Mexican cartels corrupting more US border officials?
Nearly 80 have been arrested in the last five years; hundreds more under investigation

By Mark Potter Correspondent
NBC News NBC News
updated 2 hours 47 minutes ago 2011-04-07T23:34:19


Editor's Note: This is the latest in Mark Potter's War Next Door series, a string of reports about the deadly drug war raging in Mexico and along the U.S. border. Click here for more news from the region.

In El Paso, Texas, a major embarrassment for American law enforcement: U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer Margarita Crispin is sentenced to 20 years in prison for selling out to Mexican drug traffickers.

"It was amazing to us to find out that Margarita Crispin received $5 million for her services to allow loads of marijuana to come through her checkpoint along the border," assistant director of the Criminal Investigative Division of the FBI, told NBC News.

In the Mexican drug war, U.S. authorities are finding a disturbing trend: an increase in American law enforcement officials corrupted by wealthy Mexican criminals who pay them to look the other way as illegal drugs and immigrants flow north into the United States.

Story: Mexico’s ‘war next door’ linked directly to United States
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39812764/ns ... -americas/

"It is the single most debilitating factor in successful law enforcement on the border, and we do a horrible job of weeding that corruption out,â€