A former official from the Starr County District Attorney’s Office pleaded guilty last week to smuggling illegal immigrants 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 when four illegal aliens were found inside the District Attorney’s office vehicle at that time.
Also in the car with Garza were Magaly Rosa and her husband, Juan Antonio Charles.
Rosa told authorities that Garza had recruited her to smuggle migrants in her county vehicle and said Garza provided fraudulent court papers that identified migrants as crime victims.
According to a criminal complaint, the couple operated their home as a stash house for newly arrived migrants and would provide them basic necessities until Garza would pick up the migrants and Rosa in her county vehicle for the trip to Houston.
Garza confessed that she and her coconspirators had made over 40 trips smuggling the migrants between June and December 2022.
