A woman charged with smuggling cocaine from Mexico to the United States told federal agents she was employed by a drug smuggling operation to transport the cocaine, federal court documents reflect.
Katya Carolina Garza, 22, of Brownsville, is charged with knowingly and intentionally possessing with intent to distribute 5.26 kilograms or 11.59 pounds of cocaine.
The cocaine has an estimated street value of $154,000.
Garza appeared Monday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Ignancio Torteya III on the charge. Her next court appearance is scheduled for Jan. 12.
She is being held without bond.
“Our officers used their experience and available law enforcement tools to intercept these dangerous narcotics and carry out this seizure,” said Port Director Tater Ortiz, Brownsville Port of Entry, in a news release.
According to the federal criminal complaint, Garza was driving a 2015 Ford Escape across the B&M International Bridge in Brownsville on Jan. 7, when her vehicle was referred to a secondary inspection area due to “an automated computer-generated alert.”
As U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers searched her vehicle, they found a fabricated compartment in the gas tank of the Ford Escape that contained five bundles of a white substance that tested positive for cocaine, the federal criminal complaint states.
During a post Miranda interview with Homeland Security Investigations agents, Garza admitted to working for a drug smuggling operation and told the officers she was getting paid to smuggle the cocaine.
