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Today's Must Read
Looks like the 'crackdown' against illegal immigrants crossing over the Mexican border has been a boon for corrupt border guards.
Federal officials say their decision to dissolve the Internal Affairs unit at Customs and Border Protection unit a few years ago was a bad idea (go figure), and now the Department of Homeland Security is reconstituting it. Reborn with a whopping five investigators last year, the unit is projected to grow to 200 by the end of this year.
The New York Times reports this morning that a growing number of border patrol guards are under investigation for taking bribes from smugglers and letting vehicles packed with drugs and people pass into the U.S. unchecked.
There's a lot of money out there for border agents on the take:
In another recent case, Margarita Crispin, a customs inspector in El Paso, Tex., began helping smugglers just a few months after she was hired in 2003, according to prosecutors. She helped the smugglers for four years before she was arrested and sentenced to 20 years in prison and ordered to forfeit up to $5 million.
The number of border patrol agents has almost doubled since 2001, swelling the force to nearly 20,000. But the smugglers are savvy.
The smugglers use any ruse available to lure border workers but seem to favor deploying attractive women as bait. They flirt and charm and beg the officers, often middle-aged men, to "just this once" let an unauthorized relative through. And then another and another.
In recent years, Texas has seen the most corruption investigations, with California a close second.
One law enforcement expert describes "policing the border as 'potentially one of the most corruptible tasks in law enforcement' because of the solitary nature of much of the work and the desperation of people seeking to cross."
Josh
Zachary
From the 2005 memory lane:
November 20, 2005
For Border Patrol officials, it could scarcely have been more embarrassing.
One of their own was an illegal immigrant.
And, investigators say, he was using his government-issued truck to smuggle other illegal immigrants into the United States.
How could this happen? How could the government agency charged with guarding the nation's borders hire someone in the country illegally? And could it happen again?
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20051120/news_1m20ortiz.html
May 27, 2008 10:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
Just following the example set by the political masters.
May 27, 2008 11:03 AM | Reply | Permalink
Suprise, suprise! Really it is rather unfortunate but this is yet another example f the failures of leadership not in it recognition of a justifiable issue for America, but in uderstanding what it takes to enact policy that ultimately acheive what they set out to acheive! More wasted resources wasted in mismanagement and misguidance from superiors and from a lack of inetegrity within some in the organization as a whole!
May 27, 2008 11:06 AM | Reply | Permalink
You will notice that...the NYTIMES story DOES NOT MENTION FBI COMPLICITY IN THE SMUGGLING AND RICO FELONY CRIMES.
EL PASO FBI SAC indicted by Johnny Sutton...for "making a false statement about his association with a major drug dealer" who was paying for protection.
No FBI punk...associates with a vicelord, unless their is quid pro quo.
Like THE CORRUPTION AT AUSTIN FBI, AND AUSTIN PD who were protecting the MEXICAN MAFIA'S HEROIN DISTRIBUTION AND ORGANIZED CRIMINALITY.
Look at the latest charge from Sutton targeting THE MEXICAN MAFIA for RICO charges....you'll see, NO MENTION OF THE CORRUPT FBI AND APD COPS who protected this racket.
See, my "MEXICAN MAFIA DEFENSE COUNSEL AFFADAVIT OF THOMAS S. BEAN" to learn about the witness GEORGE REYES' info about THE ALVAREZ BROTHERS MURDERING NUMEROUS JUNKIES with a loaded syringe.
I put that affadavit online at AUSTIN IMC, where it was picked up by APD sent to Austin FBI Resident Supervisory special agent....WHO HELPED APD GIVE THE INFO TO THE MEXICAN MAFIA who murdered their own captain JOE SANTOS JR. seven days after I posed?
No facts in Sutton's criminal complaint filed at The Austin Fed Courthouse...about...HOW THE MEXICAN MAFIA GOT INFO ABOUT SANTOS JR., leading to his untimely murder.
Turns out that....my sources told me, that "Santos had videotaped the payoffs to APD's bagboys" (retired cops) and kept it as insurance in case something went bad with the protection.
Thus...AUSTIN FBI AND APD had to "whack out Santos" to murder the witness. And...the cops, working with Mexican Mafia...let THE MEXICAN MAFIA MURDER THEIR OWN CAPTAIN to keep the racketeering business going.
It's important to note that former Chief of APD STAN KNEE visited me on the beach at South Padre.
He gave me a note in the beer bottle he handed me...right in front of his wife, and two others.
Very interesting note.
May 27, 2008 11:53 AM | Reply | Permalink
Oh man! Does this mean the homeland hasn't been secured very well? After the selfless efforts of the Bush administration have been tirelessly administered for the good of the citizens for years and years, I can't imagine what's amiss. And who knew that anything fishy was going on down there when legit border agents were thrown to the wolves by AG Gonzales who was busy protecting pedophiles at a Texas prison facility?
Why can't these patrol guards just try to emulate Cheney and Bush and ...
May 27, 2008 11:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
Surprise.
When you remove the chance of getting caught, it is no surprise that the US Guards can be as corrupt as the Mexican ones.
May 27, 2008 12:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Niiiice.
In addition to this corruption problem, our Border Patrol agents will soon become agents of the Corporate Media providers, checking your iPod, laptop and cell phone for content that cannot be proven to be owned by you (e.g., you must show actual CD or DVD media to prove ownership when you cross a border). Look here:
http://wikileaks.org/wiki/G-8_plurilateral_intellectual_property_trade_agreement_discussion_paper
May 27, 2008 12:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
My DVD's were gone through thoroughly when I crossed the border. I had to explain why I had so many.
May 27, 2008 12:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's hard to believe, considering the insane amount of attitude border agents give regular (foreign) folks on every other US border, including airports.
May 27, 2008 1:47 PM | Reply | Permalink