Thread: Border Patrol agent caught on tape stealing pot

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Lupita Murillo Reports
Border Patrol agent caught on tape stealing pot

March 28, 2007 05:23 PM PDT


It all began with a simple traffic stop.

In December 2005, a DPS officer pulled over a pickup truck on Highway 85 near Sonoita.

The driver took off on foot. DPS gave chase. While both the suspect and the officer were away, Border Patrol agent Michael Carlos Gonzalez arrived on the scene to help out.

Gonzalez was supposed to be guarding the suspect's truck, loaded with marijuana.

Instead, he helped himself to a 20 pound bundle. And the whole thing was recorded on the DPS agent's dashcam.

"You can't deny the embarrassment that comes along with looking at that video tape," says Border Patrol spokesman Rob Daniels.

Agent Gonzalez didn't realize the dashcam was on.

Daniels says, "Its almost unimaginable."

Gonzalez called in sick the following day. Investigators say he flew to California, and the bundle was never seen again.

When the video tape came to light, he resigned.

"He is no longer with us," says Agent Daniels. "That's a good thing for taxpayers as well as for those who used to be his coworkers."

Gonzalez is now behind bars, just like the criminals he arrested while on the job.

Gonzalez was convicted last Monday. He will be sentenced on June 26th. Because Gonzales was in uniform and had his service weapon during the crime, he faces a minimum sentence of five years to life in prison.

News 4 has also learned that in the nine years Gonzalez was employed with Border Patrol, he never made a drug seizure.

Officials tell News 4, going nine years without a drug seizure as a Border Patrol agent is very unusual.







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http://kvoa.com/Global/story.asp?S=6294843&nav=HMO6HMaW

Click link for video

Video tells all.

Hope he gets the sentece he deserves.

Dixie

He should serve longer than Ramos and Compean.