(The Center Square) – Not soon after President Donald Trump pardoned U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, his brother, Webb County Sheriff Martin Cuellar, was indicted.
On Thursday, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas announced that the current Webb County sheriff and his assistant chief had been indicted last year and recently appeared in federal court before a magistrate.
They were charged with misappropriated taxpayer money in connection to a scheme to defraud the Webb County Sheriff’s Office during the COVID-lockdown era.
Both residents of Laredo, Martin Cuellar Jr., 67, and Alejandro Gutierrez, 47, turned themselves in to authorities and made their initial appearances before U.S. Magistrate Judge Christina Bryan in Houston, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
This was after a federal grand jury returned a five-count indictment on Nov. 19, which was unsealed Thursday. It alleges that between 2020 and 2022, Cuellar and Gutierrez conspired with others to misappropriate WCSO funds. Cuellar was also charged with money laundering.
According to the indictment, “Cuellar, Gutierrez and former assistant chief Ricardo Rodriguez used WCSO staff and resources to run a for-profit disinfecting business during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Disinfect Pro Master. They used the company to enter into service agreements with local businesses and restaurants “despite having no employees or supplies of their own,” the indictment alleges.
Instead, they tasked WCSO employees with handling the company’s daily operations inside of the sheriff’s office, according to the indictment. The sheriff’s office was also used as a distribution center where WCSO staff “picked up schedules and equipment to conduct disinfecting services both on and off the clock with the county,” the indictment alleges.
Disinfect Pro Master landed a major client: United Independent School District schools in Laredo. UISD entered into a $500,000 contract for sheriff’s staff to clean public schools at the taxpayer’s expense, the complaint alleges.
“For more than two years, the business allegedly operated almost entirely with county employees and supplies, incurring minimal overhead,” and Cuellar, Gutierrez and Rodriguez each received one-third of the profits: $175,000, according to the charges.
Cuellar also used part of his profits to buy property in Laredo, according to authorities.
If convicted, Cuellar and Gutierrez each face up to 10 years in federal prison and a maximum fine of $250,000. Cuellar was also charged with money laundering, which carries an additional 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000, or twice the amount of property involved in the real estate transaction, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Rodriguez, 65, already pleaded guilty. His sentencing is scheduled March 16.
The FBI-San Antonio and Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General led the investigation within the Laredo Border Corruption Task Force.
The sheriff was indicted one month before his brother was pardoned by Trump. Henry Cuellar called on Trump to pardon him and his wife, Imelda, after they were indicted on foreign bribery charges in May 2024.
Prosecutors alleged Henry Cuellar and his wife accepted roughly $600,000 in bribes from an oil and gas company owned by the government of Azerbaijan and a bank headquartered in Mexico City. The payments were then allegedly laundered as consulting contracts through a series of front companies and middlemen into shell companies owned by Imelda Cuellar, who prosecutors said performed little to no legitimate work under the consulting contracts, The Center Square reported.
They maintained they were innocent and political targets. When Trump pardoned them, he said the Biden administration “weaponized the justice system against” political opponents. “Crooked Joe used the FBI and DOJ to ‘take out’ a member of his own Party after Highly Respected Congressman Henry Cuellar bravely spoke out against Open Borders, and the Biden Border ‘Catastrophe,’” he said, The Center Square reported.
Not everyone agrees.
Webb County Judge Tano Tijerina said Sheriff Cuellar’s indictment “should surprise absolutely no one. For years, Webb County and Texas House District 28 have endured what many residents openly refer to as the Cuellar Crime Syndicate where a closed circle of power of last names matter more than the law, and insiders protect insiders.”
Tijerina was the latest Democratic official to switch parties in late 2024, joining a movement in south Texas that flipped many of the counties red for the first time in state history, The Center Square reported.
“Between Henry [U.S. Rep.] requiring a pardon to avoid his own guilt and now, his brother, Martin, the Webb County Sheriff facing criminal indictment, the public has seen a full, unfiltered display of how deeply their culture of corruption has taken root,” Tijerina said. “I’m glad accountability is finally catching up. Badges, titles, and famous last names do not place anyone beyond the reach of justice. The Cuellar family is for the Cuellar family. Not South Texas.”
