{"id":136327,"date":"2026-01-24T09:28:23","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T09:28:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/136327\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T09:28:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T09:28:23","slug":"webb-county-sheriff-martin-cuellar-indicted-on-federal-fraud-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/136327\/","title":{"rendered":"Webb County Sheriff Martin Cuellar indicted on federal fraud charges"},"content":{"rendered":"

Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy<\/a>, and give us feedback<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Webb County Sheriff Martin Cuellar appeared before a federal judge Thursday for allegedly using public funds to run a fraudulent for-profit disinfecting business during the COVID-19 pandemic. He has pleaded not guilty and was released on bond. <\/p>\n

The South Texas sheriff was indicted alongside his assistant chief in November. The charges, unsealed Thursday, accuse them of opening a private business, Disinfect Pro Master, in April 2020 and entering into agreements with local businesses and restaurants \u201cdespite having no employees or supplies of their own.\u201d <\/p>\n

The company secured a $500,000 contract to clean schools in Laredo, which they fulfilled using department staff and resources, U.S. Attorney Nicholas Ganjei of the Southern District of Texas said in a statement. <\/p>\n

\u201cFor more than two years, the business allegedly operated almost entirely with county employees and supplies, incurring minimal overhead,\u201d Ganjei said, alleging that Cuellar and two deputies split the profits three ways, each coming away with about $175,000. <\/p>\n

Cuellar\u2019s former deputy, Rick Rodriguez, previously pleaded guilty to his role in the scheme. On Thursday, Cuellar\u2019s lawyer unequivocally denied his client\u2019s role in any misconduct. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe government is going to have to prove their case that whatever misconduct happened by another person was intended by the sheriff and known by him,\u201d said Eric Reed of the Reed Law Firm in Houston. \u201cAnd they\u2019ll never be able to make that case because he did not know and was not involved.\u201d <\/p>\n

Cuellar could face up to 10 years in federal prison for charges related to conspiracy and theft of federal funds, and an additional 10 years for money laundering charges related to spending the alleged income to buy property in Laredo. <\/p>\n

Cuellar is the brother of U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar<\/a>, D-Laredo, who was recently pardoned on federal corruption charges<\/a> by President Donald Trump. Rep. Cuellar was indicted in May 2024 on a dozen counts of bribery, money laundering and conspiracy related to his relationship with an Azerbaijan-run oil-and-gas company and a Mexican bank.<\/p>\n

Martin Cuellar, a Democrat, was reelected in 2024 to a fifth four-year term as Webb County\u2019s top law enforcement officer, a position he has held since 2009. Henry Cuellar is currently running for his 12th two-year term representing his South Texas district. On social media<\/a>, Trump criticized the congressman\u2019s \u201clack of loyalty\u201d in deciding to run again as a Democrat on the heels of receiving the presidential pardon. <\/p>\n

Reed said he hoped politics did not influence the government\u2019s decision to pursue this case that \u201cshould have died a natural death\u201d a year ago. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m concerned that the government is proceeding in the face of explicit explicatory evidence exonerating the sheriff,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy, and give…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136328,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[145,15660,7686,1474,27,29,28,33188],"class_list":{"0":"post-136327","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-donald-trump","9":"tag-henry-cuellar","10":"tag-laredo","11":"tag-south-texas","12":"tag-texas","13":"tag-texas-headlines","14":"tag-texas-news","15":"tag-webb-county"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}