(The Center Square) – Several in law enforcement and the U.S. military are being found guilty of committing border-related crimes in Texas, including working with Mexican cartels and engaging in drug and human smuggling.
Most recently, three soldiers stationed at Fort Cavazos, formerly known as Fort Hood in central Texas, were arrested and charged with conspiracy to smuggle illegal foreign nationals. The day before Thanksgiving, a Border Patrol agent attempted to stop a driver in the far west Texas border county of Presidio. As the agent approached the passenger side of the vehicle, the driver sped off and struck a Border Patrol vehicle, injuring an agent inside, according to the complaint. Authorities were later able to stop the vehicle and apprehend four inside as the driver fled on foot.
Three of the four passengers were in the country illegally from Mexico and Guatemala. The fourth was a passenger stationed at Fort Cavazos. The driver, also stationed at Fort Cavazos, was found the next day at a hotel in Odessa and arrested. A third soldier and alleged recruiter and facilitator of the human smuggling conspiracy was also arrested and charged.
Two soldiers allegedly traveled from Fort Cavazos to Presidio with the intent of picking up illegal border crossers and transporting them further into the interior. After executing search warrants, law enforcement authorities found text messages the three soldiers allegedly sent to each other about the smuggling operation.
One soldier was charged with one count of bringing in and harboring aliens, two were charged with one count of bringing in and harboring aliens and one count of assaulting a federal agent, according the complaint.
In October, a former Border Patrol agent was sentenced to 50 years in prison for 10 counts related to the production, distribution and possession of child sexual abuse material. The former agent produced and distributed hundreds of image and video files depicting a child victim engaged in sexually explicit content, according to the complaint.
Also in October, a former police officer in Eagle Pass was sentenced to 10 years in prison for her role in harboring illegal border crossers as part of a smuggling operation using multiple rental properties, according to another complaint. Also in October, a former elected Starr County attorney was sentenced to more than three years in prison for extortion.
In August, a former National Guardsmen from Alabama stationed in the Rio Grande Valley was convicted of providing information to smugglers about counter-smuggling activities. “He also scouted for vehicles he knew contained individuals who were illegally present in the United States in order to thwart law enforcement from detecting them,” according to the complaint.
As part of a plea deal, the former Eagle Pass officer explained how he provided information to a smuggling organization and worked as a scout “when loads of aliens would move from Starr and Hidalgo Counties to near the Border Patrol Checkpoint in Jim Wells County.”
Also in August, a former investigator in the Waller County District Attorney’s Office was sentenced to over 12 years in prison for trafficking drugs and cartel money in his marked police vehicle across state lines from Texas to Louisiana, according to another complaint.
In July, a civilian Army employee working at Fort Sam Houston was sentenced to 15 years in prison for five counts of mail fraud and five counts of filing a false tax return after stealing more than $108 million from a grant program. The program was designed to provide services to military dependents and their families, according to another complaint.
In May, the former crime victim’s coordinator of the Starr County District Attorney’s Office pleaded guilty to smuggling illegal border crossers to Houston using a government vehicle. According to a criminal complaint filed by the county DA, she and her conspirators were involved in more than 40 trips over six months smuggling illegal border crossers from Rio Grande City to Houston.
Also in May, a former Border Patrol agent was sentenced to 18 months in prison for accepting a $5,000 bribe to provide immigration paperwork to illegal border crossers, according to another complaint.
In April, a Texas National Guard soldier was arrested for alleged human smuggling after a high-speed chase in Brackettville in Kinney County. He was taken into custody by the Texas Department of Public Safety and charged with evading arrest, smuggling of persons and unlawful carry of a weapon.
Last year, a former Army major and seven others were arrested for allegedly trafficking more than 100 military grade firearms to a drug cartel in Mexico. In March, five men were arrested in Laredo, Hebbronville and Falls City for their role in the scheme, according to the complaint.
The above examples solely highlight cases from the past nine months in the southern and western districts of Texas. They exclude hundreds of U.S. citizens and foreign nationals who’ve been found guilty of committing similar or worse crimes.
This article was originally published at www.thecentersquare.com
