Ex-Border Patrol pair charged with smuggling people into U.S.
By Elliot Spagat
Updated: 03/13/2009 10:07:17 PM PDT


SAN DIEGO - Two former Border Patrol agents made initial court appearances Friday on charges they smuggled Brazilians into the United States.

A federal magistrate judge entered not guilty pleas on behalf of the brothers - Raul Villarreal, 39, and Fidel Villarreal, 41 - and two other defendants also extradited from Mexico on Thursday.

Uniformed Border Patrol agents occupied about half the courtroom's seats in a show of disapproval for their former colleagues. Raul Villarreal had been an agency spokesman, often granting interviews to Spanish-language media.

"They tarnished our uniform, so we want to see them prosecuted," agent Damon Foreman said after watching the arraignment from a second-row seat.

The brothers were on the run for more than two years until Mexican authorities arrested them in October at a gated apartment complex near the U.S. Consulate in Tijuana, across the border from San Diego, according to U.S. authorities.

The brothers stood stone- faced as a clerk read charges including bribery of a public official, conspiracy to bring in illegal aliens for financial gain and witness tampering.

Brazilians said in court documents that they paid $12,000 each to cross the border illegally in 2005.

A 38-year-old Brazilian said he flew to Mexico, crossed the border in San Diego with two other Brazilians and seven Mexicans, and was picked up by an "American border official." He changed vehicles twice before
reaching Los Angeles and later flew to Massachusetts.

A 24-year-old Brazilian who reached Florida said a Mexican police officer in Tijuana dropped her and about nine others off with a guide who took them on foot across the border to a U.S. "immigration police" officer. She arranged the trip through a travel agency worker in Brazil.

A 22-year old Brazilian who went to New York said a Border Patrol agent picked her and others up in California and drove them around for about an hour before leaving them in the brush.

Fidel Villarreal's attorney said he would review the evidence before commenting.


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