SAENZ, CORTEZ DISCOVER: 8-LINER CRUSADE 2-EDGED SWORD

By Juan Montoya
What started out ostensibly as a law-and-order crusade to rescue the Sunday plate offerings and bingo proceeds of the good bishop of the Brownsville diocese being devoured by the wide-open 8-liner (maquintas) operators in Cameron County, has turned into a two-headed monster.
Cameron County District Attorney-elect Luis V. Saenz in April 2013 vowed unmitigated war on the illegal gambling joints and enlisted the aid of mass media, a PR spin machine, and law enforcement entities from cities, the Texas Attorney general, and even the federal government through the Dept. of Homeland Security and the Drug Enforcement Administration.
For months, the media was at his beck and call, covering the raids on gambling parlors and recording the arrests of both operators and patrons – many of them elderly – as they were handcuffed and hauled off to be booked.
The nightly news features Saenz and former DEA agent Victor Cortez – his right-hand man on the eight-liner crusade – leading off the embarrassed gamblers decked out in cowboy hat and holstered weapons.

Large amounts of cash was seized, as were the machines. The cash was kept and divided among the law enforcement entities. Saenz promised that the machines – which were sold back to the public by Saenz's predecessor Armando Villalobos – would never be used again because he would "steamroll" them before that happened.
In the past, Saenz told an interviewer, the DA's office would allow the owners to purchase them back and then set up shop again.
"What made the difference was my decision to say 'we're not going to sell these eight-liners back to you. That's what had been happening. You would seize them today and in a matter of days they would make and agreement where they would resell them. What do you think they were going to do once they resold them? They would put them back. So when I put the word out that we're not going to sell them back to you that set off shock waves to the eight-liner community. Some of them started loading them up on their own and moving out."
Or so the public thought.
After a time, the Brownsville Police Department told Saenz that the old Levi's plant near the Brownsville airport they used as storage was too full. Would he do something to get rid of some of the machines?
According to Saenz, several state and federal environmental agencies told him he could not "steamroll" the machines as he had promised because of the hazardous chemicals contained in their motherboards. Later, it was discovered that Saenz discarded the idea of recycling the materials and began to look for ways to capitalize on the idle eight-liners.
Word started to leak out sometime in late Fall of 2014 that the DA's Office – with Saenz's blessing – had sold at least 200 eight-liners to arcade operators in Starr County. Upon investigating the leads, former DA investigator Joe Lopez – terminated by Saenz over a domestic abuse complaint his wife later disavowed – confirmed that he had been the DA's emissary to the Starr County eight-liner operators.
"I know who bought them and how many there were," he told a social media writer. "They were bought and put to work over there."
Other sources confirmed that Cortez and his fellow former DEA agent and DA investigator George DeLaunay were aware of the sales that went contrary to Saenz promise to the representatives of the city, state and federal governments.
Lopez said he would gladly provide the information and asked the reporter to call back a day later.
When the reporter called, Lopez did not reply. However, a text message Lopez sent to a "judge" (and mistakenly to the reporter) indicated that he had been dissuaded by unknown parties from further cooperation with the writer.
Other social media grew curious about the growing crescendo of talk that the DA was selling the eight-liners to gaming interests.
On December 8, 2014, El Rrunrrun made a public information request to the DA's Office asking for "information concerning the sale or transfer of 8-liner machines or other gambling devices which have been seized by the (DA's Office) during Operation Bishop from January 1, 2013 to present..."
Asst. D.A. Edward Adrian Sandoval denied the request December 17 (one day before the 10-day requirement under the Open Records Act) saying the request was "ambiguous."
Sandoval wanted specific names, dates, agency that made the seizure, etc.
"Therefore, pursuant to Texas Government Code 532.222(b), you are respectfully asked to clarify your request and more specifically identify the information/materials sought."
Sandoval never denied there had been machines sold. He merely built the stone wall and asked the blog to specify which brick we wanted.

Things would have remained there except that another blogger who had provided Saenz with a social media megaphone on the eight-liner crusade also had contacts in the DA's Office which provided him with the specifics on another sale of the machines, this time to a Georgia company.
He buttered up DA PIO Melissa Landin (aka Zamora) by saying in an email dated January 6, 2015 at 1:04 p.m. that "As you can see, Montoya did with the information exactly as I said he would – he claimed Saenz used it to give you a raise and that is why he broke his promise (not to sell the machines)...
The blogger (Robert Wightman) referred to the fact that Saenz, like his predecessor Villalobos, used the DA's Forfeiture Fund to assuage the salaries of his favorites in the department. Landin gets $7,500 from the fund, Sandoval gets $1,500, investigator DeLaunay $18,000, and so do more than a dozen others.
Then, he dropped the bomb.
"I am asking for any document which will show how much money was received from the sale of the 8 Liners to the Georgia company, and how the money was distributed and spent."
At 3:34 p.m. later that day (exactly 2 and one-half hours after his request), Landin replied: (Click on graphic to enlarge)

The truth was that Saenz signed off on the sale of 500 eight liners to Lowkes International for $100,000 with the promise of another 100 if the sale was a success. It was. What no one knows was how many other sales were made and how much was pocketed by the DA's Office. Lopez's deal with the Starr County operators and how much Saenz got still has not been revealed.
His claim that "no monies have been expended" is like Clinton saying he hadn't inhaled from the joint as a college student.
There is no question that Saenz approved the sales and broke his word to the citizens of Cameron County and other law enforcement agencies. There is no question that former DEA agents Cortez and and DeLaunay went along with the lie. And there is no question that the DA's Office, through selective dissemination of public information to lapdog bloggers through its PIO, have sought to perpetrate a cover up of the facts.
Saenz is now running for reelection. Cortez is running for sheriff as a Republican against Democrat Omar Lucio, and Landin is running both the candidates' campaign websites  (i.e. Spin Machine) even as she is employed as the DA's PIO on the public payroll.
Will the voters forgive them and put Saenz back in office and Cortez in the sheriff''s chair?