Webb County Sheriff Martin Cuellar Jr. has been charged with fraud, two months after President Donald Trump pardoned his brother, Democratic congressman Henry Cuellar. The 67-year-old sheriff from Laredo, Texas, is accused of misappropriating funds to run a for-profit disinfecting business during the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to federal prosecutors, Cuellar, along with assistant chief Alejandro Gutierrez, 47, and former assistant chief Ricardo Rodriguez, 65, opened Disinfect Pro Master in April 2020. They allegedly used employees from the sheriff's office to run the company's day-to-day operations, both on and off the clock. The business secured a $500,000 contract to clean schools for the local district, with minimal overhead costs because it used county employees and supplies.
Prosecutors allege that Cuellar, Gutierrez, and Rodriguez each received about $175,000 from the business, which operated for more than two years. Cuellar reportedly used $71,000 of his proceeds to buy a 10-acre property. A federal grand jury indicted Cuellar on three counts of defrauding a local government that receives federal funds, one count of conspiracy, and one count of making a financial transaction involving criminally derived property.
Cuellar has pleaded not guilty. His attorney, Eric Reed, said the charges are “based on some untrue assumptions and narratives that have been fueled perhaps by politics and local rivalries.” Gutierrez also pleaded not guilty, while Rodriguez has already pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing. If convicted, Cuellar and Gutierrez face up to 10 years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000; Cuellar could receive an additional 10 years for money laundering.
The case comes after Trump pardoned Henry Cuellar and his wife, Imelda, in a federal bribery case last month. Trump later accused Henry Cuellar of disloyalty for not switching parties when running for re-election, saying he “essentially destroyed his life even with the Pardon given.”
