Employees at the Southern Texas District Attorney’s Office have been implicated in a conspiracy using government vehicles to smuggle immigrants.
This week, Bernice Annette Garza appeared before District Judge Nerva Gonzalez Ramos in McAllen. At the center of the case, Garza, who was serving as a victim coordinator in the DA’s office, was found to have used official vehicles and various documents for the smuggling operations.
According to court filings from December 2022, deputies from the Victoria County Sheriff’s Office stopped a van featuring markings from the 229th DA’s office for traffic violations. The criminal charges pointed out that authorities had been alerted about multiple unauthorized excursions to Houston, suggesting they were tied to “criminal conduct.”
During a subsequent probe by Homeland Security Investigation, officials uncovered that the smuggling operation included Garza, along with Juan Antonio Charles and his wife. The couple was housing migrants on their property for several days until it was time to transport them north. Leveraging Garza’s role in the DA’s office, they obtained fake documents and used her government-issued van to move three or four migrants at a time, making two or three trips to Houston.
The group had been active for several months, charging $3,000 per migrant before their eventual arrest. During the investigation, law enforcement seized several weapons from Charles, who was prohibited from owning firearms due to a prior criminal conviction.
