An employee at a district attorney’s office in South Texas will spend up to three years in federal prison for using a government vehicle to smuggle migrants.
This week, Bernice Anette Garza went before U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzalez Ramos in McAllen, who sentenced her to three years in federal prison for her role in a migrant smuggling operation where she used a vehicle belonging to the 229th District Attorney’s Office in an attempt to avoid detection by authorities. At the time of the conspiracy, Garza had been working as a victim coordinator for the DA’s office and had been using the vehicle and various work documents to smuggle migrants.
Garza pleaded guilty in 2024 and had been out on bond awaiting her sentencing hearing this week. Documents from the 2024 plea hearing revealed that the group reportedly made close to 50 trips using the government van and charged each migrant $3,000 per trip.
Court documents filed in the case revealed that in December 2022, a Victoria County Sheriff’s Office deputy pulled over a van with logos from the 229th DA’s office for a traffic infraction. The criminal complaint revealed the authorities had been warned about the van having made numerous unauthorized trips to Houston and that it was likely being used for “criminal activity.”
During a follow-up investigation by Homeland Security Investigations, authorities discovered that the smuggling group consisted of Garza, Juan Antonio Charles, and his wife. Charles and his wife would house migrants in their property for a few days until it was time to move them north. Relying on Garza’s position in the DA’s office, they would get fake documents and use her government-issued van to move 3-4 migrants at a time, and would make 2-3 trips to Houston.
The group had been operating for several months, charging each migrant $3,000, before authorities arrested them. As part of the investigation, authorities seized several weapons from Charles, who was legally not allowed to own weapons due to prior criminal convictions.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart News Foundation. He co-founded Breitbart News Foundation’s Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com.
Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart News Foundation’s Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.
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