest eight-liner operators, even getting to the point where he rented the machines to other operators.
Zayas was Rick Masso's lawyer then, and apparently, still is.
But even then, Saenz said that he has not touched a penny of the machines he has sold.
"All the money from that sale is still there," he said. "We haven't used a penny of it."
Another blogger has posted that documents at the Texas Secretary of State indicates that Lowkes relinquished the authority to do business in Texas in 2006. So?
Now, how does the name Robert Cuellar (of Hidalgo County) get involved in this? Cuellar has been identified as one of the biggest eight-liner operators in South Texas. As such, he would have been interested in purchasing some of these bargain-priced machines for his business.
In fact, we are following up a lead that indicates that some of the machines are currently operating in La Grulla, in Starr County. Did Lowkes or another subsidiary sell them to the operators there (the Cuellars?)? Did Saenz know? How about Zayas or Masso? We still don't know.
Zayas knew what he was doing, as did Masso. Saenz should have known better given both of these attorneys' association with the eight-liner industry.
Here are a few caveats.
It is not illegal for the Cameron County DA to sell the machines after he finds out it will be difficult to convince the Texas Water Quality Board (not the EPA) that heavy metals will get into the subsoil and the water. That excuse, if not totally believable, is still plausible.
There is nothing Saenz can do to stop the use of the machines by the owner after they leave his hands. So far, so good.
But we are not dealing with what is legal and what is not. He can destroy them, eat them, sell them, or whatever. The operators can put them to work if they operate within the laws of the state.
But the kicker is this: Sanez has used his "crusade" against the eight-liners to build up his public relations image to stamp out organized crime's use of the machines for money laundering and other crimes.
Couldn't his public relations advisor have told him that selling the devices to someone represented by Masso and Zayas – already deeply enmeshed in the eight-liner trade – would raise some eyebrows? Or did they serve him badly and now he has to answer in the court of public opinion to justify himself going back on his campaign pledges?
The rest is just smoke.
8 comments:
Stop hating on Saenz Juan, look at the bright side dude…..the blimp hasn't mentioned the polyps in his ass-hole, since Saenz started talking to him again dudes..LOL!
The round mound of ass-pound is in gay hog heaven since Luis Saenz started talking to him again dudes…..He is doing laps naked in his pool and signing in the rain…i know, not a pretty picture..lol…..the blimp is acting like Joanie, when Chachi came back and swept her off her feet…lol!
Saenz needs to be carful dudes….the crazy gay blogger has the mind of an elephant…and the body as well….he is worse than a woman scorned….he lives to stick it to people that have harmed him at one time or the other….no pun intended on the sticking it to them part…lol!
If history has taught us anything…it is that the grotesque ball of gayness will once again go after Mtr. Saenz in the future….such is the life of a sex deprived gay blogger dudes…lol!
Nobody gives a fuck about yesterday's story, Juanita.
Luis Saenz and his "Operation Bishop" (naming his operation means he and Melissa Zamora are watching too much TV) is merely a means to keep his mug and name in the public eye. He raids the 8-liner businesses of his political opponents or people he doesn't like, and he sells them to Starr County...where 8-liners are legal and taxed...because spreading the action in Starr County puts indirect pressure on Cameron County to "accept" the legalization as a means to increase taxes. This in turn puts pressure on the state to legalize gambling in South Texas....something that will surely bring in lots of money. Luis Saenz can't even remember his campaign promises...except the one to his wife to leave the females in his office alone.
How can Carlos Masso be representing these eight liner owners or corportations? Carlos Masso is a part time prosecutor in Willacy County making over $80 thousand a year for part time work! Carlos Masso is wearing two hats like he did in the Armando Villalobos administration doing the same thing? That has to be some kind of conflict of interest? I guess the favoritism, nepotism and all kinds of whatever is still going on in Cameron County? Didn't these dumb asses learn anything from the corruption scandal that embarassed this county and its citizens?
If you want to be taken seriously stop with your gay - bashing and lose the "dudes" and "lol".....it's annoying. You seem to have an unhealthy obsession with Wightman, get help please.
Court of 'public opinion?' How about a court of criminal law?!
Once those machines were confiscated, they became property of the county, not the County DA to enrich himself and certain other hand-selected staff members. That's taxpayer property and money, and Saenz' actions are really no different than the last DA, using forfeiture-generated funds to enrich his compadres. What state or county law, regulation and/or policy permits the use of forfeited public funds to enhance the salary of public servants? I was not knowing that the county offered incentive pay to people to simply do the job for which they were hired.
The DA selling those machines to whom and how they were sold is no different than what the Panama Unit did with drugs. The DA, like the Panama Unit, used the might of the law to confiscate illegal booty from some only to sell it to others who return it to the streets.
Aside from obvious ethical violations, did Saenz' office violate county policies for the sale of county property? Shouldn't those machines been open to public sale or auction, where any person or entity -- not named Zayas and Masso, two known entities in the eight-liner industry -- could have had the same opportunity to pay $200 per machine? $200 EACH machine!
Conservatively, the county could have received three-times that amount if opened to fair and competitive bidding. That's downright criminal that the county taxpayer was deprived the benefit of those funds in favor of enriching a privileged few. Just because Villalobos did it does not make it right! He’s rotting in a Federal prison right now, for chrissake!
Agree with RSB, something smells in Cameron County.
Saenz also has a secret of how he turned a hit and run into nothing because it was his sister and laws kids who were drunk and hit someone he should be fired he fixed that one
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