On May 18, 2013, former Cameron County District Attorney's Office Assets Forfeiture chief Alfredo Padilla was on the stand being cross-examined by U.S. Asst. United States Attorney Michael J. Wynne on a number of practices that went on under hsi former boss DA Armando Villalobos.
Wynne drew from Mattingly the names of a number of local attorneys who had a direct line to the now-convincted and imprisoned Villalobos and bypassed his office.
In the course of the questioning by Wynne, he touched upon the practice of seizing 18-wheelers they suspected were being used by drug traffickers to carry large amounts of cash to South Texas that then went on across the river to the drug cartels.
The practice under Villalobos, he told the government, was that when the DA, through paid informants or other intelligence, learned that an 18-wheeler loaded with drug-related money was headed to the border through Cameron County, they would not alert authorities where the alleged stash originated. That was, Padilla, told Wynne, because if they did, whichever jurisdiction seized the dirty money would get to keep it.
In the case raided by Wynne, the DA's Office, through an informant, learned that an 18-wheeler departing from Atlanta, Ga., was carrying close to $1 million in cash. They just didn't know where the cash was stashed.After allowing the truck to travel from Georgia and through Texas, agents with the DA's Special Operations Group (SOG) stopped the truck after it had just crossed the Cameron-Willacy counties line on a traffic violation.
The SOG wanted to stop the truck as it crossed into Texas at Texarkana, but were instructed not to.
Why, Wynne asked Padilla.
"SOG wanted to do a stop in Texarkana, and I told them you cannot do that because hten that county that gets jurisdiction, that county gets the money. You know, so I said you have to wait until it gets into Cameron County."
So Villalobos wasn't really interested in stopping the flow of drugs and drug proceeds or alerting other law enforcement groups in Georgia the other states or Texarkana about what was passing through their jurisdictions as much as he was in confiscating the cash, Wynne implied.
He also had Padilla admit that the stop, the detainment, the search and the seizure of $901,000 that went to Villalobos' forfeiture fund to pay off his favorites in the DA's Office and purchase high-tech gizmos for the office might have been illegal since all were performed without so much as a the legal niceties of obtaining a warrant.
This came to mind recently when the suddenly photogenic and media extrovert DA Luis Saenz went to the media pushing a new program from the DA's Office.
Saenz said he and his officers would now target 18-wheelers which are suspected of being couriers for the drug cartels.
Saenz apparently thinks money goes and comes only in vehicles.
But has he thought that someone may say that they went to Las Vegas and said they had hit it big there? What about betting on horse races and saying you win big there, too?
Or how about not reporting large cash political contributions?
Instead he has targeted the 18-wheeler industry like if they're all into moving drugs. Is he strapped for cash for his campaign?
Suddenly, two months before the March 1 Democratic primary where he is having a tough time against his nemesis Carlos Masso, he is declaring a war on drugs (and a love of their money).What war? Since when was Cameron Country declared a War Zone? Does he rank Cameron County as if it were a country like Columbia, Guatemala, Panama, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Brazil and Mexico? Just what we need, another bad "branding."
First the poorest county in the USA, and now local truckers are all drug dealers and our resources have to be dedicated to that lucrative war. It's bad enough that the Texas Department of Public Safety trains their troopers handing out exorbitant traffic violation tickets at Los Tomates driving Mexican truckers to the Pharr crossing, but now they have to look out for Saenz's raiders as well.
And if they are, indeed, all narcos, who is the Tony Montana of Cameron County. Does GOP sheriff candidate (and Saenz protege) Victor Cortez know?
As much as Saenz says he is distancing himself from the Villalobos way of life, the more he acts like him.
9 comments:
Luis Saenz is a DICK. He is an opportunist who would sell out his mother for a good/positive public relations event. Yesterday he had that event with the downfall of the County Tax Assessor. He manages his judicial functions with attention to its public relations value. As citizens we don't know what he is doing for us....all we see is what he is doing for himself.
Str-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-etching it just a little bit there, no? Pretty vague vato.
ITS ALL A DOG AND PONY SHOW! Again all he is trying to do is get his name out there by exploiting county resources. This program is a sham just like "his investigation" led to the yzaguirre arrest. These moves are that are being done are strictly political. What Saenz doesn't realize is that the contrary to his belief, the people of Cameron county are not ignorant and see right through his headline seeking shows. CAMERON COUNTY NEEDS SOMEONE WHO SEEKS JUSTICE NOT HEADLINES!
Ok Masso, why don't you spend sum of that 8liner money to promote yousef.
Again with this shit !! Dam the man is doing his job and we the people like to be kept informed!! What is wrong with that you bunch of haters !!
Bla bla bla bla bla bla bla !!!
He's doing his job the same same way the braggart "donates" to charity and tells everyone about it.
If he's really doing it for the right reasons, he'd do his job and let the results speak for themselves.
Saenz is a petty self-promoter. His primary interest in being DA is not seeking justice for citizens and prosecuting criminals, but protecting his compadres from justice while he builds a retirement fund and lines his pockets with the proceeds of his position.
SAENZ MUST GO!!!
This is the ignorance of someone who has no clue about the workings of law enforcement? You talk a big game Montoya and whoever is filling your head with this crap is only doing this for political reasons or personal reasons. Alfred Padilla, remember Montoya granted Personal Recognizance Bonds to three county workers or officials arrested for violating the law and to add disrespecting the public trust. Just so you know Montoya, its every departments dream to stop that one person, vehicle, bank accounts or etc... and seize their money because that adds to slim budgets caused by local, state or federal regulations or because they want a piece of that pie also. Defense lawyers especially like that also because they don't care if the stop is legit or not? They get their piece of the cut after everything is said and done just Alfred Padilla.
That's the gist of it, pure and simple!
WOW, the Judge Mike JP 5-3 out putting signs up to vote for him. and he should be at his office working i thought.. Thats our county tax dollors at work...... Mabe we need to check his hours out what a loser,,
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