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BROWNSVILLE, TX—Jose Manuel “Meme”Longoria, 52, has been sentenced for his role in the FBI’s public corruptioninvestigation of former 404th District Court Judge Abel Corral Limas, UnitedStates Attorney Kenneth Magidson announced today. Longoria, a resident alienfrom Mexico residing in San Benito, Texas, previously pleaded guilty to onecount of conspiracy to interfere with commerce under color of official right(extortion), two counts of aiding and abetting extortion, and one count ofaiding and abetting honest services wire fraud by former state Judge Abel CorralLimas.
Today, U.S. District Judge Andrew S.Hanen handed Longoria a 120-month sentence, which will be followed by athree-year term of supervised release. Longoria will remain in federal custodypending transfer to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in thenear future.
At the time of his plea November 21,2011, Longoria admitted to his role in a conspiracy involving the creation of afraudulent drug money seizure document prepared by former Cameron CountyDistrict Attorney investigator Jaime Munivez in November 2007; providinginformation on a pending murder case in return for providing a bicycle toMunivez; and the attempted recovery of drug proceeds from a truck nearRosenberg, Texas, both in early 2008. The recitation of evidence to the court indicatedthat as part of the public corruption investigation on Judge Limas, agentslearned Longoria was involved in other criminal activity including the creationof fraudulent documents.
In the first drug-related incident whichwas charged as part of the conspiracy by Longoria, agents conducted anundercover operation where ultimately Munivez met with Longoria and provided adocument, titled, “Article 59.03 Statement of Seized Property,” indicating$200,000 was seized on “11/20/07” by an investigator with the DistrictAttorney’s Office. The document was provided in return for payment of money.
In a second drug-related incident,Longoria assisted a drug trafficking organization in early 2008 in an attemptto recover a Georgia truck containing drug proceeds that was reported to bemissing on the outskirts of the Houston area. Longoria enlisted the help ofMunivez and another person to locate the truck with the possibility ofreceiving up to $90,000 for recovering it. Ultimately, the truck was found bythe Rosenberg Police Department and a total $289,290 in drug proceeds wereseized.
In a third incident, evidence provedLongoria and Munivez traveled to Matamoros, Mexico, where Munivez, atLongoria’s urging, provided information to a defendant who had a pending murdercase in Cameron County, Texas. Ultimately, Munivez received a bicycle valued at$274 with Longoria’s assistance.
Longoria also admitted to his role inarranging a $1,500 payment to Limas in April 2008. Evidence showed Longoria,acting as middleman for Armando and Karina Pena, arranged for Limas to issue acourt order allowing Armando Pena to report to the state probation by mailrather than in person. Pena, who had left Texas without authorization to residein Arkansas, was subject to arrest and revocation of his deferred adjudicationprobationary term for violating a condition of his eight-year probationary termimposed for aggravated robbery in March 2006. Karina Pena, Armando’s wife,contacted Longoria on April 22, 2008, seeking his assistance to arrange for herhusband to be permitted to report by mail from Arkansas. Two days later,according to court documents, Karina Pena was told Limas wanted $1,500;Longoria sought $300 for himself for arranging the deal. On April 24, 2008,Armando Pena finalized the arrangements with Longoria and wire transferred$1,800 to Harlingen, Texas. FBI agents later reviewed the Armando Pena statecourt case file and located a progress report written by Pena’s probationofficer indicating, “On April 23, 2008, the Honorable Court (Limas) contactedour office in reference to allowing the defendant to report by mail.” On May13, 2008, Judge Limas signed an order allowing Pena to report by mail.
Munivez and Armando and Karina Pena havepreviously entered guilty pleas to related charges on the extortion and wirefraud violation and have been sentenced. To date, a total of eight defendantshave entered guilty pleas as a result of the three-year public corruptioninvestigation conducted by local agents of the FBI with the assistance of theDrug Enforcement Administration and the Brownsville Police Department. AttorneyRay Roman Marchan was found guilty yesterday after a two-week jury trial ofpublic corruption-related charges involving his association with Limas.
Assistant United States AttorneysMichael Wynne and Oscar Ponce prosecuted this case.
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