31-year-old Texas millionaire Phillip A. Rose, the director of a Mexican gold mine and two St. Louis real estate corporations, has a soft spot for Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and so does his daddy.

Phillip A. Rose, whose wide-ranging business interests includes St. Louis real estate and a Mexican gold mine, contributed $5,000 to Senate Leader Mitch McConnell’s successful reelection campaign this year, according to campaign finance records. Rose’s father, retired Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway CEO Matthew K. Rose kicked in another $2,800 to McConnell’s coffers. The elder Rose contributed an additional $10,000 to the Kentucky Republican Party in 2020.

The two bundled payments by Phillip A. Rose represented his only political donations during the election cycle.

Father and son own controlling interest in the San Jose de Gracia gold mine in the Mexican state of Sinaloa, which is under control of the Sinaloa Cartel. The Roses are invested in the gold mine through a limited liability company, Golden Post Rail. Golden Post Rail owns an 80 percent stake in Dallas-based DynaResource.  Since 2017, the mine has been the alleged target of a money-laundering investigation by the Financial Intelligence Unit of the Mexican government, according to a press account published in La Razón newspaper in May.

McConnell did not support the Trump administration’s efforts to increase tariffs on Mexico last year.

In Missouri, Phillip A. Rose is the manager and director of two Texas-registered limited liability corporations active in real estate investment in St. Louis. His fellow manager and director in AKR Ventures LLC and RedRose Capital LLC. is James Ryan Redlingshafer Jr.

Redlingshafer Jr., 31, is also tied to another real estate business — Artemis Holdings LLC — with his father, James Ryan Redlingshafer Sr. Together they own a rental property in Richmond Heights that garnered media attention recently for violations of city and county laws during the demolition inside the building.