U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Special Agent Jovana Deas, 33, of Rio Rico, Ariz., was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in federal prison, on Friday. Deas admitted to abusing her position as an HSI special agent to illegally obtain and disseminate government documents classified as Official Use Only.
Some of the sensitive information Deas unlawfully accessed was later discovered on a laptop computer of her former brother-in-law by law enforcement in Brazil. Her brother-in-law is associated with a drug trafficking organization in Mexico, which has ties to drug traffickers in Brazil.
Deas admitted that she illegally accessed, stole, and transferred sensitive U.S. government documents to unauthorized individuals, and that she obstructed HSI investigations. Deas also admitted that she lied to a HSI Special Agent when asked why she was making computer inquiries about a specific person who was a target of another agent.
Deas became a U.S. government employee in June, 2003, as a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer assigned to the Nogales, Ariz. port of entry. In 2008, she became an HSI special agent assigned to the HSI Nogales office.