A Texas police chief will spend four and a half years in federal prison for using the witness protection program to collect bribes from illegal aliens wanting to avoid deportation.

On Friday, 52-year-old Andres Tomas Gutierrez was sentenced to four and a half years in prison and three years of probation for a wire fraud scheme; Gutierrez was the police chief of the central Texas town of Jarrel.

According to court records obtained by Breitbart Texas, Gutierrez pleaded guilty earlier this year to running a scheme from 2011 to November 2013 where he collected bribes from illegal aliens looking to get protection from immigration authorities.

After getting from $10,000 to $40,000 from illegals, Gutierrez would then file paperwork with federal officials claiming the aliens were cooperating witnesses or informants in ongoing drug trafficking and human smuggling investigations. In fact, the aliens were not part of any investigation but were just being presented as sources in order for Gutierrez to collect the bribes, court records show.

“The sentencing of Andres Gutierrez the former Jarrel police chief is the culmination of a long term investigation into corruption and the violation of public trust,” Homeland Security Investigation’s Special Agent In Charge Janice Ayala told Breitbart Texas in a prepared statement.

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