New allegations in border fence lawsuit: racketeering, bribes and money laundering

The kickback scheme was allegedly hashed out over weeknight drinks at a steakhouse in McAllen. Amid surf and turf and expensive scotch, a Hidalgo County official said he would meet with contractors in the clubby confines of the strip mall restaurant.
There, Godfrey Garza Jr., director of the county’s drainage district, cajoled company executives to hire a firm owned by his family in exchange for a cut of lucrative construction contracts, according to new documents filed in state district court in Hidalgo County. The target of the plan: a $232 million project funded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the county to build a border fence and rehabilitate aging dirt levees along the Rio Grande.

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