U.S. border guard accused in gun crimes

chron.com
By Dane Schiller
Friday, May 25, 2012

Federal agents arrested a Customs and Border Protection officer in Brownsville on charges he twice acted as a "straw purchaser" and illegally bought hunting rifles for an immigrant who could not.

Manuel Eduardo Pena, a 13-year veteran of the agency, is on paid leave.

His arrest is the fourth of a CBP employee in the last four months on corruption-related charges - and comes as lawmakers focus on infractions with Homeland Security agencies such as CBP, Immigration and Customs and Enforcement, and the Transportation Security Administration.

Of immediate concern is whether Pena, 38, was part of a larger gun-trafficking cell that shipped guns south of the border, where there are warring drug cartels, but officials won't say.

Last year, CBP and ICE combined had 893 allegations of employee misconduct involving corruption, according to Congressman Michael McCaul, an Austin Republican who represents a portion of Harris County.

"While the vast majority of DHS employees are honest and hardworking, unfortunately the actions of a few bad apples taint the entire organization," said McCaul, who heads a congressional subcommittee examining misconduct within Homeland Security.

In Brownsville, agents secretly watched Pena in December on two occasions when he allegedly purchased Remington 770 hunting rifles at Academy Sports and Outdoors, according to an affidavit filed in federal court.
Pena is accused of lying on federal forms by claiming he was buying the guns for himself.

After each buy, Pena handed the guns to Sergio Gonzalez - who could not legally buy the guns - and was reimbursed for the purchases.

Pena, whose arrest was announced Friday after he was taken into custody the night before, was assigned to ports of entry in Brownsville, which include the airport and bridges spanning the Rio Grande.

"We do not tolerate corruption or abuse within our ranks, and we fully cooperate with any criminal or administrative investigation of alleged misconduct by any of our personnel on or off-duty," said Bill Brooks, a CBP spokesman.
Larry Karson, a retired Customs Service agent who is a criminal justice lecturer at the University of Houston-Downtown, said investigators likely had to assume the guns were headed to Mexico.

"If it is an illegal purchase in the Valley, you have to start with the assumption that eventually it was headed south of the border," Karson said, pointing to the hunger of cartels for weapons from the United States.

"If you have a law-enforcement officer involved in an (illegal) transaction, it immediately brings into question: With what other violations has the officer compromised his credibility?" he continued. "If you are willing to assist somebody in the illegal purchase of a weapon, are you also willing to assist that person in the trafficking of that weapon southbound?"

source: U.S. border guard accused in gun crimes - Houston Chronicle