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Two men pleaded guilty this week to stealing more than $1.5 million in border wall panels from a Pharr construction site.
Jose Emmanuel Gonzalez and Juan Nestor Rojas admitted to a charge of theft of public property in McAllen federal court on Monday.
They stole approximately 215 border wall panels from Strong Structural Steel between August and December 2021.
“Each panel has been valued by the (U.S. Army) Corps of Engineers at $7,000,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Lee Fry said during a prior hearing.
The federal prosecutor added the 215 panels was a ”conservative” estimate.
The Pharr Police Department initially began investigating after Strong Structural Steel Vice President of Business Jerry Ring noticed 110 missing panels. He told investigators he believed the theft was a n inside job because the company’s own forklift was used to commit the theft and only one employee had a key for it.
Gonzalez had previously worked for the company as an operations assistant.
Investigators found some of the paneling at a Weslaco scrap yard and learned that some paneling was used to build a patio.
The case was later turned over to federal prosecutors.
Their sentencing is scheduled for late July.
