Ex-county official, city commissioner, businessman sentenced in bribery case

Jan. 19 (UPI) -- The U.S. Justice Department said Thursday three Texas men, including a former Hidalgo County commissioner, have been sentenced for bribing two Weslaco city commissioners to award $38.5 million in city contracts.

Two unnamed engineering companies paid $4.1 million in bribes to get the contracts for rehabilitating Weslaco's water system, according to federal prosecutors.

U.S. District Judge Micaela Alvarez on Wednesday sentenced Arturo C. Cuellar Jr., 69, a former Hildago County commissioner, to 20 years in prison.

John F. Cuellar, 60, a Weslaco city commissioner, was sentenced to three years in prison. And Ricardo Quintanilla, 57, a Weslaco businessman, got 200 months in prison.

"Americans deserve safe, clean water provided through fair and open contracting, not illicit back-room deals," Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite Jr. said in a statement. "As this prosecution demonstrates, the Department of Justice is committed to prosecuting public officials and their enablers who award infrastructure contracts based on corrupt connections instead of merit."

Federal prosecutors said from March 2008 through December 2015, Arturo Cuellar and Quintanilla conspired with others to bribe Weslaco City Commissioners John Cuellar and Gerardo Tafolla for actions favorable to engineering companies pursuing large contracts with the city.

"The city really was in desperate need. ... Rather than thinking, 'I need to work to ensure that my community has good drinking water,' ... you closed your eyes to all of that and said, 'How do I line my pockets?'" Alvarez told Arturo Cuellar and Quintanilla during the sentencing hearing, The Monitor reported.

The Justice Department said one of the participants in the scheme got $4.1 million from two engineering companies.

Nearly $1.4 million was shared with Arturo Cuellar. He then facilitated a payment of $405,000 in bribes to his cousin John Cuellar, prosecutors said.

John Cuellar then took several official actions to benefit the companies, helping to award city contracts worth about $38.5 million, according to the Justice Department.

Alvarez rejected prosecutors' requests to consider the men as the ringleaders of the scheme.

The Monitor reported the alleged mastermind, who got the $4.1 million, was former Rio Grande City municipal Judge Leonel Lopez Jr., who had been cooperating with the investigation and was expected to testify. But he died of cancer in 2020.

Carlos A. Garcia, a defense attorney for Arturo Cuellar, said his client maintains his innocence.

"Our office will not turn a blind eye to public corruption, especially when it results in significant burdens to residents within our district," said U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani for the Southern District of Texas. "Weslaco was warned for years to upgrade its water infrastructure in order to provide potable water. The defendants used this opportunity to participate in a multimillion-dollar scheme that ultimately saddled residents with debt and bribery costs for their drinking water system.

"We hope the message in today's sentences will deter others from committing such crimes and provide some closure to the citizens of Weslaco."

Two others are awaiting sentencing in the case.