Another employee from the Cameron County Tax Assessor-Collector’s office has been arrested in the aftermath of the undercover operation dubbed “Operation Dirty Deeds,” authorities said.
Marizol Sifuentes was arrested Wednesday by agents from the Texas Department of Public Safety Criminal Investigations Unit at the tax office, where she is employed as an office clerk, authorities said.
The undercover operation by the Cameron County District Attorney’s Office and the Texas Department of Public Safety has resulted in six arrests of tax office employees this year.
Sifuentes was charged with one count of felonious breach of computer security. No other information pertaining to her arrest was immediately available.
Earlier this year, Cameron County Tax Assessor-Collector Tony Yzaguirre Jr. was arrested along with county tax investigator Pedro Garza, dealer/notary supervisor Omar Sanchez-Paz and Chief of Investigations Lt. Jose Mireles . The arrests were followed a two-year Texas Department of Public Safety investigation of the operations of the tax assessor-collector’s office.
The arrests of the four men on Jan. 6 led to a shutdown of the tax office for three days in order for state and federal authorities to search and seize documents from the tax office.
Claudia Elisa Sanchez, also a county employee, was arrested at the tax office in San Benito on March 30.
Yzaguirre was charged with four counts of bribery, a second-degree felony; engaging in organized criminal activity, a first-degree felony; and official oppression, a Class A misdemeanor.
Garza was charged with bribery, engaging in organized criminal activity and official oppression.
Sanchez-Paz was charged with engaging in organized criminal activity and abuse of official capacity, a Class A misdemeanor.
Mireles was charged with bribery, engaging in organized criminal activity and official oppression.
Sanchez was charged with one count of tampering with government records.
A pre-trial hearing for Yzaguirre, Garza, Mireles and Sanchez-Paz is scheduled for Friday in the 103rd state district court before visiting Senior State District Judge Manuel Banales.
Yzaguirre has been ordered to stay away from the Tax Office until his Friday hearing.
