XPost: talk.politics.guns, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, sac.politics
XPost: alt.politics.democrats, tx.politics
Democratic Texas congressman Henry Cuellar and his brother, a Texas
sheriff, received thousands of dollars from a family with close ties to Mexico's "notoriously brutal" Los Zetas cartel, National Review reported Monday.
Cuellar, who is facing a tough reelection race this year, in 2006 received $1,000 from the then-wife of Antonio Peña Arguelles, a money launderer for
Los Zetas, which U.S. officials have called "the most technologically
advanced, sophisticated, and dangerous cartel operating in Mexico." Peña Arguelles, who in 2014 was sentenced to more than two years in U.S.
federal prison, himself donated $1,500 to Cuellar’s brother, Webb County sheriff Martin Cuellar (D.).
While the San Antonio Express-News at the time reported on the donations,
the story "never garnered national attention and largely disappeared"
after Henry Cuellar reportedly gave the money to charity, National Review noted.
The National Review report comes as the United States faces an
unprecedented migrant crisis, with two million illegal immigrants crossing
the U.S.-Mexico border since last October. The Biden administration has
faced widespread criticism, including from Cuellar, for its handling of
the crisis.
It also comes as Cuellar faces corruption allegations, with the FBI in
January raiding his home and campaign office. The multiple scandals have
added up to the congressman's toughest reelection fight since he first
took office in 2005.
"Cuellar's strange donation link to an alleged conduit for one of the
largest and most violent cartels in the region could be a liability,"
National Review noted:
Cartels leave a heavy footprint in the Rio Grande Valley, and a large
segment of the region's economy is linked to Border Patrol jobs. Notably,
the National Border Patrol Council—the labor union representing some
18,000 Border Patrol agents—opted to endorse Cuellar's Republican
challenger, Cassy Garcia, over the Democratic incumbent this year, despite having routinely endorsed Cuellar in past elections.
Cuellar's campaign told National Review after publication that
"resurfacing this 10-year-old story is a blatant smear attempt" and
insisted that Cuellar "had no knowledge" of the Peña Arguelles family's background.
Published under: border, Drug Cartels, Henry Cuellar, Mexico, Texas
https://freebeacon.com/democrats/scandal-plagued-texas-dem-received- donation-from-family-tied-to-the-most-dangerous-cartel-operating-in-
mexico/
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