Posted on 10/22/2008 12:36:53 PM PDT by BGHater
Two former Border Patrol agents were arrested in Mexico after more than two years on the run and were charged in the U.S. with taking bribes to help illegal immigrants cross the border, authorities said Monday.
A federal indictment unsealed Monday in San Diego accuses brothers Raul and Fidel Villarreal of taking bribes, smuggling illegal immigrants, tampering with witnesses and conspiring to launder money.
The brothers were captured by Mexican authorities Saturday at a gated apartment complex near the U.S. Consulate in Tijuana, said Mike Unzueta, special agent in charge of investigations at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in San Diego. They vanished in July 2006.
"I think they were very, very surprised," Unzueta said.
ICE spokeswoman Lauren Mack said Raul, who was a Border Patrol spokesman, looked as if he had aged 10 years.
The indictment charges that Raul, 39, and Fidel, 40, picked up illegal immigrants in their Border Patrol vehicles and released them since at least the spring of 2005.
The U.S. attorney's office in San Diego said it would seek to extradite the Villarreal brothers and two others charged in the indictment, a Mexican man and woman who were also arrested Saturday at the apartment in connection with the alleged smuggling operation.
"Those who betray their offices and the public trust will find this office's pursuit of justice thorough, unrelenting and uncompromising," said U.S. Attorney Karen Hewitt.
An attorney for Raul Villarreal, Jan Ronis, said his client would plead not guilty.
The Villareals are naturalized U.S. citizens from Mexico, which means they can be deported, Ronis said.
"There is no need to go through extradition proceedings," Ronis said. "That would be time-consuming and expensive and they can simply be deported."
(Excerpt) Read more at ap.google.com ...
ping
We should threaten to give them the death penalty so mexico will keep them.
Only in Mexico does the government oppose the death penalty in foreign nations while also invading those same countries to whack Mexican citizens who are critical of the Mexican drug trade.
I guess they were hired because they could speak Spanish well.
Good idea. Seriously. Why do we have to bring these dirtbags to the US and care for then 24x7? Let them stay in Mexico and leech of that bloated, corrupt government for the rest of their filthy lives.
>>The indictment handed down in April also charges that Armando Garcia, 40, served as a foot guide in the operation<
foot guide ? A new journalistic PC’d term for coyote, I guess.
I wonder if these were the dirty guys who set up Ramos and Compean?
Ex-BP ping!
If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.
“Badges?”
Kinda funny they have the same names as the Castro boys - skunks look alike...
Colonel, USAFR
If they were, they’ll pay.
Like it or not LEOs are similar to other sectors of society in that they have dishonest people in their ranks. Each one that is removed helps improve our overall system of law enforcement.
I always had a sense that Ramos and Compean “bust” was a message...
by the way anyone hear from Terry Reed since W. took office?
Actually that's true. But only part of the story.
Hispanics are given preferences for Federal jobs. Some states prohibit this, but not the federal government. So people who come from another country, who have no history or claim of individual discrimination or victimization in this country, are given preference over the native born.
It gets better. Hispanics - mostly Mexicans of course - are preferred in the BP job because it shows "sensitivity" to the illegal aliens barging the border. Wouldn't want to make them feel bad about themselves by having to confront angry Crackers from Georgia with guns, would we? That would be soooooooo Un-PC, and that's a big no-no in modern America.
And of course, being from Mexico, they bring all the bagagge of their home country and culture....like the quaint traditions of Mordida, where getting a job as a policeman and then accepting bribes for looking the other way is considered quite normal.
And who knows? Maybe they did this when they lived in Mexico. There are no central databases on people like there are in the United States; arrest records are sketchy to non-existent. For a price, they disappear. These guys could have been sent up to the U.S. for precisely the reason of getting jobs in the BP after naturalization: Moles.
The new America, a lot like Old Mexico.
That would be like the FBI and the CIA hiring qualified Arabic-speakers for that ability while overlooking relationships and history that the native-born are thoroughly investigated for.
That would be like waging a war against terrorists in Afghanistan while under orders to leave their primary source of money and recruits (opium and madrases) alone.
That would be like entrusting our mortgage lending system to radical politicians hell-bent on housing deadbeats with no regard for where the money ultimately comes from.
Oh wait...never mind.
Unfortunately.
Surreal, huh?
“The Villareals are naturalized U.S. citizens from Mexico, which means they can be deported, Ronis said.”
Part of the LAST amnesty, I’ll bet. This is the type you get when you GIVE citizenship instead of having it be earned.
No more surreal than a nation electing a con-man, raised by radicals and Islamists, building a career as an agent promoting self-pity and a false sense of entitlement among people who surely would have done better on their own, elevated through the Chicago Machine by having opponents disqualified on technicalities, having a Direct Hand in the mortgage crisis while enriching his buds who walked away with fortunes, possessing a vocal style of calming hypnotism while saying nothing much as Bill Clinton’s tones soaked panties no matter what he was saying...
But enough about culpable idiots in our neighborhoods who believe they’ll finally “be cool” if they help elect the first “black” president or the lying media desperate to put this guy over. I believe it’s going to be a dead heat as most thinking Americans find that avalanche of responsibility crashing down on them while hovering over that button. Massive vote fraud is Obama’s ticket to the office - and I can’t see the entrenched bureaucracy (who loves the status quo) allowing that to happen unless he obtains higher than ten percent of the popular vote.
Good catch!
Yeah, wierd, you'd think that would be a tip-off...
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