Authorities in Bexar County have handcuffed a second suspect in an alleged scam operation involving food trucks. Omar Alexis Emmanuel Cruz, 39, was clapped in irons yesterday, according to the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office, as reported by KSAT.
With victims claiming they were bamboozled by a company that promised, but never delivered, customized food truck trailers, the case against the so-called sham operation is widening. Sheriff Javier Salazar has voiced that over 35 individuals have now come forward, alleging a whopping sum of $225,000 was pillaged from their pockets — a number still ticking upward. This, following the initial snag of 57-year-old Miguel Angel Cuellar Lopez, who now shares charges of engaging in organized crime and hefty theft amounts with Cruz. Notably, in a dizzying twist of criminal irony, Cruz initially posed as a scam victim himself before victims pointed the finger at him, as detailed by KSAT.
Salazar speculated, according to a KENS 5 report, that when the dust finally settles, they might uncover that the scam sucked nearly $400,000 out of victims' bank accounts. The sordid affair featured clients plunking down deposits and selecting features for their food trucks, only to be ghosted as the company evaporated into thin air, leaving behind nothing but broken promises and empty wallets.
The deception snared a net far beyond Texas, with some victims caught in the web via online transactions. Currently still at large is Miguel Angel Cuellar Martinez, 32, the progeny of the previously apprehended Lopez. Believed to have skedaddled to Mexico, the junior Cuellar faces similar accusations as his father and Cruz. As the elder Cuellar, after posting bond for his initial charges, found himself rearrested Tuesday afternoon for an additional charge of engaging in organized criminal activity, his son remains a fugitive with BCSO officials urging anyone with tips to dial 210-335-6000.
The scam particularly preyed upon hopeful immigrants, many of whom aspired to extend their culinary dreams into the mobile realm of food trucks. Salazar mentioned these individuals were targeted presumably because of an expected reticence to bring their grievances to authority figures. “They bet that a lot of these folks, being immigrants, were too afraid of law enforcement to come forward and give us information,” Salazar informed, according to KENS 5. However, in defiance to the scam artists' dark wagers, immigrants have stepped forward, asserting their voices be heard, their plights acknowledged, in the steady promise of a society built, if not fully yet in practice, then certainly in spirit, on justice for all its constituents.
