What no one ever asks about the La Mota couple is how a mid-level company and its owners were allowed access to the highest levels of government.
Thereās old school Portland downtown property owning wealth (i.e. Schnitzer, Goodman) who donāt have this level of access. This is the kind of access that will influence high-level policy decisions.
Easy answer: they are cartel connected.
Aaron Mitchell came from a wealthy Miami hotelier family. When his father died, one of his inheritances was a Miami hotel, which he sold for millions. There is some evidence that indicates he was involved, not just the illegal marijuana trade, but also the cocaine trade.
Rosa Cazares came from a Texas border town. It is not known how they met.
The couple first came to Oregon in 2009, six years prior to the stateās legalization of cannabis, in order to invest in the Southern Oregon illegal cannabis trade. They purchased a house in a small town just North of Medford in 2011.
The Southern Oregon cannabis trade back then, and even now, is largely controlled and moderated by the Mexican Sinaloa Drug Cartel, as well as Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
In other words, a person or organization would have to have the permission of the cartel to set up marijuana operations in Southern Oregon at the time.
Over time, the couple set up over 100 LLCās in the state, some with rather dubious names, such as Black Market Distribution LLC.
Val Hoyle, Shemia Fagan, Rob Wagner, Earl Blumenauer, and current governor Tina Kotek received campaign funds from Mitchell and Cazares.
Also receiving funds: current Secretary of State Tobias Read, former Multnomah County DA Mike Schmidt, current Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega-Pederson, and on and on.
But they only contributed a total of less than $250k. So why so much access? Because the La Mota couple provided a different kind of access that Schnitzer and Goodman couldnāt.
After Shemia Fagan was dumped from her Secretary of State job, after Mitchell and Cazares were handing her bags of cash to use Faganās political influence to allow the couple access to other states, they fled to New Mexico, where they immediately gained access to the highest levels of government there.
Oh, and the Oregon āBourbongateā scandal? That was just a cover for Kotek trying to ramrod laws through that directly benefited Mitchell and Cazares. Steve Marks, the head of the OLCC at the time, didnāt agree with these changes in laws that were written by Cazares, so Kotek had Marks removed.
Below is a photo of Gov. Kotek playing pickle ball with the couple: