Posted 8:54 am Thursday, February 09, 2012
Wanted Mexican Ex-Official Arrested In Tyler, Later Released
By KENNETH DEAN
Staff Writer
Staff Writer
The U.S. Department of State's order to release a former Mexican government official from custody after a Tyler traffic stop has an East Texas congressman wanting an oversight committee to look into the order, which has now been reversed.
One day after being told to release 41-year-old Hector Hernandez Javier Villarreal, the former secretary executive of the Tax Administration Service of Coahulia, Mexico, and his 28-year-old wife, Maria Teresita Botello, authorities said they are once again searching for the couple.
One day after being told to release 41-year-old Hector Hernandez Javier Villarreal, the former secretary executive of the Tax Administration Service of Coahulia, Mexico, and his 28-year-old wife, Maria Teresita Botello, authorities said they are once again searching for the couple.
"It's the kind of thing that I constantly worry could happen, but I was kind of surprised when it actually did happen," U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Tyler, said Wednesday in a phone interview.
Smith County sheriff's deputies arrested the couple last week and transported them from the Smith County Jail to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement division, or ICE, of Homeland Security in Dallas. After their arrest, the State Department ordered their release.
Gohmert said he was told the couple was released because they had a valid visa despite Villarreal being wanted by his own government.
Smith County Chief Deputy Bobby Garmon said Villarreal and Botello are wanted for the embezzlement of hundreds of millions, possibly billions, of dollars through Villarreal's office in Coahuila, Mexico.
The Coahuila attorney general told Mexican media that Villarreal was arrested in November for his alleged involvement in the falsification of documents to take out government loans from banks in Mexico.
Since posting a $1 million cash bond in Mexico, Villarreal and his wife were believed to have been hiding in Mexico City, Mexico and Brownsville.
TRAFFIC STOP
The couple's attempts to elude law enforcement came to an end Feb. 1 when a Smith County deputy initiated a traffic stop on Texas Highway 31 west when he noticed the couple's 2011 Mercedes SUV did not have a front license plate.
Garmon said that during the stop, the two gave conflicting stories of where they came from and were going.
"The deputy asked for consent to search the vehicle and was given permission. Once inside he found two small children, plastic bags of clothes and toys and a large amount of U.S. currency and a shotgun," he said.
Garmon said the deputy took the couple and another man, identified as 33-year-old Oswaldo Coronado, a U.S. citizen, into custody and transported them to the Smith County Sheriff's Office for questioning.
He said that during the interviews detectives gathered information that the three were involved in money laundering. They subsequently were charged, and Child Protective Services was called to place the children in foster care.
Garmon said that after his office asked the Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms, Tobacco and Explosives to check the shotgun, the Department of Homeland Security and ICE got involved in the case.
"It was not the weapon but who the owner of the weapon was associated with that piqued their attention," he said.
Federal authorities took custody of Villarreal and his wife and transported them to Dallas, where they were held on a federal detainer due to immigration status.
State Department spokesman John Echard deferred questions to ICE. Carl Rusnok, Dallas-area ICE spokesman, said he was still seeking answers to Tyler Morning Telegraph questions.
Garmon said federal authorities told him ICE was looking for the couple based on Mexican warrants.
"People make mistakes, but the State Department is now telling everyone that Mexico wants them back," he said.
OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE?
Gohmert said the incident underscored America's immigration system flaws.
"Our immigration system is so badly broken. Here we are 10-plus years after 9/11, and we're still having problems with people being let into the country or allowed to stay in the country on expired visas," he said.
Gohmert said people should remember the 9/11 terrorists. Many were in the states on expired visas.
In the Villarreal case, Gohmert said the State Department told other agencies they had to release the couple. Sheriff officials said they learned Villarreal entered the country on an EB-5 visa, which allows into the country a foreigner wanting to invest $500,000 or more into a socio-economically challenged area for improvements.
Garmon said his department has the Villarreals' business plan used to obtain the visa, but would not divulge details.
Gohmert said, "The State Department said the couple came into the country on a valid visa, so we have to let them stay until the visa expires. They should have been deported. When you have a criminal from a foreign country you pick them up and hold them until the treaties with the other country can be satisfied and they can be transferred to that country on a warrant. The last thing you do is release them back into the country."
Gohmert said Texas law enforcement members he spoke with were surprised and shocked by the State Department's request.
"I'll be alerting the immigration subcommittee, which is under the Judiciary Committee, because this is the very kind of thing we have got to fix," he said. "I think maybe there should be a government oversight committee on this."
Gohmert said the incident could rise to congressional hearings.
"(ICE officials) were told by the State Department to release these people, so we probably need to drag someone from the State Department in front of us to ask them why and if there is some law they were working under. I am not familiar with any law like that, so I'd like to know what premise they were acting under," he said.
State Rep. Leo Berman, R-Tyler, said he believed the incident will fuel the border-issue.
"It affirms my stance that the border is not closed, but wide open to anyone who wants to come through including criminals and would be terrorists. Obviously our president and Homeland Security are not telling the truth when they claim the border is tighter than it has ever been," he said.
Garmon said his deputies did their job and put the couple in jail.
"If they are never found, or they are deported, then our warrant for our case will just stay active. Yes, it's frustrating, but this is something way above our heads. We did everything we can do," he said.
Garmon said he believes the case was a punctuation mark on the debate over border security.
"We have heard these two may be involved in other crimes here in our country and in Mexico," he said.
Garmon said his department seized the $67,000 found in the vehicle and the Mercedes. It also filed paperwork to be awarded that property through search and seizure laws.
"This is a prime example of why we say no traffic stop is ordinary," he said. "It was just a license plate missing that led to the discovery of who these people are and that they were in our area."
