Texas Border Sheriff Martin Cuellar Indicted for Alleged COVID‑Era Fraud

Webb County Sheriff Martin Cuellar Jr., a Democrat and brother of U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, has been federally indicted on five felony counts alleging he used his Texas border sheriff’s office equipment, vehicles, supplies and personnel during the COVID‑19 pandemic to run a for‑profit disinfecting business called Disinfect Pro Master. The indictment, returned in November but unsealed Thursday when Cuellar made his first court appearance, says the business operated from 2020 to 2022, landed a $500,000 contract to disinfect a local school district’s buildings, and paid Cuellar and two employees more than $175,000 each, mostly from that contract, without reimbursing the county. Prosecutors charge him with three counts of defrauding a local government that receives federal funds, one count of conspiracy and one count of conducting a financial transaction with criminally derived property, alleging he used $71,000 in proceeds to buy a 10‑acre property; he has pleaded not guilty and was released on bond. His attorney insists Cuellar was not involved in the business and did not know county resources were being misused, suggesting local politics may be at play. The case comes weeks after President Trump controversially pardoned Rep. Henry Cuellar and his wife in an unrelated federal bribery case and then publicly attacked the congressman for not switching parties, adding a national political backdrop to what is formally a public‑corruption prosecution in a key border county.