SAN ANTONIO – A former jailer with the Bexar County Sheriff's Office who admitted in January to taking part in a conspiracy to smuggle drugs into the county jail has been sentenced to one and a half years in federal prison.
Ruben Hernandez, 27, will also serve three years of community supervision after being released.
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Hernandez and fellow jailer Gabriel Ortiz were arrested last summer after investigators became aware of the smuggling operation in late 2017. Ortiz is currently serving a three-year prison sentence for his role in the smuggling plot.
“We are proud to have partnered for the first time with the FBI on this joint sting operation,” Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said in a emailed news release. “I am pleased with the conviction in this case, and my stance remains the same on rooting out misconduct."
Authorities became aware of the smuggling operation after Ortiz "repeatedly named his price of $700 to smuggle a cellphone to inmates" to help pay off debts, according to federal court documents.
Federal agents then placed recording equipment inside the jail, and months later, in April 2018, a cooperating inmate informed investigators that Ortiz had approached him offering to perform smuggling services in exchange for money.
Records show Ortiz then twice smuggled what he believed to be methamphetamine into the jail along with brisket tacos.
In May 2018, Ortiz brought Hernandez in on the operation, court documents show.
According to court documents, Hernandez told a cooperating inmate that he and Ortiz would be willing to help smuggle drugs into the jail when the inmate got out of jail.
Ortiz and Hernandez then took part in another delivery of fake meth and tacos last June, according to records.
Hernandez and Ortiz were part of the same BCSO academy class and were hired as probationary officers in July 2017.