Posted on 03/22/2007 12:27:33 PM PDT by SwinneySwitch
LAREDO — Investigators with the Homeland Security Department's Office of the Inspector General have arrested a Customs and Border Protection agent on charges of aiding a smuggler who allegedly was sneaking undocumented immigrants across the Bridge of the Americas here.
Jose Ramiro Arredondo, 33, is accused of helping Enrique Aguilar Rios bypass the pedestrian inspection booths at the bridge at least three times.
Arredondo was arrested Tuesday afternoon.
Aguilar was charged with human smuggling Jan. 9, and he told investigators that Arredondo helped him avoid being questioned by Customs agents, an arrest warrant affidavit states.
Aguilar told investigators he and three undocumented immigrants walked across the bridge and into the lobby of a Customs passport processing office. He approached a window where Arredondo was working, and the agent in turn escorted them around the inspection booth, telling the agents manning the stations that the group was cleared to enter the United States, the court document states.
Before Aguilar's group could leave the building, however, an agriculture inspector stopped its members, determined they were undocumented immigrants and arrested them.
Surveillance video from the Customs office shows Arredondo escorting Aguilar and crew on three occasions — Dec. 26, Jan. 8 and Jan. 9, the affidavit states.
Aguilar said he was paid by a Mexican smuggler who also paid Arredondo. No corruption charges had been filed against Arredondo as of this week.
Arredondo, an eight-year veteran of Customs and Border Protection, had been placed on unpaid leave after the Jan. 9 incident, spokesman Rick Pauza said.
"Integrity is a core value of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and we definitely take allegations of this kind seriously," he said.
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mcastillo@express-news.net
Holy cow!;^)
Free the Border Patrol Agent!
BP Ping!
If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.
The AG inspector wil be screening fish in Nome by next week........
"Free the Border Patrol Agent!"
This is all just part of the massive conspiracy.
a Customs and Border Protection agent
The only Agents in Customs & Border Protection are the Air and Marine Interdiction guys. Arredondo is a CBP Officer, not a CBP Agent. Doesn't seem like a big deal, but there IS a difference.
he told investigators that Arredondo helped him avoid being questioned by Customs agents,
US Customs no longer exists. The agency is called Customs and Border Protection. Also, no agents would have been doing any questioning at a border crossing.
Factual errors like this infuriate me, because if the reporter can't be troubled to get simple facts like agency names and job titles right, why should we trust anything else in the story?
It was actually a CBP Agricultural Inspector and depending on the port their duties greatly overlap with CBP Officers.
God Bless the Aggies.
If what I just wrote made you sad or angry,
it was probably just a joke.
I think you're being sarcastic, at least I hope you are. The guy's not Border Patrol anyway.
The Beagle Brigade rocks!
No kidding, I didn't think that the law applied to these folks??? So long as they have a hard job they don't deserve to get prosecuted for anything. Sheesh, when will people get this??????
Yeah but both are part of our border defense and it stinks. Mostly due to the scum in DC who push a stealth open borders policy. The border agents will pull crap because they see what's going on in DC. That the Mexican border is considered a joke
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