Thread: F.B.I.: The Case of the Crooked Border Official

ABUSE OF TRUST

The Case of the Crooked Border Official

06/08/09

She seemed to be serving the nation, but she was really working for a band of drug traffickers for a boatload of cash…

Americans trust that their public servants will use their positions of power lawfully—that’s why crimes involving the breach of this trust is our top criminal investigative priority. And while we investigate all kinds of public corruption, perhaps the one that most directly threatens our nation’s security and well-being involves our borders.

Keep in mind that each day, thousands of honest and dedicated men and women patrol our borders, screening travelers and goods for possible threats to our homeland. Yet their hard work is sometimes overshadowed by an occasional crooked official—like former customs inspector Margarita Crispin who, for her own financial gain, looked the other way while drug traffickers moved illegal drugs across the U.S.-Mexican border.

How it began
In late 2004, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) contacted our field office in El Paso, Texas. One of their informants reported that Crispin was allowing shipments of illegal drugs into the U.S. through her border post in El Paso.

Building the case
Together with our partner agencies—ICE, the Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General, Customs and Border Protection, and the Drug Enforcement Administration—we began surveilling Crispin. We learned that not long after she was hired, Crispin—who lived meagerly in El Paso—acquired two expensive homes in Mexico, along with several luxury vehicles, but she attempted to cover her tracks with straw buyers. We also discovered that she socialized with known drug traffickers.

In May 2006, a strange incident in Crispin’s assigned vehicle lane at the border crossing aroused our suspicions even more: a van going through her lane ran out of gas, and its driver jumped out and ran back across the border to Mexico. When other inspectors opened the van doors, they found nearly 6,000 pounds of marijuana…in plain view (see below). Crispin couldn’t explain why that van might have been in her lane, and later that day she went home “sick.â€

The smugglers lost a van and 6,000 lbs. of pot because they didn't put any gas in the van. LOL

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

The smugglers lost a van and 6,000 lbs. of pot because they didn't put any gas in the van. LOL

thats the only funny thing about this disturbing story

Common sense would say Border Patrols get bought off. I bet the supervisor was in the office while this was going on.

Will Corruption Cross the Line?
The cartels own Mexico's cops. American border agents could be next.
—By Andrew Becker

July/August 2009 Issue

THE RUMORS ABOUT MARGARITA CRISPIN started soon after her first day as a customs officer in El Paso, Texas. In March 2003, Crispin started working the line at the Paso Del Norte bridge, across from Ciudad Juárez. Nearly one-fifth of all drugs seized coming across the border enter through the El Paso-Juárez area, and the region is viciously contested by Mexican cartels. So when Crispin waved off the dogs that sniff out drugs in the long line of cars waiting to enter the United States, saying she didn't like them around her, it raised a few eyebrcows.

Corruption among border agents is nothing new. But what makes Crispin's case different is that investigators from the Department of Homeland Security suspect she'd been recruited by a friend with ties to the Juárez cartel before she took the job. Almost immediately after completing her training and putting on her badge, she began to help traffickers "cross loads." As many as three vans stuffed with drugs would pass through her inspection lane several times a week. By the time she was arrested in July 2007, Crispin is thought to have let more than 2,200 pounds of marijuana into the United States. In return, DHS agents say, she received millions in bribes, much of which remains unaccounted for. Last April, she pled guilty and was sentenced to 20 years and ordered to forfeit as much as $5 million, plus jewelry and a truck.

At least two other recently arrested agents are suspected of being drug cartel plants. And as Customs and Border Protection continues its biggest hiring surge ever, investigators see infiltration as a growing threat. By this fall, CBP expects to have more than 20,000 agents, twice what it had in 2001. "We're seeing fewer reports by agents of being approached by traffickers," says James Smith, special agent in charge of the DHS inspector general's El Paso office, which investigates corruption and misconduct cases. "We're not just seeing disgruntled employees going bad. We're seeing more cases where agents are already employed by the drug-trafficking and alien-smuggling organizations before they go to work for CBP."

Speaking Spanish is a required skill for agents, and many have family and other ties to Mexico. Though agents are subjected to extensive background checks, it is a challenge to indentify red flags in applicants' personal histories or connections across the border. Since the agency began giving polygraph tests to potential hires last year, investigators have found four applicants planted by the cartels. Still, they're concerned that others may have already slipped through.

Some officials worry that the screening program may not be able to keep up with the pace of recruitment. But James Tomsheck, CBP's assistant commissioner for internal affairs, says the agency hasn't cut corners. Rather, he thinks the increased risk of cartels' penetrating its ranks is an unintended consequence of the successful efforts to secure the border with fencing and more agents. "The threat, as it emanates from the cartels, is a real one," he says. "Our concern is, what is it that we don't know? Who is in our workforce that we have not yet detected?"

Andrew Becker is a staff reporter with the Center for Investigative Reporting.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/200 ... cross-line

What always gets me is that they let this go on for 3 years before they stopped her.

Dixie