Updated 5:45 pm, Thursday, March 31, 2016

A former Texas Department of Public Safety employee pleaded guilty Thursday to a federal charge, admitting he took money in exchange for providing driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants.

Jose Angel Ytuarte III, 54, used to work at the Texas DPS driver’s license division in Hondo. He entered the guilty plea to a charge of use of interstate facility (via the postal service) in aid of unlawful activity. Several other charges will be dropped as part of his plea deal, which is under seal.

Ytuarte, who is free on bond, faces up to five years in prison when U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez sentences him July 13.

Ytuarte admitted he took bribes from Azeez Mistry, 44, who was indicted on charges that include conspiring with Ytuarte to transfer licenses to immigrants who did not qualify for them.

According to the indictment, Mistry would charge immigrants between $1,000 and $5,000 for each license, refer them to Ytuarte, then pay a portion of that fee to Ytuarte as a cash bribe. The indictment further alleges that Ytuarte would input “materially fraudulent information,” namely that the individual was born in the United States, into the DPS computer system in order to process and issue a driver’s license to each immigrant.

The conduct occurred between May 1, 2013, and July 10, 2015, according to the indictment.

Mistry was also scheduled for a hearing Thursday, but his lawyer requested more time, and the judge reset Mistry’s case for late April.

The case came on the heels of another involving a former DPS employee, Linda Perez, who admitted she took $215,000 in bribes in exchange for issuing at least 144 fraudulent driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants over three years. Perez worked out of a driver’s license office on South Gen. McMullen Drive in San Antonio, and the DPS discovered the illegal activity last year.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/loc...-s-7221182.php