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Former Valley Detention Center Employees Charged with Bribery

4 years 9 months 4 weeks ago Wednesday, May 29 2019 May 29, 2019 May 29, 2019 6:36 PM May 29, 2019 in News - Local

RAYMONDVILLE – The information of immigrants in federal detention was sold for profit by former employees, now charged with this crime.

According to a federal indictment, three people working in Raymondville are currently charged with conspiracy to commit bribery and bribery.

Benito Barrientez, of Lyford, worked at the Willacy County Regional Detention Center as a classification clerk.

Damian Ortiz, of Weslaco, worked with Barrientez as a senior program director.

Exy Adelaida Gomez, of Los Fresnos, worked at El Valle Detention Center in Raymondville as a detention officer. 

According to the indictment, the incidents occurred from Feb. 2018 through Feb. 2019.

The three would work to acquire rosters of detainees.

Those rosters contained names, dates of birth, identification numbers, country of origin and information considered sensitive by the government. 

The rosters were sold to a local attorney who paid up to $1,000 for those names.

He would then work to gain the detainees as clients; that attorney remains unnamed for now. 

The arrests were part of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement led investigation, which also included the Office of Inspector General and HSI. 

All three former employees are expected to appear before a federal judge Thursday.

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