Monday, February 6, 2012

ICE special agent pleads guilty for leaks to drug smugglers

TUCSON, AZ - A special agent working for Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security investigations has pleaded guilty to all 21 counts of an indictment.

Jovana Deas, 33-years-old from Rio Rico, admits she abused her position as an HSI special agent to get ahold of classified government documents, which later showed up on a laptop computer linked to drug traffickers in Brazil.

The laptop belonged to Deas' former brother-in-law, who investigators say is associated with a drug trafficking organization in Mexico.

According to investigators, Deas also admits that she lied to an HSI special agent why she was making computer inquiries about a specific person who was a target of another agent.

Deas became a government employee in June 2003, working first as a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer assigned to the Nogales port of entry.

In 2008, she became an HSI special agent assigned to the HSI Nogales office.

The indictment also charges her sister, Dana Maria Samaniego Montes, of Agua Prieta, with violations of federal law.

Investigators say she is a former Mexican law enforcement official with alleged ties to drug trafficking organizations.

Samaniego Montes is currently a fugitive, on the run somewhere in Mexico.

Deas faces up to five years in prison for each of the seven felony indictments to which she pleaded guilty and up to one year in prison for each of the 14 misdemeanors.

She is scheduled to be sentenced on April 11.

KVOA.COM

1 comment:

  1. I hope she gets the max!! Execution is what she deserves, though!

    ReplyDelete