Thread: Border Agents Accused in Drug Scheme

Shameful? No. The good guys caught the bad guys.

Originally Posted by AP, Dallas Morning News, Apr 7

Border Patrol agents accused in drug scheme
A senior U.S. Border Patrol agent and his brother were charged with accepting about $1.5 million in drug dealers' bribes for allowing marijuana and cocaine through a checkpoint, federal prosecutors said Thursday. Senior Border Patrol agent Juan Alvarez, 35, and his brother Jose Guadalupe Alvarez, 38, both of Laredo, were named in a 12-count indictment unsealed Thursday. The indictment details extortion, bribery, drug conspiracy and firearm charges against the brothers.

Prosecutors say the brothers solicited and received payments from a drug organization that moved one or more loads of marijuana per month through the checkpoint between June 2003 and March 29. Each load included 1 tons to 2 tons of marijuana. Prosecutors allege the dealers also paid the brothers to ensure 30 kilos to 40 kilos of cocaine would pass the checkpoint. Juan Alvarez worked at the Border Patrol's highway checkpoint at Hebbronville, about 60 miles from the U.S. border with Mexico. Jose Guadalupe Alvarez is accused of working as the middleman between his brother and the drug dealers.

The charges the brothers face include:

_ Four drug counts, each count punishable by 10 years to life in prison

_ One count of conspiracy to extort money under color of official right, punishable by up to 20 years in prison

_ Two counts of interfering of interstate commerce by means of extortion, each count punishable by up to 20 years in prison

_ One count of participating in a bribery conspiracy, punishable by up to 15 years in prison

_ Two counts of soliciting and accepting bribes, punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

Juan Alvarez faces an additional two counts of carrying and possessing a firearm during and in relation to a drug trafficking offense, which carries an additional consecutive sentence of five years in prison. Prosecutors also seek to recover the alleged $1.5 million in bribes. The brothers were in federal custody pending a court appearance scheduled for Friday. Neither the U.S. Attorney's office nor the Border Patrol had information about whether either of the brothers had an attorney. Danny Molina, assistant chief of the U.S. Border Patrol's Laredo sector, said the Border Patrol had assisted in the investigation. He said news of the alleged activity detracted from the honest efforts of the sector's more than 1,000 other agents. "It's a blow to our ego, to the integrity of the Border Patrol," he said. "We feel bad about it, but it's not something we can't move on and continue from." Agents Corrupt

Oh I see .. it's very clear in this case. These agents aren't busy detaining and arresting illegal crossers because they are just doing the jobs other border patrol agents won't (hopefully) do.