Thread: Feds arrest local Border Patrol agent for selling pot

http://www.bakercountypress.com/index.p ... ews&id=401
Feds arrest local Border Patrol agent for selling pot

Posted on 14 June, 2006, by bcpress

The federal government last week charged a Border Patrol agent who lives in Macclenny with selling three pounds of marijuana out of the rear door of his government-issued SUV. Tony [Hollywood] Henderson, 45, was released on $20,000 bond after a first appearance before a federal magistrate in Jacksonville on June 9, the day following his arrest.
Steve Cole, a spokesman for the US Attorney’s office in Tampa, said Mr. Henderson was a “20 plus” year veteran of the federal border security agency.
The government took jurisdiction in the case because of the accused’s employment with a federal agency and because it believes the case involves corruption by a government official, said Mr. Cole.
In an twist dripping with irony, the government alleges the co-conspirator who arranged for Mr. Henderson to sell to a confidential informant from Suwannee County is himself an illegal immigrant from Mexico.
Identified as Pedro Fernandez, the alleged middle man has four times been deported back to Mexico since 1978, and a DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) agent assigned to the case learned he currently has a valid Florida driv*er’s license.
Agents from DEA, the FDLE and Suwannee County, Florida set up the marijuana purchase the evening of December 10, 2005 over a period of less than one week, according to the 30 page criminal complaint and affidavit used by the government to get an arrest warrant last week.
The informant was in Mr. Fernandez’s vehicle that evening about 7:30 when a DEA officer positioned near the accused’s residence off Oakdale Lane in Mac*clenny observed Mr. Henderson and Mr. Fernandez approach the former’s government-issued Border Patrol vehicle parked outside.
Mr. Henderson reached in the back of the SUV and retrieved a brown Target plastic bag with three pounds of marijuana.
The informant paid him $2100 for the pot, and Mr. Fernandez took $600 as his commission.
Initially, the set-up buy was to involve four pounds at $700 each, but apparently the defendant’s supplier had run short.
The government also alleges Mr. Henderson’s corrupt activities exceeded sale of drugs; the information charges he sold work permits from the Immigration and Naturalization Service for illegal aliens for $200 and arranged for them to acquire fake identification, including driver’s licenses.
He has not been charged with any criminal offenses in connection with those allegations.
Also included in the government’s affidavit signed by Florentino Rosales, a special DEA agent, is the fact that Mr. Henderson used a cell phone paid for by the Border Patrol in contacts with the middle man.
The government included phone records from December of 2005 and January-March of this year of conversations between the defendant and Mr. Fernandez.
The US Attorney’s office also plans to submit recordings of bugged conversations between the informant and both Mr. Henderson and Mr. Fernandez during the set-up for the pre-Christmas buy.
Numerous state and federal agents were also involved in surveillance at the Live Oak residence of the informant.

He has not been charged with any criminal offenses in connection with those allegations

What!!!!

The government took jurisdiction in the case because of the accused’s employment with a federal agency and because it believes the case involves corruption by a government official, said Mr. Cole.

yuh think?