Tijuana Man Admits Toxic Waste Scheme
One of four men charged with arranging for toxic wastes from Southern California firms to be dumped illegally near a Mexican village pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges Tuesday in U.S. District Court in San Diego.
Rogelio Marin Sagrista admitted, among other things, that he had bribed Mexican customs officials to allow wastes into Mexico and had supplied truckers with fictitious documents suggesting that the shipments were legal, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
Marin, a 27-year-old Mexican-American who lives in Tijuana, is to be sentenced Dec. 8. His three co-defendants are scheduled to go on trial next Tuesday before Judge J. Lawrence Irving.
The case stems from the discovery in January of an illegal dump near the Mexican border town of Tecate. The dump constituted the first hard evidence to support a growing suspicion by U.S. environmental officials that tougher federal laws on waste disposal had led to shipping of U.S. wastes into Mexico.
The 41-count indictment unsealed in April charged that Darrel A. Duisen of Chula Vista, George W. Shearer of Bonita and retired Maj. Glenn D. Faulks of Oceanside in 1985 formed U.S. Technology & Disposal Services and solicited chemical wastes from California firms on promises of proper disposal.
At the same time, Duisen and Marin allegedly formed a Mexican company called Tratamientos Petroquimicos Mexicanos and contracted with U.S. Technology in National City to provide a dump for the wastes, the indictment states.
More than 100,000 gallons of liquid wastes and other solids were dumped illegally in a field southeast of Tecate between October and January, prosecutors say. They say falsified import and export documents indicated that the substances were solvents and raw materials rather than wastes.
On Tuesday, Marin pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud through the mails and conspiracy to make and use false customs documents, law-enforcement officials said. Marin could be sentenced to five years in prison and fined $250,000.
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