2 Inspectors at Border Charged in Drug Probe

In a widening investigation of U.S. border inspectors suspected of drug corruption, federal prosecutors indicted two inspectors Monday on charges of conspiring with traffickers to smuggle drugs through the Calexico port of entry in the Imperial Valley.

The indictments charge Inspector Arthur Garcia of the Immigration and Naturalization Service and Inspector Francisco Mejia of the Customs Service with allowing Mexican traffickers to drive more than six tons of cocaine through the Calexico border crossing. The two inspectors and a third suspect pleaded not guilty in federal district court Monday.

Authorities suspect that inspector corruption is a “substantial component” of the smuggling pipeline in the Imperial Valley, a federal official said. The desert region, which authorities call the “cocaine corridor” of the Southwest border, supplies most of the cocaine in Los Angeles, federal law enforcement officials said. As much as 80% of the cocaine entering California from Mexico moves through the barren, hard-to-police terrain--accounting for about 65% of the cocaine that crosses the entire international line.

“This prosecution underlines our commitment to confront cross-border narcotics trafficking,” said Alan D. Bersin, the U.S. attorney in San Diego. “To the extent that corruption is an aspect of this larger problem, we are intent on confronting the issue.”

As many as a dozen inspectors at the Calexico port of entry, including supervisors, remain under investigation, sources said. The case illustrates the enormous temptations of a world where the gatekeepers of the border, who earn about $45,000 a year, can double their salary by waving a drug load through their lanes, officials said.

“This is one of several ongoing investigations,” a federal official said. “You are dealing with the tremendous sums of money that are involved in cross-border smuggling. The corruption problem is a natural consequence of that kind of money.”

Unlike other rural border zones, the Imperial Valley lies just a few hours from urban Southern California--one of the world’s most lucrative drug markets--and just north of Mexicali, the Baja California state capital and a road and rail hub. In October, Bersin formed an unprecedented 17-agency task force to increase interdiction in the desert valley and piece together a picture of the trans-border trafficking infrastructure that connects Colombian drug cartels, Mexican transporters and Los Angeles dealers.

At the same time, the FBI, the Customs Service and the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General have quietly intensified longtime investigations of suspected corruption at the port of entry.

For years, the federal bureaucracy and the press have paid little attention to the area, contributing to a kind of small-town impunity in the Imperial Valley. A cross-border network of family and cultural ties creates a fertile environment for corruption. Many INS and Customs inspectors who work in the predominantly Latino community also grew up there, and recruiting employees from elsewhere is difficult.

“If you’re from Dallas you don’t want to go to work in Hidalgo, Tex., much less Calexico,” a veteran investigator said. “So you get inspectors who have gone to school with and are related by blood or marriage to drug-connected people.”

The four-year FBI, Customs and Justice Department probes have already resulted in the conviction of a Mexican citizen, Francisco Carrasco Villegas, allegedly a kingpin of the smuggling operation, and an INS inspector found guilty of corruption in 1992. In September, prosecutors also indicted businessman Rafael Ayala Martinez, a U.S. citizen and allegedly the point man who recruited and paid off corrupt inspectors, officials said.

The smuggling operation allegedly run by Ayala followed a typical method of “shotgunning” several drug-laden vehicles at a time through passenger lanes, according to officials. Using prearranged signals, cellular telephones and spotters to coordinate the drug drivers and the inspectors, the smugglers arranged for Garcia and Mejia to permit cars carrying about 330 kilos of cocaine each to go north without inspection, according to Monday’s indictment.

The conspiracy lasted from 1987 to at least 1992 and moved about $78 million worth of cocaine, the indictment charges. The document lays out an intricate trail of phone calls among the conspirators, and deliveries of drugs and cash.

Ayala, 43, a self-employed Calexico consultant who offered immigration-related services, once worked for the INS as a detention officer in El Centro. He has known inspectors Mejia and Garcia--the latter also worked as a detention officer in the late 1970s--for years, officials said.

The inspectors allegedly used their illicit proceeds to make large bank deposits and spend thousands of dollars in cash on luxury cars, residential property and a swimming pool, prosecutors said. Although specific bribes are not alleged, authorities suspect that the inspectors were paid handsomely and smuggled more loads than those described in the indictment.

“I would not put a specific dollar amount on it,” said Jeff Casey, deputy special agent in charge of customs enforcement. “But we have seen amounts of $30,000 and $40,000 per load in prior cases. It’s common to see amounts of (up to) $50,000 offered to inspectors for just one load.”

Authorities believe the inspectors may have continued working for the traffickers until their arrests Friday.

Garcia, 41, has worked for the INS since 1975. Mejia, 44, has been on leave from the Customs Service since September, 1993, officials said. He is a 15-year employee of Customs.

The third defendant arraigned Monday, Felix Calderon Barron, allegedly supervised the transportation of the drug in trucks and tractor-trailers to Los Angeles through eastern Los Angeles County and Riverside, key trans-shipment points in the corridor. Calderon owns a music store in Calexico.

Three additional suspects are at large. The indictment named Mario Higuera Angulo, Marcos Lopez Barajas and Gonzalo Gonzalez Rios, all accused of working as drivers.

The imprisoned Ayala, whose Ford Bronco has a license plate emblazoned with the Spanish word muerte (“death”), has allegedly threatened prosecution witnesses and exposed an informant by plastering flyers with the informant’s name and photo across Calexico and Mexicali, court records say.

Mexicali smugglers devote considerable time and energy to scouting and recruiting inspectors, taking advantage of friendships, romantic relationships and kinship ties, officials said. The temptation begins with subtle advances, a veteran investigator said, such as a financial loan or a request that an inspector bend the rules.

“The corruption might start unwittingly, like letting people you know through the port of entry without searching them,” he said, “or helping drug people get immigration documents--that’s often how it starts. It leads to waving loads through.”

Whether involving inspectors or not, most of the drug smuggling in the Imperial Valley occurs through the port of entry, officials said. Although they emphasized that most inspectors are honest and hard-working, the corruption probes have targeted as many as 12 port employees suspected of drug- and immigration-related violations, officials said. The investigations will intensify as a result of Monday’s charges, they said. “This is not the end of the investigation; this is the beginning,” a high-ranking law enforcement official said.

Customs Service spokeswoman Bobbi Cassidy said Monday: “Of course we feel very sad that any of our inspectors would go bad. But we are confident that our internal affairs agents, who made the arrests, are watching. We are proud that those who are doing the wrong thing are getting caught.”

An INS spokesman said the agency does not comment on continuing investigations.

The indictments come at a time when border inspection facilities in the Southwest are the subject of wide-ranging investigations and questions about a Customs trade-promotion policy that critics blame for a decreased rate of drug seizures.

In the Imperial Valley, the internal probes and the multi-agency interdiction project are separate efforts. But both are teaming federal agencies that have not worked together in the past and building a more precise picture of how the trafficking corridor works.

The smuggling operation that allegedly employed the accused inspectors was a Mexicali-based ring that served as a transportation “subcontractor” for at least three large cartels, officials said. The campaign against these specialized border-area smugglers will lead to more significant cases, said Jeff Casey, deputy chief of customs enforcement in San Diego.

“You can seize dope and arrest mules (drug transporters), but what does that mean?” he said. “We are trying to move beyond that.”

The unprecedented focus on the Imperial Valley appears to have disrupted smuggling there, according to law enforcement officials. They cited one grim indicator of success: an unusual string of 14 execution-style murders of suspected traffickers in Mexicali during the past three months. U.S. agents believe that the victims were punished because the bolstered defenses prevented them from delivering drug loads to clients north of the border.