XPost: talk.politics.guns, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, sac.politics   
   XPost: alt.politics.democrats, tx.politics   
   From: zinn@reno.us   
      
   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/   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)