MEX. GOVT. OFFICIALS-CARTEL DOING BUSINESS ON U.S. SIDE?

Special to El Rrun-Rrun
U.S .Department of Justice 

Valley Central.com

Proceso

Arrest Sources: U.S. Attorney's Office (Houston); Infobae; TabascoHoy; KRGV; KRGV(2); Valor Tamauolipeco; El Norte; Expreso

Background Sources: Proceso, Reforma; Valor Tamaulipeco (1); Narco en Mexico; Borderland Beat archives; Noticias Matamoros, Anonymous Sources)

The recent indictment and arraignments of 12 people associated with Tamaulipas and municipal
governments who had been operating for the better part of a decade on the U.S. side of the Rio Grande extorting Central Americans through transmigrante companies through violence has given people an inside look at the operations of organized criminal groups on both sides of the river.

The11-count federal indictment provided details into an alleged conspiracy known as ‘The Pool’ that prosecutors say used violence and threats to monopolize the transmigrante forwarding industry near Harlingen and Brownsville, federal prosecutors. 

Transmigrante agency owners and industry participants who refused to charge the fixed prices, pay into the pool or pay an extortion tax were subjected to threats, intimidation and acts of violence against themselves and their families, employees, associates and businesses, according to the charges.

Carlos Favian Martinez, 36, Mission; Marco Antonio Medina, 32, Rigoberto Brown, 38, and Miguel Hipolito Caballero Aupart, 70, all of Brownsville; Pedro Antonio Calvillo Hernandez, 47, Tamaulipas, Mexico; Roberto Garcia Villareal, 56, San Benito; Sandra Guerra Medina, 68, Rancho Viejo; and Mireya Miranda, 56, La Feria, conspired to fix prices and allocate the market for transmigrante services in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act, according to the indictment. Also named in the indictment were Jose de Jesus Tapia Hernandez, Miguel Hipolito Caballero, Diego Ceballos-Soto and Carlos Yzaguirre.

Following the indictments and appearances of the defendants before a federal magistrate, the link between former state and municipal officials and the human smuggling and drug cartels on the Mexican side were revealed.

For example, Carlos Favian "El Cuate" Martinez – who the Department of Justice press releases identify the main defendant in the group, is a high-ranking Gulf Cartel member aligned to the Matamoros faction, which has historically supported the Cárdenas faction. 

Mexican media sources and social media sites confirm that Martinez is married to Marlene Cárdenas, one of the daughters of Osiel Cardenas Guillen, the former leader of the Gulf Cartel and founder of Los Zetas. In 2010, Cardenas was sentenced to serve 25 years in federal prison without parole and will forfeit to the United States $50 million in proceeds from his illegal enterprise. 

Another among those indicted was José de Jesús Tapia Fernández, who  is a former Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) deputy for Tamaulipas.

Remember that both former Tamaulipas governors – Eugenio Hernandez Flores and his predecessor Tomas Yarrington – have been charged by federal authorities of taking bribes in return for protecting the criminal enterprises of the Gulf Cartel. In fact, Hernandez Flores was the Chief Financial Coordinator under Yarrington, who has admitted to using Texas real estate transactions to launder money he received from drug traffickers.

Yarrington pled guilty of money laundering and accepting bribes as governor on March 26, 2021. He entered a guilty plea for accepting more than $3.5 million in illegal bribe money that he used fraudulently to purchase property in the United States. Yarrington faces up to 20 years in federal prison. He also agreed to forfeit a South Padre Island condominium. A date for his sentencing has not been set yet. The U.S. is currently seeking the extradition of Hernandez Flores, who was released from prison by a Mexican judge.

Among the "Los Indios 12" charged with the more serious crimes of Conspiracy to Fix Prices and Allocate The Market and Combination and Conspiracy to Monopolize is Sandra Guerra Medina. Here's where familial and political interests converge. 

When indicted governor Eugenio Hernandez-Flores took over the State of Tamaulipas, he appointed Matamoros resident Jesus Roberto Rodriguez Guerra to be the head of the Tamaulipas State Tax Office. As such, he served under Flores for six years overseeing 41 tax offices. He later served as Secretary of Social Development of Matamoros (SEDESOL). 

He was appointed to head the SEDESOL by the Mayor of Matamoros Alfonso Sanchez, who just happens to be his cousin, when he won the election in 2011, the same year Rodriguez-Guerra moved to Brownsville. Despite the obvious conflict of interest, Rodriguez Guerra was in charge of deciding which public projects would get funds and which companies and individuals would be hired.

There were numerous public allegations in the Matamoros media that the bidding process may have been flawed in favor of some companies and individuals and that many projects were inflated. He was also, despite his public position, a vendor/supplier of parts and fuel to the municipality of Matamoros.

He also happens to be the cousin of Sandra Guerra Medina, one of the "Los Indios 12" conspirators along with "El Cuate" Martinez charged with controlling transmigrante traffic through extortion and with money laundering. And although Rodriguez Guerra isn't specifically named on the indictment or charged by Mexican prosecutors, his close links to the two former indicted governors and to cousin Guerra Medina has raised some eyebrows among federal investigators.  

Additionally, Mexican social media have pointed to his Brownsville home appraised at $969,928 in 2022 (Cameron County Appraisal District Account #352898) which he acquired from Gloor Development Corporation in 2015.

He won't be the first (or last) Mexican official to transfer capital to the United States and build palatial homes. 

As has been reported in the past, former Matamoros Mayor Mario Alberto Lopez Hernandez built a $1.5 million home on his property outside San Benito located at 26742 Guelker Road where he keeps his 25 pure-blood horses valued at more than $800,000.

And despite the prohibition by immigration law that someone with a visitor's visa cannot own real estate on the U.S. side of the border, he is reported to have placed the properties under a corporation (Grupo 5M) and under the name of his wife Marsella Huerta Sosa. 

Now Matamoros newspapers say that he is being considered to replace a Morena congressional deputy who died recently.

As we found out recently in the Sylvia Atkinson federal bribery trial, federal prosecutors cast a wide net in their efforts to convict named defendants. In the "Los Indios 12" indictment, prosecutors cite intercepted emails, texts messages, iCloud and gmail – among other communication apps – that revealed and unraveled overt acts of the alleged offenses. Even people who don't appear to be involved in the crimes are intercepted.

In the course of casting that net, many smaller fish are snagged and subpoenaed to testify in court in the prosecution of the accused. In the case of the 12 defendants and the decade-long extortion scheme, their ties to Tamaulipas and Matamoros elected officials and to suspected cartel operatives is probably on the tapes already, if not being recorded right now.

(*Note: The US indictment spells El Cuate's name as Carlos Favian Martinez.)