Mexican Consulate official accused of selling work permits

An employee at the Mexican Consulate in Houston is accused in a lawsuit of offering U.S. work permits for sale.

The Houston Chronicle reports the lawsuit filed earlier this month in Harris County accuses a consulate employee, Fidencio Navarrete Peralta, of accepting $10,000 for two work permits but never delivering them.

Navarrete’s boss at the consulate, Consul General Oscar Rodriguez Cabrera, also is named as a defendant.

Xochitl Leticia Aguilar seeks return of the $10,000 and other compensation of $200,000.

She says her American citizen daughter was hoping to obtain a work permit for her Mexican husband and a friend but that they received only a single consul ID card.

A consulate spokesman had no comment for the newspaper about the lawsuit and could not be reached Wednesday.