Revealed: How Marco Rubio helped cocaine-dealing brother-in-law get a real estate licence after 12-year jail stint with glowing reference on official stationery (but failed to mention they were related)
Marco Rubio wrote letter of recommendation for Orlando Cicilia in 2002
Rubio put Cicilia forward for real estate licence ‘without hesitation’
But in the note, Rubio failed to say that Cicilia was his brother-in-law
Rubio also did not say that Cicila was living in a house with his parents
Just 20 months before the letter was written, Cicila finished a jail sentence for his part in a $15million cocaine dealing empire
By CHRIS PLEASANCE
DAILYMAIL.COM
31 December 2015
While serving in the Florida House of Representatives a young Marco Rubio urged state regulators to grant a real estate licence to his drug-dealing brother-in-law, it has been revealed.
Back in 2002, while majority whip of the Florida House of Representatives, a young Rubio wrote to the real estate board recommending relative Orlando Cicilia ‘for licensure without reservation’.
But in the letter, revealed by the Washington Post, Rubio does not disclose that Cicilia is married to his older sister Barbara, or that Cicilia was living in the same house as his parents at the time.
Instead Rubio, who wrote the letter on his official statehouse stationary, simply says that he has known Cicilia for ’25 years’ without elaborating further.
Just 20 months before the letter was written, Cicilia had been released from prison after serving 11 and a half years of a 35-year sentence for his part in a $15million cocaine smuggling operation.
While Rubio failed to disclose his relationship to Cicilia, it seems that Cicilia did disclose his criminal conviction to the Florida Division of Real Estate.
