“A corrupt DHS employee may accept a bribe for allowing what appear to be simply undocumented aliens into the U.S. while unwittingly helping terrorists enter the country."
Mexican cartels are increasingly engaged in the “systematic corruption” of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) workers to expand their smuggling operations — including the trafficking of aliens from terrorism-linked countries.
“Drug trafficking organizations (DTOs) have become not only more violent and dangerous, but more clever as well. The DTOs have turned to recruiting and corrupting DHS employees,” Charles Edwards, the acting DHS inspector general, told a hearing of a House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee.
Cartels’ Bribing of DHS Workers Raises Terrorist Threat
NewsMax.com
“A corrupt DHS employee may accept a bribe for allowing what appear to be simply undocumented aliens into the U.S. while unwittingly helping terrorists enter the country.
Likewise, what seems to be drug contraband could be weapons of mass destruction, such as chemical or biological weapons or bomb-making materials.
“According to government reports, DTOs are becoming involved increasingly in systematic corruption of DHS employees to further alien and drug smuggling, including the smuggling of aliens from designated special interest countries likely to export terrorism.”
Special interest countries are nations thought to pose a terrorist threat and include Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Yemen, and Somalia, CNS News pointed out in a report on Edwards’ testimony.
Edwards said border corruption may take the form of cash bribes, sexual favors, and other gratuities in return for U.S. employees allowing contraband or illegal aliens through inspection lanes — “or even protecting and escorting border crossings.”
He also said DHS employees may be bribed to leak or sell sensitive law enforcement information to smugglers, and provide them with documents such as immigration papers.
The cartels target employees who may be “going through financial difficulties, gambling, debts, [or] sexual infidelity,” he added.
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner David Aguilar, who testified alongside Edwards, said that 141 CBP employees “have been arrested or indicted for acts of corruption” since October 2004.
Edwards warned in his written testimony that “while those who turn away from their sworn duties are few, even one corrupt agent or officer who allows harmful goods or people to enter the country puts the nation at risk.”
Organized gangs in Mexico are also increasingly involved in the theft of petroleum from the nation’s state-run oil company, Pemex, CNS News reported.
Pemex said on Aug. 10 that the national pipeline systems “are practically taken over by organized crime gangs associated with heavily armed groups.”
Criminals use devices called “clandestine taps” to steal the oil from the pipelines.
According to Pemex, more than 1.84 million barrels of oil were stolen from the pipeline system in the first six months of this year, meaning that on average, at least 17,500 gallons of oil were stolen per hour!
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