Mexican woman charged with running Rio Grande City stash house

Border Patrol arrested a Mexican woman Monday accused of operating a stash house in Rio Grande City where 67 people who entered the country illegally were found.

Olivia Jannet Garza-Barrientos, born in 1982, is charged with bringing in and harboring people in the country illegally.

The investigation began May 10 after Border Patrol received information that a property at 25 Cuates Lane in Rio Grande City was being used as a stash house.

On Monday, agents, along with the Starr County Sheriff’s Office, went to the location for a knock-and-talk and as they approached, two people were seen running from the back of the property into an open field, according to a criminal complaint.

Border Patrol was able to apprehend one of the people, Garza-Barrientos, who was in the country illegally, according to authorities.

Garza-Barrientos said she is the owner of the property and gave authorities written and verbal consent to search the location, which had three structures, a main building and two trailers, authorities further stated.

Agents say they found nine people in the main building and 58 people in the two trailers.

The criminal complaint read Garza-Barrientos agreed to provide a statement and told Border Patrol she was the owner of 25 Cuates Lane.

She told agents that a person in Mexico hired her to harbor people and paid her $10,000, according to the complaint, which stated she would have been paid an additional $10,000 for the 67 people arrested that day.

Garza-Barrientos took everyone’s cellphones and had the men stay in one trailer and the woman in the other, according to Border Patrol.

She provided food for the people and sold “additional snacks to them,” according to the complaint.

The suspect was scheduled for a first appearance in federal court Wednesday morning, records show.