$ 1-Million Dollar Bail Bond in Kinney County
And, Mexican Plastic Surgery Centers Investigated for Fungal Meningitis
Good Morning friends,
Folks keeping a weather eye on the Kinney County Sheriff’s Facebook page may’ve seen a few eyebrow-raising notices there— including the one referenced in our headline.
We thought about not mentioning them, since many of our subscribers are surely also monitoring the Sheriff’s Facebook— but there’s some things you just have to do. It would be inexcusable not to talk about this lady here:
Maria Inez Chaves was arrested in Kinney County yesterday morning, (05/30), with 11 illegal aliens from Mexico crammed into the GMC Denali she was driving.
Chaves is from the Houston area, and this isn’t her first rodeo in Kinney County.
“DPS caught her in the County sometime last week,” said Sheriff Brad Coe.
Chaves was apparently one of the lucky ones— released on a PR bond in that earlier incident, because of an ongoing lack of jail space for female offenders in the region.
This time around, some space was found in Kerrville, where she’s being held on a $1-million-dollar bail bond.
Given her subsequent re-arrest in the exact same county, one imagines special effort was made to find room for her, though the Sheriff and his deputies have not said so to us.
Deputies say the 11 suspects with her were also arrested and accused of criminal trespass. Deputies also arrested a Houston man, named Ricardo Villalobos, who they say was acting as a scout.
This speaks to the urgent need in the region for jail space sufficient to the volume of female suspects committing crimes in the area. The State of Texas has been reportedly hard at work, readying a facility similar to those already being used to house male smugglers and others arrested because of Operation Lone Star, but much work apparently remains to be done before it is ready.
Deputies from the Galveston Crew have also been busy in recent days.
Over the weekend, one was on the scene of a bailout, involving three women who started running for it. After collecting them, they discovered that one of the women was a North Korean national, who claimed to have been in South Korea and was paying to be smuggled into the US.
She was turned over to U.S. Border Patrol and last anyone around here has heard, is being interviewed by the U.S. State Department.
There’s a lot that jumps out at us about this one— for one thing— it sounds like it was another one of those all-female loads.
Difficult to prove— but such loads seem indicative of possible sex trafficking. Women will be told there are good jobs waiting for them as au pairs or domestics, but inevitably they are turned over to networks of hardened criminals who turn them out and put them to work, selling their bodies over and over again.
This may also be the first North Korean found in Kinney County since the Border Crisis began. We can remember several cases of Cubans and Chinese and other rare discoveries on area highways and ranches, but only this one North Korean.
Here’s a story from Friday that may’ve passed under most folks’ radars: The CDC, Mexican health officials, and others are sounding the alarm about a deadly fungal outbreak that may wind up affecting nearly 200 Americans— mostly Texans.
Apparently, patients at a pair of cosmetic surgery centers in Matamoros, Mexico are coming down with a rare strain of fungal meningitis, which is frequently deadly.
Both locations are now closed. They were called “River Side Surgical Center,” and “Clinica K-3.”
The patients were all given an epidural painkiller, and experts believe that’s how the infection made it into their systems.
Most reported headaches before their infections worsened, progressing to symptoms like fever, vomiting, neck pain, and blurred vision. Meningitis can quickly become life-threatening once symptoms begin, the CDC warns.
Recent test results from authorities in Mexico have sparked concern of a repeat from another deadly outbreak that was linked to surgeries elsewhere in Mexico earlier this year. In that outbreak, nearly half of all patients diagnosed with meningitis died.
….
Authorities have urged Americans who had surgeries involving epidural anesthesia at either of these clinics since January to go immediately to the emergency room or an urgent care facility, even if they do not currently think they have symptoms.
People from 24 states as far north as Alaska were potentially exposed during surgeries at one of the two clinics, according to a list provided by Mexican authorities to the CDC. The vast majority — 178 — are residents of Texas.
Most patients with symptoms have been female so far, although one probable male case has also been identified with symptoms of meningitis.
One of the two patients who died was also an organ donor, with five different recipients around the country earlier this year who could be at risk.
—Reporter Alexander Tin, for CBS News
One interesting element in the reporting, indications that there is a painkiller shortage of some kind in Mexico right now, and investigators are looking into the possibility that black market supplies may have been used.
That should do it for now— there’s still more we’d like to get into, so expect another edition tomorrow or the next day as we dig into recent reporting on the China angle, and how the cartels are reaping a huge windfall there, jacking up their prices to take advantage of relatively wealthy Chinese.
As always, this newsletter is an independent work product, kept as separate as possible from our day job at Kinney County. No one should mistake it for any sort of an official communication— any errors, misdeeds or other sins are entirely our own.
Until next time, keep them toes tapping, and eyes up on the horizon— bad as things might seem a lot of people are working hard to see us all through it.
Here’s a photo we saw on Facebook, dated May 27, and we just love it. It’s a glamour shot of the historic swimming pool at Fort Clark Springs— freshly topped off with water for the Memorial Day Weekend. Just beautiful. Not sure, but we think our acquaintance Ms. Susan Hughes took the photo. If someone knows differently, feel free to shoot us a message.
Folks familiar with Barton Springs in Austin will know something of what the Fort Clark pool is like. Just subtract the crowds.
