Another government official from the Texas border region has been jailed on federal corruption charges. His name is added to a long list of government employees or officials that have been implicated bribery and other abuses. The various counties that make up the Texas border have a long history of being largely controlled by Democrats.
This week, FBI agents arrested Hector Chavez, the city manager in Eagle Pass, Texas, on four separate charges from an indictment handed down by a federal grand jury on April 13, court records obtained by Breitbart Texas revealed.
Chavez remains in federal custody pending a detention hearing next week. Maverick County lies south of San Antonio on the Texas/Mexico border and includes the city of Eagle Pass.
The allegations against Chavez listed in the indictment point to him having allegedly bribed a Maverick County Commissioner, lied to federal agents, forged contracts to hide bribes, and falsifying documents to “obstruct justice”.
According to the indictment, Chavez owned and operated a company called Chase Management that provided services tied to a landfill project. The city manager is accused of having paid at least $20,000 in bribes to rig the contract bidding process.
When federal authorities began to investigate the case, Chavez allegedly forged contracts in order to cover up the various bribes that were paid.
Breitbart Texas initially reported last year on an ongoing investigation against former Maverick County Sheriff Tom Herrera in connection to missing funds form his department. The investigation in that case was started by current Sheriff Tom Schmerber. Since Breitbart Texas last reported on Schmerber’s ongoing investigation into the missing funds, the case has grown and he has since sought the aid of his federal law enforcement partners.
As Breitbart Texas previously reported, last December the former Maverick County Justice of the Peace and a County Commissioner pleaded guilty to a bribery scheme to rig various contracts.
Court documents from that case revealed that Jose Luis Rosales, who served as Maverick County Precinct 3 Commissioner, pleaded guilty to receiving a bribe from former Maverick County Justice of the Peace Cesar Iracheta in exchange for another contract.
Also last year, Breitbart Texas reported on the sentencing of Robert Heredia and Cesar Flores, two other County Commissioner, for their role in another bribery scheme. The politicians pleaded guilty in 2013 to bribery charges in connection with a conspiracy that ran from 2010 to 2011 where they manipulated the bidding process to ensure that contracts would go to those they chose.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award winning journalist with Breitbart Texas you can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook.
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