Thread: Ex-Border Patrol agents get at least 30 years

Ex-Border Patrol agents get at least 30 years

Associated PressBy JULIE WATSON | Associated Press – 8 mins ago..

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A federal judge on Friday sentenced two brothers who worked as Border Patrol agents to at least 30 years in prison for smuggling hundreds of immigrants into the United States.

U.S. District Court Judge John Houston sentenced Raul Villarreal to 35 years for leading the smuggling ring. His brother, Fidel Villarreal, was sentenced to 30 years for managing the operation.

The sentences are among the longest given to border law enforcement officials.

Houston said he gave the severe sentences to deter others. The judge called their smuggling operation "disgusting" and a threat to national security.

The brothers were accused of helping more than 500 migrants cross the border from Mexico.

Prosecutors said Raul Villarreal — who made television appearances as an agency spokesman and once played the role of a smuggler in a public service ad —recruited his brother to his ring that smuggled in Mexicans and Brazilians. One Brazilian woman told investigators she paid $12,000 to cross.

Federal officials said they also took bribes from public officials.

The federal probe began in May 2005 when an informant tipped off the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Investigators installed cameras in areas where migrants were dropped off, planted recording devices and placed tracking instruments on Border Patrol vehicles. They also trailed the ring's smuggling operations by airplane.

Prosecutors said when the brothers learned they were being investigated in June 2006, they quit their jobs and fled to Mexico.

Two years later, the brothers were arrested. They were extradited to the U.S. and charged with human smuggling, witness tampering and bribery.

Raul Villarreal's attorney, David Nick, had argued the prosecution's witnesses were not credible and surveillance yielded no evidence of wrongdoing by his client.

Fidel's attorney, Zenia Gilg, echoed that argument, saying the prosecution's case rested largely on two alleged accomplices who were promised leniency for testifying and "inconsistent statements" from migrants.

The Border Patrol has suffered a string of such embarrassments since doubling its size in less than a decade, including the case of an agent who pleaded guilty in April to smuggling marijuana while on duty along the Arizona-Mexico border.

http://news.yahoo.com/ex-border-patr...005107685.html

Houston said he gave the severe sentences to deter others. The judge called their smuggling operation "disgusting" and a threat to national security.

wow maybe he needs to do the same to Obama and his smuggling thugs in White House. Does he not see that leaving the border open its Obamas way of smuggling..

Foot guide in smuggling ring sentenced

Two U.S. Border Patrol agents were part of ring that netted $1M in a year

By Greg Moran
AUG. 12, 2013

SAN DIEGO — A 45-year-old Mexican man who acted as a foot guide in a human smuggling ring operated by two former U.S. Border Patrol agents was sentenced to five years and 10 months in prison Monday.
Armando Garcia was convicted of conspiracy and human smuggling for financial gain at a trial a year ago in San Diego federal court.

Two former agents, the brothers Raul and Fidel Villarreal, were convicted of bribery, conspiracy and smuggling for financial gain. In June, U.S. District Judge John Houston sentenced Raul to 35 years in prison and Fidel to 30 years — two of the harshest sentences handed down to corrupt border agents.

Garcia’s role was to lead groups of illegal immigrants across the border and into waiting vehicles, all under the protection of the Villarreal brothers. Each smuggled person had paid $10,000 to $12,000 each to be smuggled into the U.S., according to testimony at a three-week trial last year.

Under the terms of a sentencing agreement between prosecutors and Garcia, he agreed not to appeal his conviction in exchange for accepting a sentence of 70 months in prison. Under federal sentencing rules, he had faced between 63 and 78 months in custody.

Prosecutors said the brothers ran a smuggling ring that netted more than $1 million in a yearlong period from 2005 to 2006. It included a transportation coordinator in Mexico and Brazil, and the use of a corrupt police official in Tijuana who provided safe harbor for the immigrants in Tijuana as they waited to be smuggled into the U.S.

The brothers would smuggle the people while on duty, often picking them up in Border Patrol vehicles and taking them to a drop off point where other drivers would transport them to Los Angeles and other locations.

Just as the investigation was getting to a crucial point, the two abruptly resigned from the agency and fled to Mexico, apparently having been tipped off to the investigation.

Authorities have not yet publicly said how the brothers learned of the probe and who tipped them.

The Villarreals are among about 150 U.S. border law enforcement officers who have been charged in corruption-related cases since 2004.
Garcia was arrested along with the Villarreals in Mexico in October 2008 and extradited to the U.S. in March 2009.

http://web.utsandiego.com/news/2013/...ng-sentencing/