Two early morning raids were executed by FBI agents late last week on the homes of a local political consultant and a labor union official who have worked together on several elections in San Diego County.

The homes of Chula Vista political consultant Jesus Cardenas and Kelvin Barrios, the Policy & Community Engagement Director for Laborers’ International Union of North America (LiUNA) Local 89, were raided by FBI agents early on Thursday morning after a federal search warrant was issued on Wednesday.

Jesus Cardenas

Sources say agents seized electronic devices, including phones and computers, as part of a federal investigation related to campaigns funded and run by the two politicos.

Kelvin Barrios

A Chula Vista resident posted a message on NextDoor on Thursday morning wondering why FBI agents were at a house on J Street—the location where Cardenas lives—after seeing several agents entering and leaving the home.

“Does anyone know why the FBI were at a house on East J Street between Gretchen and Melrose this morning around 7:30am?”

Today, both the San Diego Democratic Party and LiUNA confirmed to La Prensa San Diego that Barrios was no longer involved with their respective group.

“The Executive Board has placed Kelvin Barrios on an administrative leave of absence,” Chairman Will Rodriguez-Kennedy stated.

LiUNA’s Vice President & Business Representative, Valentine Macedo, Jr., today confirmed that Barrios was no longer employed with the union.

“Kevin Barrios is no longer employed at Laborers Local 89. We do not comment on confidential personnel matters.”

Fernanda Esqerro, a local San Diego attorney who previously represented Cardenas, would not confirm or deny she was representing him in this ongoing investigation.

Neither the FBI nor the US Attorney’s office issued any public statements related to the raids. No charges have been filed in federal court.

LiUNA Local 89 has emerged as a powerful political force in recent years through its funding of campaigns and hundreds of thousands of dollars spent helping elect members to the San Diego County Democratic Party’s Central Committee in 2024 to gain more influence in the Party’s endorsement and candidate support process.

Barrios, as well as his union’s leader, Valentine Macedo, Sr., and Valentine Macedo, Jr, were elected through the union’s push to take a larger role in the Party.

Cardenas, who has worked on several school board, city council, and County Board of Supervisors races, pleaded guilty to two felonies in 2024 as part of a plea deal with San Diego District Attorney Summer Stephan’s office after he and his sister, Andrea Cardenas, then a sitting Chula Vista City Councilmember, applied for and received a $176,000 COVID-era PPP loan through their company, Grassroots Resources, by falsely claiming 34 employees they did not have. Cardenas used the names of employees of a local marijuana dispensary which he represented in obtaining retail licenses.

Prosecutors proved the siblings used the loan proceeds for personal and political expenses, not to protect employees as the program was designated to do. Both of the siblings were charged with multiple felony counts, but pleaded guilty to two felonies each and avoided serving prison time. Both have been serving two years of federal probation.

At the time of the fraud, Cardenas worked as Chief of Staff to San Diego City Councilman Stephen Whitburn, who had hired Cardenas as his political consultant during his 2020 campaign. He resigned his position after being charged.

Andrea Cardenas was elected to the Chula Vista City Council in November 2020 and resigned her position in February 2024 before pleading guilty to the felony counts.

After the convictions, LiUNA continued to use Cardenas for political consulting, but did not pay him directly to avoid the public perception of using a convicted felon. Barrios told La Prensa San Diego at the time that the union did not work directly with Cardenas.

At the same time, another political consultant who had previously worked directly for Cardenas began being paid by LiUNA’s political action committees and the Democratic Party on multiple campaigns inside sources confirmed were actually being run secretly by Cardenas.

The consulting firm is Margin Victories, owned by Jehoan Espinoza, who had previously worked directly for Cardenas in his Grassroots Resources firm. MArgin Victories has been paid over $1.2 million for campaign services by committees funded by Local 89, as well as the San Diego Democratic Party, where Local 89 made direct contributions. The Party paid Margin Victories over $800,000 in the 2022 election cycle alone. Inside sources claimed Margin Victories was using Cardenas to do most of the work it was paid to provide.

Nearly all of the printing work for campaigns Cardenas and Espinoza managed went through one company, TMCDirect, which is a print broker, not an actual printer or mailing company.

But all of those campaigns also had one thing in common; they received printed mail pieces on credit without paying for them during the election cycle.

In some cases, the campaigns paid for the mailings up to two years after the election, meaning someone or some company paid the expenses for the printing and postage costs without having first received payment from the campaigns.

It is unusual—almost unheard of—for printers to extend credit to political campaigns beyond a few weeks, if at all. A review of expenditure reports for over 25 local campaign revealed that campaigns related to Cardenas and/or Espinosa were the only ones which ended their election cycles with large debts for printing materials received during the campaigns.

In the 2020 election cycle, the successful City Council campaign for Andrea Cardenas ended with $38,992 in total debt, of which $35,992 was owed to TMC Direct for multiple mailers

The following year, Cardenas loaned her campaign committee $33,500 to pay down the outstanding balance. Other campaigns which used TMC Direct in same election cycle, including the Democratic Party, Famela Ramos, Brian Jones, the San Diego County Deputy Sheriffs Association reported paying for their mail in full before or by the election.

When the Cardenas siblings were indicted, the District Attorney’s office revealed that the $33,500 Cardenas loaned her campaign to pay the debt came from the fraudulent PPP loan they received.

Andrea Cardenas resigned her position in February 2024 during the March 5 Primary Election cycle where she was running for re-election. Her name still appeared on the ballot. She ended up in fifth place with only 15% of the vote and did not appear on the November General Election ballot. 

In 2022, Jose Rodriguez ended his unsuccessful campaign for National City Mayor with $46,982 in outstanding bills, including $36,982 owed to Margin Victories, $18,214 of which was attributable to TMC Direct. Although Rodriguez made some post-election loans to the campaign and paid certain other vendors, the TMC Direct-related mailer debt was still outstanding in mid-2023 reporting.

During the same 2024 cycle, three different consultants were paid to execute campaign efforts for the San Diego Democratic Party. Of the three consultants, only the campaigns connected with Cardenas and Espinoza ended the cycle with debt, including outstanding payments owed to Margin Victories and TMCDirect.

The largest outstanding balance owed to Margin Victories in recent years was over $200,000 reported by the San Diego County Democratic Party after the 2022 elections primarily for printing expenses due to TMC Direct. TMC Direct hired a lawyer to pursue the outstanding payments. The final payment was not made until 2024.