Mexico Trucker Online

Two guards and two of their supervisors at a South Texas immigration prison were charged with trying to use their positions to smuggle more than two dozen undocumented immigrants into the country, according to federal prosecutors. The U.S. attorney’s office in Houston said Tuesday that the four prison employees had worked out a shrewd scheme to pick up and transport 28 immigrants from Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador by pretending that they were inmates being transferred to San Antonio.


Charged with smuggling were two guards, Carlos García and Benjamin López, who were arrested last week at the Border Patrol’s Sarita checkpoint as they drove a white Ford 450 van. Both are 36 and residents of Raymondville, where the Willacy County Detention Center is. The suspects had an initial court appearance Tuesday in Corpus Christi.

Charged with smuggling conspiracy were the guards’ supervisors, Sgts. Juan Treviño Jr., 27, and Alberto Vásquez, 37, both of Harlingen. They were arrested at their homes Sunday, and a hearing is set for Friday.

The alleged smuggling operation was broken up after an anonymous tipster alerted Border Patrol agents manning the Sarita checkpoint on U.S. 77, about 90 miles from the border.

According to a statement by the U.S. attorney’s office, the agents identified the van by its logo, Management Training Corp., the Utah-based private company that operates the prison under contract with Willacy County and the federal government.

A spokesman for Management Training Corp. did not return calls seeking comment.

When questioned at the checkpoint, the guards reported they were transferring 28 prisoners to another prison in San Antonio. But agents became suspicious when they noticed the inmates sitting unshackled on the floor, some even with suitcases.

Agents called out names listed on the guards’ log, but no one in the van responded.

Authorities detained four of the immigrants as witnesses and charged five others with illegal re-entry. The others face deportation.

Prosecutors pointed to Treviño as the ringleader, saying he recruited Vásquez, López and García for pickup and transport of undocumented crossers. Their actual destination was not revealed.

“Never underestimate the stupidity of some people,” said Mike Harling, vice president of Municipal Capital Markets Group, the investment firm brokering the financial deal for the Willacy prison. “But it’s a couple of bad eggs and it shouldn’t be any reflection on the county, the management or the facility.”