FBI Bribery Sting Targets Cops, Soldiers
The FBI has charged 16 current and former uniformed soldiers and police officers with taking bribes to allow drug shipments across the U.S. border with Mexico. Los Angeles Times reporter Ralph Vartabedian offers details.
JACKI LYDEN, host:
This week, the Justice Department revealed what it calls a widespread bribery and extortion conspiracy among uniformed US soldiers and law enforcement officers along the US-Mexico border. Prosecutors accused 16 defendants of accepting bribes to help move drugs past border checkpoints. Those facing charges include a former inspector from the Immigration and Naturalization Service, a former Army sergeant and seven members of the Arizona Army National Guard. Ralph Vartabedian reported this story for the Los Angeles Times and joins me now.
Welcome.
Mr. RALPH VARTABEDIAN (Los Angeles Times): Good to be here, Jacki.
LYDEN: Prosecutors say that the accused individuals used, quote, "the color of authority," meaning their uniforms, to prevent police stops and searches. So tell us, Ralph, how this scheme allegedly worked and how much got through and what types of drugs.
Mr. VARTABEDIAN: Well, it was almost entirely cocaine and we don't know all of the details yet because the investigation is ongoing, but we know a few of the scenarios that the conspirators used to move drugs. In one case, an immigration officer at the border in federal uniform waved through a truck that he believed contained about 60 kilograms of cocaine through the border checkpoint. In another instance, three of the officials used government vehicles, including a military Humvee that belongs to the National Guard, to transport cocaine from a clandestine desert airstrip to a resort hotel in Phoenix where they were paid by an FBI undercover agent.
LYDEN: So how long did the FBI have this sting operation going on?
Mr. VARTABEDIAN: The sting operated for two and a half years through a task force compromised of the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Immigration and Custom Enforcement and the Tucson Police Department. They were assisted by a number of other federal and state and local agencies.
LYDEN: How'd they break the case? Did they get one person to inform on others?
Mr. VARTABEDIAN: We believe that there was an informant. The FBI became concerned and set up a sting. During the course of the sting, others were recruited into the conspiracy. That's how it grew to be 16.
LYDEN: That is a pretty large number, as you say.
Mr. VARTABEDIAN: It's jaw-dropping that it's such a large number. I've looked at prosecutions along the border for several years. I haven't seen any that involved this large a group.
LYDEN: What are the implications for that? You know, we all know that corrupt police officers and border officials are not exactly a new phenomenon, but the scale of this is surprising.
Mr. VARTABEDIAN: Correct. We know from past prosecutions this is a problem all the way from Brownsville to San Diego along the Mexico border. What we don't know is how deep it goes, and I don't think that the Justice Department really knows how deep it goes either. And maybe that's one element of why they conducted this sting, and I think it's a pro-active effort to really demonstrate they do want to combat this.
LYDEN: Of course, all the nation's borders have been under scrutiny ever since 9/11, but this border particularly has been the subject of a lot of attention by federal officials, hasn't it?
Mr. VARTABEDIAN: Yes. Smuggling of contraband and people occur freely through it and I think a lot of people are very concerned that it's the poorest border that would allow terrorists to move through it easily as the other problems that are being introduced in the country.
LYDEN: Is there a fear, Ralph, that on the other side of the border in Mexico and Central America that drug kingpins have a lot of money to throw at border agents?
Mr. VARTABEDIAN: Absolutely, although Mexican government employees are more vulnerable because they make far less than US government employees. Our employees are not as well-paid as we might like to think. So there is a vulnerability there.
LYDEN: So what happens now? The defendants have entered pleas. Are they cooperating with authorities?
Mr. VARTABEDIAN: They are cooperating with authorities. The majority of the 16 have already entered their guilty pleas, and by Monday, all of them are expected to be entered.
LYDEN: Ralph Vartabedian is a reporter for the Los Angeles Times. Thank you very much.
Mr. VARTABEDIAN: Thank you.
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