WAS SAENZ TRYING TO TRAP LUCIO TO PUSH CORTEZ?

By Juan Montoya
On January 6, the same day that a bevy of law enforcement officials descended on the Cameron County Tax Assessor-Collector's Office and arrested four officials there including Tony Yzaguirre, Cameron County District Attorney Luis V. Saenz was reported to have stopped at the sheriff's office at the Rucker-Carrizales Detention Ceneter in Olmito.
The Sheriff's Dept. under Omar Lucio was said not have been involved in any part of the investigation into the office, and Saenz was said to have paid the visit as a courtesy heads up to Lucio so that he would know what was going down.
Initially, the raiding party had met at the Brownsville Sports Park to plan the raid and Carrizales was in close proximity to the park.
Although many thought that Saenz had stopped there to give Lucio a heads up, others say that the visit was far from a professional courtesy call. They say that Saenz called on Lucio – Yzaguirre's close friend – to see if he would warn the tax office chief about the impending raid on his offices, a potential criminal act.
"Lucio didn't take the bait," said a source close to the sheriff. "If he had, he might have been subject to a charge such as obstructing justice by warning Tony."
When investigators descended upon the tax office, they carried away everything, including items such as Yzaguirre's personal belongings like his briefcase with private papers, the office cell phone and...his personal cell phone.
For days, Yzaguirre could not call anyone on the phone because he was lacking the cell phone numbers in the confiscated instrument.
Why would Saenz lay out the bait for the sheriff?, they were asked.
"If Omar got a charge, that would open the door for Luis to help his compadre Victor Cortez get his foot in the door," they said. "You know what they say about politics in South Texas, if you want to win an election, get your opponent indicted."