A woman who attempted to smuggle more than 40 pounds of cocaine through the San Ysidro Port of Entry, then fabricated messages to make it appear she was tricked into smuggling the drugs, pleaded guilty this week to federal charges.
Victoria Carmona, 25, of San Antonio, Texas, was arrested in February after she was caught with 42.4 pounds of cocaine in her vehicle.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Carmona claimed she was only hired to bring cash into the United States, and was unaware any drugs were in her vehicle.
This account was backed up by Facebook Messenger conversations she shared with investigators, though prosecutors say those messages were faked by Carmona and a co-defendant.
Carmona’s plea agreement states WhatsApp messages were discovered between Carmona and the co-defendant in which they discussed her false cover story.
As part of her plea agreement, Carmona admitted to faking the messages in case she was caught and admitted smuggling drugs into the United States on seven occasions in January and February of this year.
In addition to drug importation counts, Carmona pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice for the falsified Facebook messages.