California IN BRIEF : SAN DIEGO : Border Inspector Admits Drug Role

A U.S. border inspector has pleaded guilty in San Diego to taking up to $75,000 in bribes for letting drug-laden cars into the United States, federal officials announced. John Salazar, 47, an Immigration and Naturalization Service inspector assigned to the San Ysidro Port of Entry, allowed 10 to 15 loads of cocaine into the United States in a conspiracy to import more than five tons of the drug, officials said. Salazar, a naturalized U.S. citizen and native of Colombia, was paid $5,000 a load but was led to believe the smugglers were carrying marijuana and not cocaine to keep the bribes lower, officials said. Earlier this month, an INS border inspector was charged with taking as much as $250,000 in bribes for allowing carloads of drugs to pass through his inspection lane at the INS border station in Calexico.