CALIFORNIA BRIEFING / SAN DIEGO
A former U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer was sentenced Friday to a seven-year prison term for conspiring to smuggle illegal immigrants and drugs through inspection lanes at the Otay Mesa Port of Entry.
Luis Francisco Alarid, 32, was arrested in May on suspicion of permitting several vehicles filled with illegal immigrants and 11 kilograms of marijuana to enter the country. He admitted in his plea agreement to several similar smuggling attempts from February to May 2008, federal authorities said.
Alarid, who had worked for seven months as a customs officer, was ordered to forfeit about $175,000 in bribe payments, as well as a motorcycle and big-screen televisions that he purchased with the money, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Gregory W. Staples.
-- Richard Marosi
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