By Reuters
SUNLAND PARK, N.M. -- Town leaders were scrambling to find a mayor on Sunday because their mayor-elect is banned from City Hall and accused of a litany of crimes -- from trying to extort an opponent to billing the town for prostitutes and strippers during a border conference last year in Mexico.
Daniel Salinas, 28, was hoping to be sworn in by the Thursday deadline last week but already was facing earlier charges of extortion and bribery after allegedly trying to blackmail his opponent with a tape showing him receiving a lap dance from a topless stripper, said Dona Ana County District Attorney Amy Orlando.
A District Court ruling earlier this year forbid Salinas from entering City Hall or interacting with city employees after those charges, and the state's Supreme Court last week denied a request to have the restrictions lifted so he could be sworn in.
A day after the deadline, Salinas faced more trouble when he was arrested and charged with 18 additional criminal counts of fraud, receiving illegal kickbacks and violation of ethical principles of public service, according to a criminal complaint.
The arrest affidavit lists numerous counts of fraud, primarily for alleged activities during a Border Legislative Conference last year in Saltillo, Mexico.
He was being held Sunday in lieu of $1 million bail.
"These charges clearly show his ties to a corporation in Mexico that was willing to break the law with him, so the court found a million dollars an appropriate bond," Orlando said.
The complaint alleges that Salinas received kickbacks from EnviroSystems Management Consultants Inc., which is based in Flagstaff, Ariz., and has ties to Juarez, Mexico, in exchange for a multi-million-dollar contract with the city. The kickbacks included money for the activities during the conference that are at the center of the charges, according to the complaint.
Through what the complaint described as a "pyramid scheme," Salinas and his alleged cohort with EnviroSystems are accused of trying to bill Sunland Park, a town of about 14,000 near the borders of Texas and Mexico, for "night life" expenses during the November 2011 conference.
The alleged scheme was to have the owner of EnviroSystems, Jorge Angulo, pay per diem and expenses for the city's contingent to the conference -- and those expenses included strip club trips for the entire group and prostitutes for both Salinas and the city's public information officer, Arturo Alba, according to the complaint.
Then Angulo was to bill the city for the expenses, which would be paid back to him from the city's border crossing fund, which is reserved for border-related business, the complaint says.
Efforts to reach Salinas' attorney, Joshua Spencer, for comment on Sunday were unsuccessful.
Orlando said her investigation has led to additional city departments but she declined to elaborate on which ones and what the connections are.
As for who will be the city's mayor, council officials are working with the secretary of state to determine what procedures to follow, Orlando said.
Salinas has so far been indicted on the extortion charge and is pending grand jury on the bribery charges, in addition to Friday's charges that will move through the system this week.
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