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EXCLUSIVE: Border agent accused of being a cartel member was arrested after wife's lifestyle raised major red flags
Daily Mail ^

Posted on 02/18/2025 11:45:02 AM PST by TigerClaws

Lavish trips to Dubai and designer clothing for a federal border agent's wife were allegedly funded by his suspected membership of a Mexican drug cartel, sources told DailyMail.com.

Prosecutors allege Manuel Perez Jr., an agent with US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in El Paso, Texas, had been bankrolled to the tune of $300,000 to $400,000 a year by 'La Linea,' the armed wing of the Juarez drug cartel, El Paso Times reported.

In stunning court testimony, Perez was accused of getting paid to let illegal immigrants and drugs into the US, but also of being a member of the cartel that was paying him, federal prosecutors alleged during a hearing last week.

Now sources have told DailyMail.com that his wife's jet-set lifestyle, her extravagant social media posts, and his own team of personal bodyguards were red flags before his arrest.

'He would party in Juarez (Mexico) all the time with bodyguards, and him and his wife would always go on trips to Dubai and Vegas with all the designer clothes,' a federal officer told DailyMail.com.

'Multiple witnesses said he belonged to La Linea Cartel in Mexico,' an investigator with the CBP's Office of Professional Responsibility testified at the court hearing in El Paso Thursday.

While federal immigration agents are from time to time accused of taking money for letting immigrants or drugs through, it's rare to hear that a US official is a part of a cartel.

'It's not very common, but at the same time, it doesn't surprise me,' retired federal agent and cartel expert Robert Almonte told DailyMail.com.

'The cartels have been working on infiltrating law enforcement: state, local and federal; as well as our military.'

(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: cartel; donutwatch; juarez; juarezcartel; juarezdrugcartel; lalinea; manuelperez; manuelperezjr
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1 posted on 02/18/2025 11:45:02 AM PST by TigerClaws
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To: TigerClaws

Reminds me of the movie “Goodfellas”. Certain Mafia members and their wives were buying Cadillacs and other ritzy stuff from their money laundering scheme attracting the feds attention who were surveiling then


2 posted on 02/18/2025 11:50:20 AM PST by Macho MAGA Man (The last two weren't balloons. One was a cylindrical object)
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To: Macho MAGA Man

Them, not then!


3 posted on 02/18/2025 11:50:49 AM PST by Macho MAGA Man (The last two weren't balloons. One was a cylindrical object)
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To: TigerClaws

will he be charged with terrorism?


4 posted on 02/18/2025 11:52:07 AM PST by joshua c
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To: TigerClaws

‘The cartels have been working on infiltrating law enforcement: state, local and federal; as well as our military‘

Which is what most of us already suspected.


5 posted on 02/18/2025 11:52:09 AM PST by No name given ( Anonymous is who you’ll know me as)
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To: TigerClaws

What a surprise. Another corrupt “public servant...”


6 posted on 02/18/2025 11:52:09 AM PST by Worldtraveler once upon a time (Degrow government)
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To: TigerClaws

“the armed wing” of a drug cartel.

Ad if they all aren’t armed.

They adopted that nonsense from the excuses the libs make for supporting Muslim terror groups, pretending they are supporting moderates rather than the militants.


7 posted on 02/18/2025 11:53:07 AM PST by piasa (Attitude adjustmilents offered here free of charge)
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To: TigerClaws

CAN SHE BE PROSECUTED AS “CO-CONSPIRITOR” ???


8 posted on 02/18/2025 11:57:57 AM PST by ridesthemiles (not giving up on TRUMP---EVER)
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To: TigerClaws

seems like this couple should have one way tickets to gitmo.


9 posted on 02/18/2025 12:04:18 PM PST by b4me (Pray, and let God change you. He knows better than you or anyone else, who He made you to be.)
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To: ridesthemiles
CONSPIRITOR

I'm curious, not judgmental. When you typed that word as a reply, it comes up with a red line under it, indicating that it is misspelled. Why wasn't it corrected using the "Spell" button under the reply box?

10 posted on 02/18/2025 12:11:55 PM PST by Hot Tabasco
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To: ridesthemiles

Can she be tried as a co-conspirator? That depends. Did she have knowledge of the illegal scheme and take overt acts to further it? If so, the “yes”.

If she di not take overt acts to further the illegal scheme, did she have knowledge of it and concealed it then she might be prosecuted for the crime “Misprision of a Felony” which is, in and of itself, a felony. See 18 USC 4.


11 posted on 02/18/2025 12:25:00 PM PST by Buckeye Battle Cry (Progressivism is socialism. Venezuela is how it ends.)
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To: TigerClaws

Won’t be his wife going to prison and I’ll bet my mortgage she turns on him in court.


12 posted on 02/18/2025 12:25:25 PM PST by Midwesterner53
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To: TigerClaws

Too bad his body guards disappeared when he was being arrested. I can’t imagine they attracted attention during the normal course of a day..... And these guys already make between $100 and 200K per year???


13 posted on 02/18/2025 12:30:39 PM PST by Midwesterner53
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To: Macho MAGA Man

In truth that is why the Lufthansa heist was uncovered. The players in the heist were told not to spend extravagantly with their cut.
Their wild spending was the tip off to the FBI.


14 posted on 02/18/2025 12:40:29 PM PST by Doc91678 (Doc91678)
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To: Doc91678

You’re absolutely right 👍


15 posted on 02/18/2025 12:43:36 PM PST by Macho MAGA Man (The last two weren't balloons. One was a cylindrical object)
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To: Macho MAGA Man

The wife’s demands for a swimming pool and other stuff was also the downfall of some corrupt border agents in another movie in the early 80’s-I think “The Border” was the name...


16 posted on 02/18/2025 12:52:21 PM PST by Texan5 ("You've got to saddle up your boys, you've got to draw a hard line"...e top-secret stuff from )
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To: Texan5

I think that’s the movie Jack Nicholson was in as a border agent.


17 posted on 02/18/2025 12:58:58 PM PST by Macho MAGA Man (The last two weren't balloons. One was a cylindrical object)
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To: TigerClaws

The bad thing is, they could have paid him a million a year, but there us no way he could spend any of that money. Its not like he could quit and just ride off into the sunset with a ton of cash.

He was in way too deep. But he could have done a better job keeping things low key.

Maybe the Cartel warned him not to get too showey. More likely they played him for a fool, knowing that someone else will just take his place. I wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t turn him in themselves.


18 posted on 02/18/2025 2:10:33 PM PST by shotgun
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To: No name given

Didn’t you mean to say; WHICH IS WHAT MOST OF US ALREADY KNEW!


19 posted on 02/18/2025 2:46:52 PM PST by 5th MEB (1)
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To: 5th MEB

I did, that’s correct.


20 posted on 02/18/2025 3:23:27 PM PST by No name given ( Anonymous is who you’ll know me as)
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