A Texas border judge appears to have set a $5,000 bond on a woman from Mexico who is facing money laundering charges. Authorities stopped the woman from trying to cross to Mexico with $250,000 and two handguns.
Court records filed in Webb county revealed that authorities booked 28-year-old Yeishi Moriya Villasenor on August 23 into a local jail. At that time, Moriya went before local county magistrate Leticia Martinez who formally charged her with one count of money laundering and set her bond at $5,000. Records also revealed that Moriya was released on August 25 after a local bail bondsman posted her bond.
The case began on Monday at the Juarez-Lincoln bridge in the border city of Laredo, Texas, when a woman driving a 2022 Volkswagen Jetta approached to enter Mexico, a statement from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) revealed.
A CBP officer sent the woman to a secondary inspection where authorities brought a police dog that led them to several bundles of cash, a 45 caliber handgun, and a 9mm handgun. According to CBP, the Webb County Sheriff’s Office filed state charges against Moriya and Homeland Security Investigations is also investigating the case. It remains unclear if federal authorities would be charging the Moriya in the future. According to the Laredo Morning Times, Moriya was going to receive $3,000 to move the money from Dallas to her home state of Michoacan.
The case sparked controversy in Mexico since Moriya is the daughter of Artemio Moriya, the mayor of the city of Tacambaro, Michoacan, and a member of the country’s ruling party MORENA. Numerous Facebook posts from Yeishi Moriya show her promoting her father’s political career.
The MORENA party was founded by Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) who has been previously quoted as claiming that the war on drugs is over. The Mexican president promotes a non-violent approach against drug cartels that led to the phrase “abrazos no balazos or hugs, not bullets.” This approach led to much criticism of AMLO and MORENA and accusations that the party is favoring certain criminal organizations.
On Friday evening, several days after Yeishi’s arrest, Artemio Moriya issued a video statement where he confirmed the arrest of his daughter. The politician claimed that at the time of the arrest, Yeishi was with her husband and two children. After his daughter’s release from jail, the family was going to travel back along with the politician’s wife but he lost communication with them and has not heard from them. The politician did not make any statements about the cash and weapons that US authorities seized from his daughter.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com.
Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.
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