A former official with the Starr County District Attorney’s Office pleaded guilty Friday to using a government vehicle to steal illegal aliens from the border.
Bernice Annette Garza was charged with conspiracy to unlawfully transport persons within the United States.
Garza was arrested on December 7, 2022, at a traffic stop near Victoria. According to MY RVG, four illegal immigrants were found in the car of the District Attorney’s Office.
New Express reports:
Court records show that in the car with Garza were Magaly Rosa and her husband, Juan Antonio Charles, both 40 years old at the time, who were also part of the smuggling operation.
The deputy also found four undocumented immigrants in the car, records show. They were visibly shaking, wore new clothes and answered questions in a way that appeared to be “rehearsed,” the complaint said.
Rosa told authorities that Garza recruited her to smuggle immigrants in her county vehicle. She said Garza provided fraudulent court documents identifying immigrants as crime victims, the indictment states.
The criminal complaint alleges that Rosa and her husband used their home as a hideout for newly arrived immigrants. They would buy them clothes and feed them, and then Garza would pick up the immigrants and Rosa in her county car to travel to Houston, the complaint said.
Garza admitted that she and her co-conspirators conducted more than 40 migrant smuggling trips between June and December 2022.
The District Attorney’s Office fired Garza the same day she was arrested.
Garza is scheduled to be sentenced in September.
