SAN DIEGO — Two U.S. border inspectors in Southern California have been charged with taking thousands of dollars in bribes to allow people to enter the country through the nation’s busiest port of entry without showing documents, prosecutors said.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers Farlis Almonte and Ricardo Rodriguez were assigned to immigration inspection booths at the San Ysidro Port of Entry. They were charged after investigators found phone evidence showing they had exchanged messages with human traffickers in Mexico and discovered unexplained cash deposits into their bank accounts, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Thursday.
Surveillance video showed at least one instance in which a vehicle with a driver and a passenger stopped at a checkpoint but only the driver was documented as having entered the country, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said the officers waved dozens of vehicles carrying people without documents. They said both men were paid thousands for each vehicle they waved through.
It wasn’t immediately known if Almonte has an attorney who can speak on his behalf. The National Border Patrol Council, the union representing Border Patrol officers, didn’t immediately return an email seeking comment.
Rodriguez’s attorney, Michael Hawkins, said the case was still in the “infant stages” and that Rodriguez has the presumption of innocence.
“We look forward to working through the current situation,” Hawkins said in an email in which he described Rodriguez as hardworking and loyal.
The investigation on Almonte and Rodriguez started after three migrant smugglers who were arrested last year told federal investigators they had been working with U.S. border inspectors, federal prosecutors said.
While Almonte was in custody, investigators allegedly seized nearly $70,000 in cash they believe his romantic partner was trying to move to Tijuana. Prosecutors wrote in a court filing that Almonte is potentially facing additional charges for money laundering and obstruction of justice, The San Diego Union Tribune reported.
“Any Customs and Border Protection agent who aids or turns a blind eye to smugglers bringing undocumented immigrants into the U.S. is betraying their oath and endangering our national security,” Acting U.S. Attorney Andrew Haden told the newspaper in a statement.
There have been five U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers assigned to the San Diego area to face similar corruption charges in the last two years.
Last year, former U.S. border inspector Leonard Darnell George was sentenced to 23 years in prison for taking bribes to allow people and drug-laden vehicles to enter the country through the San Ysidro border crossing. Two other former border officers at the Otay Mesa and Tecate ports of entry were charged last year with similar charges. They are expected to go on trial this summer.