Elections

Meet Hillary’s Big Money Donor Who Moonlights As A Lawyer For Mexican Drug Cartels

(Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Steve Guest Media Reporter
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Attorney Roberto Yzaguirre, who has represented many Gulf Cartel bosses, has donated $2,000 to Hillary Clinton’s election efforts.

When Mexican drug lord Juan García Abrego was extradited to America, Yzaguirre was his lawyer. Abrego was the boss of the Gulf cartel until he was arrested in 1996.

In a 1996 Texas Monthly article, the magazine writes, “The San Antonio lawyer started out defending friends who had been busted for smoking pot. Twenty-five years later, his clients are big-time dope dealers and international cocaine kingpins — and he believes he’s saving the world.”

According to OpenSecrets, Yzaguirre has given Clinton two payments of $1,000. His first campaign contribution was in 2005 and his second one was in 2007.

Around the time Yzaguirre was funding Clinton, he picked up another client with ties to the drug trade. This time it was Osiel Cardenas Guillen, another former head of the Gulf Cartel.

According to The McAllen Monitor, Guillen was arrested in 2000 in Mexico and was extradited to the U.S. in 2007. Guillen was represented by Yzaguirre.

Then in 2014, Yzaguirre, according to The Dallas Morning News and the Associated Press, Juan Francisco Saenz-Tamez, the head of the Gulf Cartel, was arrested by US authorities in South Texas after being indicted on three drug and money launder charges. Again, Clinton donor Roberto Yzaguirre was the lawyer of choice.

The Gulf Cartel is one of Mexico’s most violent drug trafficking criminal organizations. From 2006-2012, it is estimated that 80,000 to 150,000 people have been killed due to drug violence. According to US officials, the split between the Zetas Cartel and the Gulf Cartel was one of the reasons behind the massive explosion in violence in Mexico.

In the 2015 Yzaguirre gave $300 to Democratic Rep. [crscore]Filemon Vela[/crscore], Jr. who represents Texas’s 34th Congressional District.

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