Sunland Park’s Daniel Salinas facing yet more charges

New Mexico Watchdog ^ | April 6, 2012 | Rob Nikolewski

[La Lydia]

It’s official: The situation in Sunland Park has gotten crazier than the last two seasons of “Lost.” On Friday, Daniel Salinas was arrested again, this time charged with 18 new felony charges, including receiving and soliciting illegal kickbacks, fraud and ethics violations. Salinas is the man who:

*as the border town’s mayor pro tem got drunk with then-mayor Martin Resendiz during a meeting at a restaurant with officials from a California firm during which Resendiz said he got so inebriated he signed city contracts [4]while not realizing their import

*has been accused of trying to blackmail rival mayoral candidate Gerardo Hernandez with a videotape in which a topless woman gave Hernandez a lap dance

*has been accused of getting Sunland Park city employees to entice Texas residents come to New Mexico and commit voter fraud by taking part in the mayoral election last month

*was arrested shortly before the election and charged by Doña Ana district attorney Amy Orlando with extortion, conspiracy to extort, tampering with evidence, and conspiracy to tamper with evidence

*nonetheless won the mayoral election over Hernandez (the lap dance guy) and a third candidate who is unemployed

*despite his election cannot step foot onto City Hall premises nor speak to any Sunland Park employees as part of the restrictions of his bond

*just this week lost in an appeal to the state Supreme Court arguing that he should be allowed to take the oath of office despite the charges he’s facing

As for Friday’s new charges, they involve Salinas as well as Sunland Park Public Works Director Jesus Dario Hernandez and Jorge Angulo of Envirosystems Management Consultants [10]in what officials say was an elaborate scheme involving padded expense reports, kickbacks and prostitutes.

From Associated Press: Envirosystems had a $2.4 million contract to do an environmental impact study of a border crossing for the town, and picked up expenses for Salinas and other city officials who attended a conference in Mexico last year, prosecutors said. The company then billed the expenses, which included prostitutes, drinks and strip clubs, to the city, the criminal complaints allege.

Angulo is also accused of billing the city thousands of dollars for campaign videos produced for Salinas’s campaign. All totaled, he is accused of submitting some $40,000 in fraudulent expenses through Envirosystems, which prosecutors allege got the contract with Sunland Park after giving $10,000 in cash to Daniel Salinas and $10,000 in cash to another city worker, with the understanding she would run for Dona Ana County Commission.

The money was to be reimbursed from a $12 million account the city created with a donation from Sunland Park Race Track owner Stan Fulton to help get a border crossing to Mexico built in the town, according to the criminal complaint.

Salinas is accused of soliciting kickbacks [2]to purchase alcohol and prostitutes in Mexico and then submitting fraudulent receipts to be reimbursed for the entertainment.

A $1 million bail has been requested for Salinas, who was taken into custody by New Mexico State Police Friday afternoon. Angulo and Hernandez were still at large as of Friday evening....

In the meantime, there’s a new joke circulating across the state:

Who do you get when you cross Rod Blagojevich and Marion Barry? Daniel Salinas! (Rimshot)

[La Lydia]

Mexican politics in all its splendor takes over a New Mexico community of 14,000 adjacent to El Paso, Texas. This is what you get when you have an open border, which is what El Paso has had since the late 70s. They screwed up their country so bad they had to leave and now they're here, screwing up ours. James Michener predicted this more than 30 years ago, and it has come to pass.

[Jane Long]

True...El Paso has been very corrupt, for a very long time.

it's a shame...they have an amazing climate and beautiful mountains...not to mention the world's best mexican food...but, their local government is rotten to the core.

[tcrlaf]

Not a SINGLE mention of Political Party affiliation in theis article.
DARE I ASK????

[martin_fierro]

WTFIIWNM?

[Dante3]

Exactly.

[elkfersupper]

Well, there is a somewhat legitimately-asked question as to whether or not that part of the world is New Mexico, Texas or Mexico.

Since Texas wouldn't put up with that for 10 minutes,and New Mexico will eventually catch on and do something every time a sitting Governor gets deposed; I will take Mexico for $1,000, Alex.

[La Lydia]

What do you mean “Texas wouldn’t put up with that for 10 minutes”? They have for years. Have you ever been to the Lower Rio Grande Valley, down by McAllen and Brownsville? It is just as bad, just as corrupt, just as dysfunctional, and cast in the same Mexican political mold. That part of Texas has been colonized part and parcel and sucks money out of the rest of the state like a Hoover. And ditto the crap-fest that is Laredo.