Firm Admits Guilt in Toxic Shipment : Courts: El Monte firm tried to bribe a Mexican inspector at the border. He turned truck with hazardous waste over to U.S. officials.

An El Monte shoe company, its corporate vice president, the firm’s general manager and a trucker pleaded guilty Wednesday in San Diego federal court to charges stemming from a scheme to bribe customs inspectors and ship hazardous waste into Mexico.

The scheme unraveled, prosecutors said, when a Mexican customs inspector who was offered a $200 bribe not only turned down the cash but also turned the truck and 1,870 gallons of toxic waste over to U.S. authorities.

The case marks the first hazardous waste prosecution in San Diego federal court sparked by Mexican customs officials, U.S. authorities said Wednesday.

With the proposed North American Free Trade Agreement on the horizon, American prosecutors and environmental officials in San Diego portrayed the guilty pleas as a sign of an increasing U.S.-Mexico commitment to environmental protection.

U.S. Atty. William Braniff said the case was the product of “outstanding and ever-increasing” cooperation between the two nations. Added Assistant U.S. Atty. Marian E. McGuire, the prosecutor on the case, “We’ve got to stop exporting our problems to Mexico. Companies and their employees should be on notice of . . . our growing united effort.”

The case involves the chemical waste trichloroethane, which damages the liver and kidneys if absorbed through the skin, inhaled or ingested.

El Monte based Sbicca of California Inc., which makes women’s shoes, found itself in early 1992 with 1,870 gallons of the waste, created from solvents used to clean shoe molds, prosecutors said.

In January, 1992, Dominic Sbicca, 43, of Monrovia, the company vice president, ordered general manager Eduardo Reyna, 39, of Anaheim, to get rid of the waste in Mexico to avoid the cost of disposing of it properly in the United States, prosecutors said.

The waste was stored in 24 steel, 55-gallon drums and 15 cardboard, 100-gallon drums, prosecutors said. It would have cost $400 to $600 per barrel to dispose of it in accord with U.S. environmental laws, said Gary Stephany, San Diego County deputy director for environmental health services.

On March 14, 1992, Reyna gave $900 to truck driver Juvenal Cabrera Cruz, 27, of Los Angeles, with instructions to bribe Mexican officials to smuggle the waste into Mexico, prosecutors said.

On March 22, a Sunday, after driving the drums down from El Monte to the San Ysidro border crossing, Cabrera offered a $200 bribe to Mexican customs inspector Miguel Sanchez Dominguez, McGuire said.

The drums were misidentified with labels indicating the barrels contained material that was to be “rejuvenated” by a Mexican chemist, court records indicate.

Sanchez refused the bribe and reported Cabrera to U.S. officials nearby, who seized the truck, McGuire said.

The corporation and each of the three men were charged in a three-count indictment that alleged violations of U.S. pollution laws.

Under a plea agreement struck Wednesday, Sbicca Inc. pleaded guilty to a sole felony count of illegally transporting hazardous waste.

The company agreed to pay a $50,000 fine. It also agreed to pay back the $14,097 that California Department of Toxic Substance Control crews spent testing the waste and the $801 that the U.S. Customs Service spent investigating the case, according to the plea bargain.

Dominic Sbicca pleaded guilty Wednesday to a single misdemeanor count, being an accessory after the fact to the illegal exportation of hazardous waste. He agreed to pay a $1,000 fine and perform 200 hours of community service.

Sbicca could also draw up to a year in jail when he is sentenced April 5 by U.S. District Judge John S. Rhoades. But it is unlikely he will be sent to jail, since prosecutors agreed to recommend a sentence at the “low end” of the federal sentencing guideline range for the crime, 0 to 6 months.

Reyna and Cabrera also pleaded guilty Wednesday to a sole misdemeanor count apiece, the illegal export of hazardous waste without a proper shipping manifest. Each agreed to pay a $500 fine and perform 100 hours of community service.

Each could also draw up to a year in jail. But jail terms are unlikely, since prosecutors agreed to urge a “low end” sentence.