2026 YEAR OF DECISION: ELECT A CANDIDATE FOR COUNTY JUDGE WITH A CARTEL-LINKED PEDIGREE, OR A PROVEN ADMINISTRATOR WITH INTEGRITY?

By Juan Montoya
Special to El Rrun-Rrun
U.S. Dept. of Justice
Reforma
Various Sources

This year, Cameron County voters are approaching a watershed moment November 3 in the election for county judge.

Will they elect Steve Guerra, the Democratic candidate with familial links to the Gulf Cartel, or will they repeat what they have done at least five other times and elect his Republican opponent – this time Mauro Garza – instead?

The Republicans were Tony Garza Jr., who was elected three times and went on to become Texas Secretary of State and then U.S. embassador to Mexico. Cascos was elected twice and followed Garza by being appointed as Texas SOS. Could history repeat itself?

Guerra beat incumbent Eddie Treviño after a nasty internecine Democratic Party runoff where his anonymous proxies used misinformation and innuendo charging Trevino sold Boca Chica Beach to SpaceX's Elon Musk, that he received shady under-the-table construction contracts, and pictured him as a rodent, or a "rata."

He is now calling upon his opponent and those of his followers he maligned for party "unity" to face his opponent Garza in the November 3 general election. Is this a case where party loyalty demands too much?

In contrast, Garza's campaign for his party's nomination refrained from maligning his competition and urges putting "county before party and people before politics."

But it is Guerra's Gulf Cartel connection that should give county voters cause for concern. This is not hearsay. It is documented across genealogy, court cases citation, and U.S. Department of Justice cases,  evidence, and press statements.

There is no dispute or cause for defamation or libel (the truth is its own defense against libel) to say that Guerra: 

GRANDFATHER WAS FOUNDER OF GULF CARTEL

* Is the grandson of Cartel del Golfo founder Juan N. Guerra, whose criminal organization was headquartered in Matamoros and northern Tamaulipas and used violence and coercion to gain control of smuggling routes and bribed officials at every level of government. (That's Don Juan in the white hat and Juan Abrego Garcia standing with a white Styrofoam cup in his hand). Rivals were eliminated.

HIS FATHER UNCLE OF JUAN GARCIA ABREGO, RUTHLESS GULF CARTEL BOSS 

* That Steve Guerra's father is the uncle of  Juan Abrego Garcia, who took over the Gulf Cartel after Juan N. Guerra retired and passed away.
García Abrego was convicted on 22 counts including money laundering, drug trafficking, intent to distribute and running an ongoing criminal enterprise. After a four-week trial, a jury needed only 12 hours to convict García Abrego on all charges. He was sentenced by the presiding judge to 11 consecutive life terms, and is currently incarcerated at the United States Penitentiary, Florence, ADMAX, (commonly known as ADX Florence) in Florence, Colorado. His rivals were often eliminated.

HIS AUNT SANDRA MEDINA GUERRA: PRICE FIXING, CONSPIRACY TO MONOPOLIZE

* That Steve is the nephew of Sandra Guerra Medina, who pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to fix prices and allocate the market for transmigrante forwarding agency services and one count of conspiracy to monopolize the same market. Guerra also agreed to pay fines as part of their plea agreements. According to the DOJ of the Southern District of Texas, Guerra was involved in a long-running and violent conspiracy which involved price fixing, extortion and money laundering. She joined seven others who also entered guilty pleas for their various roles in a scheme to monopolize the transmigrante forwarding agency industry in the Los Indios border region near Harlingen and Brownsville.

Some of their rivals and transmigrantes who did not comply with their enforced monopoly disappeared and were eliminated.

STEVE'S OWN LINKS TO CARTEL HUACHICOL

Yes, you may say, Steve Guerra's kin is involved in cartel-linked enterprises, but you should not visit the sins of the father upon the son. That is, until, you see that Steve himself did business with his Warrior's Fuel Traders LLC that purchased $100,000s, more likely millions, of fuel in the United States and shipped them to Mexico to corporations that have been identified as engaging in fiscal huachicol through criminal cartels. A full search for the record of those transactions is currently underway.

After months of denying any link between him and the importation of petroleum products into Mexico, documentation from the Mexican government, the Texas secretary of State, state district court records, and federal sources have  linked Brownsville Navigation District chairman Steve Guerra directly to shipments between his Warrior Fuel Traders Limited Liability Corporation (LLC) and Pyrodiesel Del Cento SA de CV, named by the Federal Criminal Intelligence Center of Mexico as a principal in the smuggling of fuel by the Mexican cartels.

Guerra was first elected to the BND board in 2018 and appointed chair in 2022. He was reappointed to the position in May 2024. He beat Trevino in the Democratic Party runoff and is running against Mauro Garza in the general election this November 3.

A lawsuit in state court outlined a debt of Guerra's LLC of non-payment to Key Performance Petroleum Company of Navasota, Texas in just a month.

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In that lawsuit, Key Performance president Mark Jackson filed an affidavit October 26, 2022 in support of his company's lawsuit demanding payment of an outstanding balance of $333,484.47 and attached copies of 24 invoices totaling shipments of diesel and other petroleum products they had shipped at Warrior Fuel Traders' request over a a month's period in 2020 that had not been paid. Guerra was served the next day, October 27.

Before that, Warrior Fuels had been doing business for close to two years. Key Performance local agent Lindsay Clark, of Brownsville, was named as the local seller.

In Cause No: 2022-DCL-05154-I plaintiff Key Performance lists a systematic record of transactions that made up the outstanding balance of Warrior Fuel Traders, LLC.

Government investigations revealed that Warrior Fuel Traders/Steve Guerra was in direct business with Pyrodiesel Del Cento SA de CV. Pyrodiesel has been named as a principal in fuel smuggling activities (huachicol) of petroleum by the Federal Criminal Intelligence Center of Mexico. https://es-us.noticias.yahoo.com/huachicoleros-controlaban-puertos-pa%C3%ADs-060000638.html

Invoices to Warrior Fuel Traders from Key Performance indicate the diesel and petroleum products were shipped through Eagle Pass, Texas and delivered to Pyrodiesel. The Warrior Fuel Traders LLC was registered with the Texas Secretary Of State April 13, 2020 and its certification was forfeited June 24, 2022.

"The identification of the modus operandi: First modus operandi, the fuel is purchased in the United States and then imported into Mexico, where it is sold to various companies. These companies are responsible for distributing it through marketing and transportation companies, selling the fuel at a lower price than the one established in the national market.

"To this end, they use cloned gasoline and diesel import declarations to simulate the legal origin of the hydrocarbons, allowing them to legitimize the multiple sales they make," the Federal Center for Criminal Intelligence (FGR) analysis details.

This November 3, you, the voters will decide who to entrust with the future of their families and the welfare of Cameron County.