An officer at the Bexar County Jail has been arrested for shuttling drug money into an an inmate's commissary fund.
Rita Alvarez, a 11-year veteran of the Bexar County Sheriff's Office, was charged Wednesday for engaging in organized criminal activity and facilitating "illegal barter, expenditures or investments." According to Sheriff Javier Salazar, Alvarez had been collecting drug money dues for inmate Cristobal Perez and depositing it into his commissary fund for months.
"We're humans, we have lives before our career," Salazar said of his fellow officers at a Wednesday morning press conference. "But it's up to us to end those relationships when we get into this profession. Clearly, in this case, that did not occur."
Salazar has not confirmed if Perez is connected to a local gang that may have worked with Alvarez to pass the money along. Alvarez has been put on unpaid administrative leave and will be booked into the Bexar County Jail Wednesday afternoon.
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