Texas Juvenile Justice Employee Accused of Stealing $1.2 Million Worth of Fajitas

We all want to drown in delicious fajitas, but a Texas man who tried to live the dream flew too close to the hot queso and has brought down the wrath of a district attorney.

The Brownsville Herald reports that a Texas Juvenile Justice Department employee is under investigation for allegedly stealing $1.2 million worth of fajitas over the past decade.

Investigators say Gilberto Escamilla has been ordering fajitas delivered to the department for 9 years without permission and selling them to outside buyers.

Escamilla's alleged misconduct was revealed on August 7 when he took a day off work for a doctor visit. A driver from the department's meat vendor arrived to deliver 800 pounds of fajitas and was told the department doesn't serve them. The driver insisted that he's been delivering the dish to that facility for almost a decade.

According to the Herald, Escamilla was confronted about the incident the next day and admitted to intercepting the orders and selling them.

“He would literally, on the day he ordered them, deliver them to customers he had already lined up,” Cameron County District Attorney Luis V. Saenz told the Herald. “We’ve been able to uncover two of his purchasers, and they are cooperating with the investigation.”

Investigators reportedly found packages of fajitas in the refrigerator of Escamilla's home.

Escamilla was arrested on October 10 and charged with first-degree felony theft. His crime is estimated to have cost taxpayers $1,251,548.

However, Escamilla isn't the only person in hot water. The Herald reports that the Juvenile Justice Department's policies are now under review as investigators work to determine how Escamilla was able to get away with spending all that taxpayer money on fajitas for almost 10 years.

“Up and down the chain of authority, people were signing off on these things,” Saenz told the Herald. “It’s upsetting because the auditor gets a detailed invoice where it states the breakdown of what’s delivered, so they should’ve seen it.”