Woman pleads guilty to bribery and smuggling charges

December 09, 2010 9:35 PM
THE BROWNSVILLE HERALD

A 49-year-old Brownsville woman has been sentenced to 40 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to charges of bribery and alien smuggling.

Sandra Cecilia Guajardo appeared Thursday before U.S. Judge Hilda Tagle, who handed down the sentence. Guajardo will also serve a three-year term of supervised release.

Guajardo pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Felix Recio to two counts of bribery and one count of alien smuggling, the U.S Attorney’s Office said a press release.

Authorities said Guajardo admitted to paying a bribe to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer to allow vehicles with undocumented immigrants to pass through the CBP officer’s lane on two separate occasions.

According to the criminal complaint, Guajardo met with and paid the CBP officer $500 per undocumented immigrant allowed to pass through the officer’s lane, the press release said. She paid him an additional $1,000 on another occasion, it said.

The smuggling attempts occurred on April 8 and April 16 of this year.

Special agents with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office of Professional Responsibility arrested Guajardo.

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