Steve Neavling

A former U.S. federal immigration agent who passed on classified information to families with ties to Mexican drug cartels is to serve 30 months in prison, Reuters reports.

Jovana Deas was sentenced Friday following accusations that she illegally obtained and disseminated classified documents as a special agent for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in a small border town in Arizona.

According to court documents, Deas stole restricted crime and immigration databases and gave them to her former brother-in-law, Miguel Angel Mendoza Estrada, who belongs to a Mexican cartel with ties to drug traffickers in Brazil, Reuters reported.