http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/ ... 87543.html

Dec. 7, 2006, 10:01PM
Border agent sentenced to 14 years

— HOUSTON _ A former Border Patrol agent was sentenced Thursday to 14 years in federal prison for helping cocaine and immigrant smugglers and for selling immigration documents.

David Duque Jr., 36, pleaded guilty in September to bribery and three counts of unlawfully transferring identification documents.

Prosecutors said Duque accepted $5,000 to allow a vehicle hauling nearly 11 pounds of cocaine through a checkpoint at the Mexican border on June 14.

An FBI agent also said Duque allowed illegal immigrants through the Falfurrias checkpoint for several years and sold almost 70 identification documents.

U.S. District Judge Gray H. Miller sentenced Duque to 14 years for the bribery conviction, to be followed by three years of supervised release and a $2,500 fine. Three five-year sentences for the identification charges will run concurrently with one another and with the bribery sentence.