Subpoena shows FBI asked Progreso for payroll data

PROGRESO, TEXAS (ValleyCentral) — The FBI wants to know who collects a check from the city of Progreso.

Armed with a subpoena, the FBI showed up at Progreso City Hall in January and requested payroll information for all city employees.

“Pursuant to an investigation being conducted by FBI as to (a) possible federal violation, you (sic) hereby requested not to disclose the existence of this subpoena,” according to the seven-page document, which Progreso released under the Texas Public Information Act. “For any such disclosure could impede the investigation and thereby interfere with the enforcement of law.”

Neither the FBI nor the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas would comment on the subpoena.

The FBI doesn’t start investigations by serving people with subpoenas, said attorney Rick Salinas of Mission.

“Typically by the time they start to serve subpoenas, they know what they’re looking for,” Salinas said. “They just want to go through the process of authenticating it and getting it in the usual course of that investigation.”

The Drug Investigation

The subpoena appears to be part of a federal investigation that started in 2020, when Border Patrol caught a former school bus driver with 30 pounds of cocaine.

Faced with a minimum of 10 years in federal prison, the bus driver began cooperating with the government.

Prosecutors brought charges against eight people, including former Progreso school board President Francisco “Frank” Alanis and his brother, former Progreso Mayor Gerardo “Jerry” Alanis.

Documents filed by federal prosecutors link the Alanis brothers to a drug trafficking organization that smuggled cocaine from the Rio Grande Valley to Houston.

In October 2023, when Frank Alanis was arrested, federal agents found more than $722,000 at his mother’s house, according to U.S. Border Patrol Agent Pablo Barrera, who testified about the search during a hearing in March 2024. Jerry Alanis, meanwhile, is accused of participating in a scheme to store drugs at Dorothy Thompson Middle School in Progreso.

“There is this chokehold — this influence and power — that the Alanis brothers have in the city of Progreso,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Alejandra Andrade said during the hearing. “Where it allows them to act with impunity.”

Frank Alanis and Jerry Alanis pleaded not guilty. They’re tentatively scheduled for trial in May.

The Federal Subpoena

On a quiet afternoon in January, a tall man wearing a baseball cap showed up at City Hall.

“I was here by myself when I heard him ring the bell,” said Raul Garcia, a city clerk. “I got up, and I saw him there.”

The man introduced himself.

He worked for the FBI. And he’d stopped by City Hall to serve a grand jury subpoena.

The subpoena had been requested by Andrade, the federal prosecutor assigned to the drug case. It asked for a “list of all city employees” and payroll records, including check stubs and direct deposit information.

Progreso had to produce the records by Feb. 20.

Along with payroll records, the subpoena asked for a laundry list of information about city employees — everything from addresses to newspaper clippings.

The subpoena requested the information “for the same time period” but didn’t actually specify a time period.

Confused about what the FBI wanted, Progreso asked City Attorney Javier Villalobos to contact the government.

“I talked to one of the agents,” Villalobos said. “And it was narrowed down.”

The FBI just wanted payroll records, Garcia said, and Progreso provided information for the past five years.

Progreso pulled most of the data from QuickBooks, a program that many businesses use to manage payroll. Other documents had to be scanned.

The City Payroll

The city of Progreso had 20 employees in February, according to a list released under the Public Information Act.

City Manager Alfredo Espinosa, the highest-paid city employee, earned nearly $104,000.

Espinosa worked for the Progreso Independent School District and a janitorial services company before he accepted a job at City Hall in 2001.

Details about his time with Progreso remain sketchy.

In response to a request for Espinosa’s personnel records, Progreso released just one document: The six-page job application he submitted in March 2001.

Espinosa said he’d been injured in a car crash and wasn’t available for an interview.

In February 2024, the city of Progreso had 20 employees. (Information provided by the city of Progreso.)

Assistant City Manager Frank Alanis, the city’s other top administrator, earned nearly $99,000.

Progreso hired Frank Alanis in 2004 through a Workforce Solutions program, according to documents released under the Public Information Act.

The documents don’t include a job description or any other information about the assistant city manager’s duties.

Attorney Carlos A. Garcia of Mission, who represents Frank Alanis, declined to comment.

Other members of the Alanis family also work at City Hall.

Frank’s mother, Maria De La Luz Alanis, is paid $11.82 per hour for “Offices Maintenance,” according to city records.

When she began working for Progreso remains unclear.

Her job application, which the city released under the Public Information Act, isn’t dated.

Frank’s brother, Alejandro “Alex” Alanis, handles “Code Enforcement” for Progreso, according to documents released under the Public Information Act. He’s paid $21 per hour.

His job application doesn’t list any prior employers or work experience. Asked to describe any special skills or qualifications, Alex Alanis wrote “critical thinking” and “Microsoft Office.”

Frank’s wife, Edith Vasquez, began working for Progreso in November 2023, less than a month after his arrest.

“Need a job (ASAP) that is close to home,” Vasquez wrote on her application, which the city released under the Public Information Act.

Progreso made Vasquez the Fire Department secretary and started paying her $12 per hour.

The city hired Vasquez without creating a job description, posting the position or interviewing other candidates. Progreso couldn’t produce any documents that showed who hired Vasquez or how the city set her pay.

Vasquez didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The Big Question

Why the FBI requested the payroll data remains unclear.

The drug trafficking organization, however, allegedly had links to both the city of Progreso and the Progreso Independent School District, said Douglas A. A’Hern, an attorney with offices in McAllen and Houston.

“I can only speculate, but what I imagine is: What other entities were being, possibly, manipulated at the city level to assist in the criminal activity?” A’Hern said. “And if, in fact, they’re trying to find that, I think that there’s probably some element that they already kind of know about that they’re trying to corroborate.”