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Ex-Calif. Officials Each Get 2 Years In Pot Permit Bribe Row
Law360 (May 5, 2021, 10:52 PM EDT) Two former California city officials on Wednesday were each sentenced to two years in prison for accepting bribes in exchange for expediting a cannabis dispensary permit application, according to a statement from the U.S. Department of Justice.
Former Calexico Councilman David Romero, 37, and ex-economic development Commissioner Bruno Suarez-Soto, 29, took the cash bribe from an undercover agent who they believed was an investor looking to open a cannabis dispensary.
According to charging documents, Romero and Suarez-Soto accepted two payments of $17,500 from the FBI agent in restaurant parking lots in December 2019 and January 2020, promising the agent a top.
Former Calexico City Council member David Romero,37, and his political appointee, Bruno Suarez-Soto,29, are sentenced to two years in prison on Wednesday for taking bribes in exchange for “guaranteeing” a City permit for a cannabis business.
David Romero, 37, a former Calexico city councilman, and Bruno Suarez-Soto, 29, the city's former commissioner for economic development, pleaded guilty to.
Two former Calexico city officials were sentenced to two years in prison in connection with accepting bribes from an undercover agent in exchange for guaranteeing a city permit to open a cannabis dispensary.
David Romero, 37, who is a former Calexico city councilmember, and Bruno Suarez-Soto, 29, the former commissioner of that city s Economic Development and Financial Advisory Commission, were sentenced in the United States District Court Southern District of California Wednesday after pleading guilty to charges of accepting bribes as public officials.
An undercover FBI agent, posing as an investor, approached the two officials last year and discussed the process of getting a city permit to open a cannabis dispensary, according to a news release from the United States Department of Justice.