The city manager from the border city of Laredo, Texas, has quit his job amid a scandal dealing with an ongoing large-scale FBI corruption probe into a company linked to the wall building effort. The city official is named as one of the target subjects in a series of raids carried out by federal agents.
On Monday evening, Laredo City Manager Jesus Olivares resigned from his position during a city council meeting surrounding a recent series of raids and the possibility of placing him on leave, the Laredo Morning times reported.
Olivares, along with Laredo councilmen Rudy Gonzalez, Alex Perez, Alberto Torres and Roberto Balli are part of the 17 individuals who have been named as target subjects in a series of recent search warrants carried out by the FBI. As Breitbart Texas reported, federal agents carried out a series of raids throughout the state targeting the offices of Dannenbaum Engineering Corporation and several public officials.
Houston-based Dannenbaum Engineering Corp. has been involved in the construction of border barriers and is one of the companies that has expressed interest in building the border wall. One of the proposals by the firm points to a possible expenditure of $379 million in order to fill up various gaps along the border in the Rio Grande Valley area.
Dannenbaum Engineering has a history of scandals with the firm being the target of lawsuits. In 2005, the Brownsville Navigation District sued Dannenbaum over $21.4 million that the government entity paid to the engineering firm for the construction of an international bridge that was never built, the Brownsville Herald reported at the time. The funds were paid to subcontractors in Mexico that were then funneled to shell companies.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded the Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and Stephen K. Bannon. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook.
Brandon Darby is managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded the Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and Stephen K. Bannon. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.
(Disclosure: Brandon Darby has spoken publicly about previously working undercover with the FBI and has testified in trials on their behalf. He continues to communicate with a variety of U.S. and foreign law enforcement agencies in connection with efforts to report on and expose transnational criminal organizations and to bring a voice to the victims of such groups.)
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.