EDINBURG — Police arrested a man last week for stealing dozens of cattle, the same man who was arrested last month for stealing a significantly larger amount of cattle and whose actions are being described by authorities as a series of dishonest dealings that stretch back years, and have allegedly cheated a handful of South Texas cowmen out of an estimated half-million dollars.
Phillip Drake, 38, was arrested on Oct. 19 and charged with stealing 37 head of cattle worth less than $150,000, a class three felony.
Drake was released from the Hidalgo County Jail on Oct. 20 on a $30,000 bond.
Last month, Drake was charged with stealing 232 head of cattle.
Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association Special Ranger Joe Aguilar Jr. said Tuesday that those arrests are related, and they’re related to ongoing investigations.
A criminal complaint related to Drake’s most recent arrest says that in the fall of 2019, Roy Ruiz, a Floresville rancher, hauled about 267 head of cattle to Drake’s ranch north of Edinburg for Drake to graze and feed the herd on his property.
In November, when Ruiz’s cattle were due back, he began receiving a string of excuses from Drake, the complaint stated.
Eventually Ruiz sent his foreman for the cows, but the man only found a small amount gathered.
“Ruiz gave him a lot of opportunities to get the cattle back,” Aguilar said. “He was sending these 36-foot trailers down and when his foreman would go back up he’d show up with five- or 10-head.”
Ruiz, the complaint said, demanded the rest of his herd. Aguilar said he even offered to send down some cowboys to help round them up.
Eventually, Aguilar said, Ruiz told one of his drivers to stay at Drake’s ranch till he had that last 37-head.
That was the same day, Aguilar said, Drake reported being tied up and assaulted, claims Hidalgo County Sheriff J.E. “Eddie” Guerra later said were unfounded.
Aguilar said it’s unclear if that incident is related to any of Drake’s cattle theft arrests.
Those assault claims did, however, draw a significant amount of law enforcement to Drake’s ranch before he stopped cooperating with police — all while Ruiz’s cow hauler waited in vain for that last group of cattle.
“He (the cattle hauler) had no idea what was going on, and again Ruiz was already at his breaking point. And that’s when he filed with us and he filed charges as far as the 30 head,” Aguilar said.
Authorities are still searching for those cattle, which are described as Charbray, Hereford or brahma with an RZ brand on their left hip/leg.
Those cattle and their alleged theft are only one part of Drake’s legal problems.
According to Aguilar, Drake used Ruiz’s herd of cattle as a pawn in alleged schemes to cheat other South Texas cowmen. Drake, Aguilar said, would go into business with other prospective South Texas cowmen, claiming Ruiz’s cattle were cattle that had been purchased on their account.
“He had no permission to sell, no permission to do anything with them,” Aguilar said. “He was actually stealing money from all these people that were thinking they had purchased all that cattle.”
“He was just using the same bunch of cattle for everybody.”
One of those men is Salvador Garza III, who documents show gave Drake $147,950 to buy cattle for him. That business deal resulted in Drake’s arrest last month after he was unable to give Garza either his cows or his money.
At least one other individual, Aguilar says, fell victim to the alleged scheme as well. He says the total sum victims lost currently hovers around $500,000.
Although the type of cattle scam Drake allegedly committed isn’t unheard of, Aguilar says it’s been more of a phenomenon in other parts of the state recently and usually affects banks that use an individual’s cattle as collateral in business dealings.
Aguilar also said the magnitude of the alleged scheme is significant.
“This number is pretty high. We hadn’t seen one like this in a while, with this magnitude of the number of cattle that were being portrayed as there.”
