Customs broker ran drug ring from Otay Mesa


The middlemen get little scrutiny once they get a license from the feds
By Greg Moran, UNION-TRIBUNE

Friday, March 4, 2011 at 4:18 p.m.


Antonio Gonzalez


Antonio Gonzalez
What is a customs broker?
Customs brokers are private individuals or corporations that for a fee help importers and exporters meet federal requirements governing imports and exports. They typically submit paperwork and other information to customs officials on behalf of their clients, and charge a fee for this service. They are licensed by Customs and Border Protection, and every three years renew the license for a $100 fee.
Photo by Earnie Grafton


Gonzalez purchased this Red Maple Drive house in Chula Vista on Feb. 14, 2008, for $375,000 cash

Photo by Earnie Grafton
Gonzalez bought this second house on Red Maple Drive in Chula Vista a week later, on Feb. 21, 2008, for $380,000 cash.

Photo by Earnie Grafton
Gonzalez bought this house on Via Maggiore on Jan. 5, 2008, for $724,000 cash.


For more than 15 years Antonio Gonzalez belonged to the small fraternity of customs brokers who work in offices and warehouses clustered along a narrow strip of Otay Mesa near the international border.

Licensed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the brokers play a key role in helping importers get their goods into the country legally.

Starting in 2007, the year he renewed his license for the fourth time, Gonzalez embarked on what federal prosecutors say was a massive scheme to illegally import ephedrine, the key ingredient for making methamphetamine.

It was lucrative, according to documents filed in the case in Oregon.

In a matter of months in 2008, he scooped up five properties across the South Bay for $2.1 million, all purchased with cash. He bought a $100,000 Tesla Roadster, a $100,000 Mercedes, a Cessna Chancellor 414A and 500 ounces of palladium ingots — all of it with drug profits prosecutors estimated at $20 million.

Federal agents arrested Gonzalez in 2009 and in December he pleaded guilty in Portland to drug and money laundering charges. He is scheduled to be sentenced March 30 and faces eight years in prison.

His case, which has attracted scant attention, illuminates a little-known aspect of border commerce, and how susceptible it can be to corruption.

Requirements for getting a custom’s broker license include passing an 80-question, four-hour open-book test, then passing a background check that examines credit reports, character references and criminal history.

Every three years brokers file a report stating whether they still work as broker, updating their business address and paying a fee. That keeps the license active.

It is hard to tell whether Gonzalez’s case is unusual. Customs and Border Protection staff was unable to say how many of the 12,335 brokers nationally have lost their license as a result of corruption or criminal activity.

Peter Quinter, a former lawyer for the agency who is now in private practice focusing on customs and trade law, said he thinks Gonzalez is an anomaly. Still, he noted a flaw: Getting a license can be difficult and keeping it is not.

“As soon as you get it, it’s good forever,â€