The next few city council meetings in Crystal City, TX are going to be pretty quiet.
On Thursday, FBI agents arrested a majority of the town's top officials, including the mayor, mayor pro tempore, city manager, and a current city council member, as well as a former council member, The Washington Post reports. FBI agents also arrested Ngoc Tri Nguyen, an alleged gambling operator, nicknamed "Mr. T."
A federal indictment (PDF) accused the town officials of taking thousands of dollars in bribes, and of helping Nguyen run the illegal gambling operation. Ricardo Lopez, Crystal City's mayor, was accused of accepting a $6,000 bribe from Nguyen.
Last month, a different council member, Marco Rodriguez, was arrested on charges of human smuggling. San Antonio's KENS5 reports that Rodriguez admitted to smuggling undocumented immigrants across the U.S. border.
With everyone else arrested, councilman Joel Barajas was the only council member to show up to work on Friday, The Washington Post reports. "We need to move forward," Barajas told The Associated Press. It was not immediately clear what moving forward will look like for Crystal City.
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