Two border patrol agents working with cartels to smuggle fentanyl, drugs into California: report | The Post Millennial
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Two border patrol agents working with cartels to smuggle fentanyl, drugs into California: report
Two border patrol agents have been accused of taking cash for allowing drugs across the southern border. “Corruption undermines the integrity of our border security and poses a grave threat to public safety.”
Two US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents have been accused of helping Mexican cartels smuggle fentanyl, heroin and other drugs into the United States, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
Jesse Clark Garcia and Diego Bonillo reportedly started living the high life earlier this year and alarm bells went off. Prosecutors have argued that the two were spending thousands of dollars on luxury items from Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Burberry, while one invested in horse racing and building a mansion in Mexico and the other had taken several European vacations and was planning on a front row seat at a Las Vegas prize fight.
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Prosecutors say Garcia and Bonillo of “profited handsomely,” from alleged illegal activities, skimming tens of thousands of dollars every time a vehicle filled with illegal drugs made it across the southern border unmolested. The indictment accuses the pair of allowing more than 1,150 pounds of drugs into the US in five separate jobs between April 2021 and February of this year but that amount only reflects what was actually seized by US authorities.
An investigation by the FBI San Diego field office’s Border Corruption Task Force led to the arrest of both agents. The charges came a month after another CBP officer, Leonard Darnell George, went on trial for a similar accusation. He was convicted in June of taking bribes to let drugs and illegal immigrants through his inspection lane at the San Ysidro Port of Entry.
“Corruption undermines the integrity of our border security and poses a grave threat to public safety,” U.S. Attorney Tara McGrath told the Union-Tribune in a statement Wednesday. “Allegations that border officials are complicit in fentanyl trafficking are especially troubling. This office will bring those who put our community at risk to justice.”
A CBP spokesperson refused to respond to specific questions from the Union-Tribune about the officers charged.
“We do not tolerate misconduct within our ranks. When we discover any alleged or potential misconduct, we immediately refer it for investigation and cooperate fully with any criminal or administrative investigations,” the spokesperson said. “This is the case whether the alleged misconduct occurs on or off duty. Federal privacy laws prohibit discussion of individual cases.”
Under the Biden-Harris administration, the illegal immigration crisis continues, which was long denied by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. The border crisis has contributed not just to a drug problem in America, but has allowed hundreds of thousands of children to be “lost,” likely subject to the predations of sex trafficking and forced labor.
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