Texas City Officials Arrested on Bribery Charges

There is some disturbing news coming out of a small border town in Texas.

Several officials have been arrested on bribery charges.

According to the report, they were taking money from a local business owner.

Lock Them Up

You guys know I have no empathy for public corruption, regardless of which side of the aisle it is committed on.

If you are an elected official and you are corrupt, may you wind up in jail never to see the light of day again.

That could be the immediate future of Edcouch, TX, City Manager Victor Hugo De La Cruz and City Councilman Rene Flores.

A federal grand jury handed down a four-count indictment against them on September 2, citing various bribery charges.

Prosecutors maintain that during a period from June 2019 to September 2019, the two officials were bribed by a marketing company located in Brownsville.

The report stated that the marketing company was paid $3,000 on two separate occasions for alleged work.

In turn, the owner sent kickback payments to the city officials, claiming he sent two payments of $1,000.

It did not really make the news, but City Hall was raided in Edcouch in 2023, just not with the same fanfare of the raids against officials in New York City recently.

Of course, we have to let the legal process play out here, but they would not have been indicted in this case unless officials had a stack of evidence.

It’s not to say that you cannot manipulate a grand jury (see the Donald Trump charges by Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg), but it takes an awful lot of resources to pull that off.

If these two are found guilty, hopefully, the judge throws the book at them and they spend the appropriate amount of time behind bars.

In my world, there would be a separate standard for public officials who are suppose to be working for the people.

They were elected and trusted to do the right thing, yet here they are cheating locals out of taxpayer dollars so they could each make a quick $1,000. It’s pathetic.