Press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas
A federal jury in Del Rio convicted an illegal alien from Nicaragua of illegal re-entry Wednesday, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas Justin R. Simmons announced.
According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Darwing Alberto Varela was arrested in December 2025 after being rescued from the water on the U.S. side of the Rio Grande.
During an immigration inspection with U.S. Border Patrol agents, Varela admitted that he swam across the river from Mexico to enter the United States, that he was a citizen of Nicaragua and that he had previously been deported from the United States.
Concluding a two-day trial presided over by U.S. District Judge Ernest Gonzalez, the federal jury returned a guilty verdict in just four minutes.
“The Western District of Texas has the largest caseload in the nation, and, as here, we handle those cases with excellence,” Simmons said. “I am proud of our entire prosecution team for their work on this open-and-shut case and coming to work every day committed to doing the next right thing.”
The U.S. Border Patrol investigated the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Carli Tuttle and Steven Shilling are prosecuting the case.
