MCALLEN, Texas – A Texas border cop lost her job following her arrest by U.S. Border Patrol agents during a human smuggling attempt.
Earlier this week Joan De La Fuente, a four-year veteran with the McAllen Police Department, was driving a vehicle north from the Texas border and came up to the Falfurrias checkpoint about 80 miles north.
According to information provided to Breitbart Texas by McAllen police, De la Fuente was detained by Border Patrol agents under suspicion of trying to smuggle two illegal immigrants into the United States. De La Fuente is expected to go before a U.S. Magistrate Judge on Monday morning, where she could be facing human smuggling charges.
Internal affairs investigators with McAllen Police went to meet with De La Fuente, who submitted her resignation, which was accepted by Police Chief Victor Rodriguez.
De La Fuente is the most recent Texas border cop to be arrested for unrelated smuggling offenses in recent months.
As Breitbart Texas previously reported, Luis Enrique Guevara pleaded guilty this month to a human smuggling charge. Guevara was a reserve Cameron County Constable Deputy at the time he was pulled over by Robstown Police, and found to have a group of illegal aliens in the car with him.
Late last year, U.S. Border Patrol agents caught Starr County Sheriff’s Deputy Amy Reyes trying to smuggle a marijuana load northeast of Laredo, Breitbart Texas previously reported.
Also last year, federal agents arrested Jose Luis “Pepe” Zavala, a fellow federal officer with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, after they caught him in a drug trafficking conspiracy to pass drug loads through his inspection lane, Breitbart Texas previously reported.
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