(U.S. Customs) Inspector convicted of letting in drugs

ap on Yahoo ^ | 10/4/05 | AP

[NormsRevenge]

McALLEN, Texas - A senior U.S. Customs inspector pleaded guilty Tuesday to money laundering and conspiring to smuggle drugs from Mexico, federal prosecutors said.

Lizandro Martinez, 44, was paid to let a series of trucks containing thousands of pounds of marijuana pass over the Progreso International Bridge without inspection for more than 2 1/2 years beginning in 2002, according to court documents.

As part of a plea agreement, Martinez will resign and forfeit hundreds of thousands of dollars in vehicles and real estate bought with the laundered money.

Roberto Dominguez, 44, of Hildalgo, was also convicted Tuesday of similar charges and charges that he served as ringleader for the drug operation, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

In a seprate case, former U.S. Border Patrol agent Robert Espino was sentenced in El Paso to eight years in prison for his role in a scheme to smuggle cocaine past a checkpoint in Sierra Blanca.

[clee1]

Just damn.

[coloradan]

Wow! He loses his job and his ill-gotten gains, but faces no other penalties or punishments, let alone criminal charges. Must be nice to be a federal agent: caste systems, they're not just for India any more.

[nathanbedford]

A year or so ago I published on these threads a scenario depicting atomic strikes on cities in the heartland. The scenario involved the smuggling of atomic weapons in trucks across the Mexican border cleared by our own corrupt customs officials who thought they were admitting only drugs in exchange for their bribes.

Now there can be no question that the scenario is perfectly plausible and may already have occurred.

Let us hope that the only bitter fruits we harvest from this administration's obdurate abdication of its responsibilities to police our borders are limited to economic and social catastrophes.

[freepatriot32]

Libertarian ping.To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here

[freepatriot32]

ping

[krshnbrn]

Not like it's the first time and not likely it will be the last. Face it, between corrupt border officials and protected operations like Mena our WOsD is a bad joke that stopped being funny decades ago.

[TKDietz]

Are you sure he's not still going to be sentenced to prison? In federal cases sentencing generally comes after the plea. I would be very surprised if he didn't get at least a few years out of this. If he helped bust others he'd get some reduction in sentence but for this type of crime he's probably still going to get a several year sentence. As for whether he'll have criminal convictions, that's a given. He pled guilty. There will be a conviction on his record.