Nearly 80 U.S. border officials have been arrested in the last five years for helping Mexican drug cartels, and hundreds more are under investigation.
That’s according to MSNBC, which detailed the situation last week. From the MSNBC article:
“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.
“‘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,’ says retired DEA supervisor Anthony Coulson.”
The article states that nearly 80 U.S. Border Patrol agents and Customs and Border Protection officers have been arrested in the last five years, and hundreds more are under investigation.
The article makes no mention of the current case against the Columbus mayor, police chief and town councilor who are charged with being part of a firearms trafficking ring that was illegally smuggling guns into Mexico. Prosecutors have also hinted that those charged in the Columbus case may have been involved in trafficking drugs into the United States.
However, according to MSNBC, there are other local government officials who have been busted. From the article:
“In South Texas, former Sheriffs Conrado Cantu and Reymundo Guerra were jailed for helping Mexican smugglers, while in nearby Zapata County, Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez says corruption is rampant.
“‘It’s greed, that’s what it’s been all the time, it’s greed. It’s just wanting that extra $10,000, $15,000, $20,000,’ Gonzalez explains.”
Read more here. Or watch the full video report here:
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