FEDS INDICT CARTEL BOSS LAWYER FOR TAX EVASION

By Juan Montoya
Remember the arrest of five Gulf Cartel members by the Border Patrol when they were fleeing from a rival faction and jumped in the Rio Grande to save themselves.
The rivalries between the Cárdenas family in Matamoros – with Mario “Pelon” Ramirez Treviño and “Metro-4” in Reynosa forming one faction; the other led by the head of the Gulf Cartel, Jorge Eduardo “El Coss” Costilla Sanchez.
Juan Rincon, the Rio Bravo plaza boss, was loyal to Costilla, and was stuck in the middle.
During a running gun battle where he knew a hit team had been sent to kill him an his associates, they instead jumped into the river. Rincon, Jose Luis Zuniga "El Wicho", Jose Luis Duenes, Armando Arismendi and Heriberto Bazan ended up in the hands of federal authorities and charged with various charges of drug running in federal indictments.
Rincón was arrested about a week after Rafael Cárdenas Vela, a boss with the Cardenas clan,was arrested in Port Isabel.
After their trial, all five men – and Cardenas – were convicted and sentenced to lengthy prison terms.
According to a federal indictment, Rincon and his four companions hired Brownsville attorney Guillermo Vega Jr. to represent them in federal court and paid him a total of $378,446.
Now, years after the trial  and conviction of his former clients, the federal government has indicted Vega for income tax evasion. They claim in the seven-count indictment that Vega reported only $9,530 in taxable income.
Vega claimed he owed the IRS only $4,337. Instead, the government charges, he should have paid $$129,908 and now owes an additional $126,253 in penalties.
Vega, who showed up without an attorney during his arraignment, was provided a court-appointed representative on a one-time basis and
admonished by U.S. Ronald G. Magistrate to procure his own attorney.
Vega entered a plea of not guilty.
Lawyers acquainted with the case said that federal prosecutors have a receipt issued by Vega to one of the defendants mother for $350,000 and that prosecutors are looking into trips that Vega took to exotic locales like Jamaica using the proceeds of the money paid to him.
Others say that Vega hired other local attorneys and paid them $5,000 to represent four defendants without telling them about the large sum paid him by their relatives.
Since there is no answer required in federal criminal trials, a trial has been set on the case. Vega remains free on bond.