A former official from the Starr County District Attorney’s Office pleaded guilty on Friday to smuggling illegal aliens from the border in...
A former official from the Starr County District Attorney’s Office pleaded guilty on Friday to smuggling illegal aliens from the border in a government vehicle.
Bernice Annette Garza had been charged with conspiracy to transport people illegally within the United States.
Garza was arrested on December 7, 2022, during a traffic stop near Victoria. According to a report from MY RVG, four illegal aliens were found inside the District Attorney’s office vehicle at that time.
Express News reports:
In the car with Garza were Magaly Rosa and her husband, Juan Antonio Charles, both then 40 and part of the smuggling operation, according to court records.
The deputy also found four undocumented migrants in the car, records show. They were visibly trembling, were wearing new clothes and appeared to answer questions as though “rehearsed,” the complaint says.
Rosa told authorities that Garza had recruited her to smuggle migrants in her county vehicle. She said Garza provided fraudulent court papers that identified migrants as crime victims, the complaint says.
Rosa and her husband operated their home as a stash house for newly arrived migrants, according to the criminal complaint. They would buy them clothes and feed them, and then Garza would pick up the migrants and Rosa in her county vehicle for the trip to Houston, the complaint says.
Garza confessed that she and her coconspirators had made over 40 trips smuggling the migrants between June and December 2022.
The DA’s office fired Garza on the same day as her arrest.
Garza is scheduled to be sentenced in September.
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