U.S. Crackdown on Corrupt Officers at Border Widens

Francisco Gabriel Haro was a fixture here, a clean-cut kid who played football in school and became a local deputy sheriff, then became a role model for many in this community, which sits snug along the border with Mexico.

Then he was arrested in his squad car in March after a federal sting operation caught him carrying a small package of cocaine across a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint.

Suddenly, Haro was the latest poster boy for the federal government’s crackdown on police officers willing to sell their badges to benefit the drug cartels in Mexico.

He pleaded guilty. At his sentencing, his career ruined, his future gone, he begged for mercy.

“A 10-year prison sentence,” he told the federal judge, “is more than enough time for me and others in the police community to understand what I did was very wrong.” Instead he was given 11 1/2 years--an extremely harsh punishment for a relatively small, first-time offense.

The case against the deputy comes at a time when American law enforcement officials are beginning to demonstrate that Mexico is not the only country with corrupt cops.

Since 1991, the FBI, working with local agencies along the Southwest border, has won 41 convictions of federal, state and local law enforcement officers on drug charges. Twenty-six of the convictions have been obtained in 1996 and 1997 alone. And the U.S. Customs Service and the Immigration and Naturalization Service are developing new programs to ferret out still more problem cops along the border.

Some Washington policymakers believe that the rise in convictions helps this country in its argument that Mexico is not doing enough to clean up its own corruption. For years, the United States has complained that Mexico willingly allows drug traffic into this country.

Barry R. McCaffrey, who as director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy is pushing a multinational anti-drug effort in the Western Hemisphere, suggests that as long as the United States is being tough on its own internal corruption, it can argue more forcefully that other nations should also be tough.

“Anybody is susceptible to drug-money corruption,” McCaffrey said in a recent interview. “You name it. The press. Local elected officials. Law enforcement officials. Federal law enforcement. The armed forces.

“So the FBI has a major responsibility to help keep us straight and to make sure we don’t get penetrated by these people.”

Temptations Increasing, Senator Warns

Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), who chairs the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control, said that although most peace officers “do a splendid job,” the temptations for fast drug money are increasing with the tide of drugs washing across the Rio Grande.

“Corruption has become a major, systemic problem in Mexican law enforcement,” Grassley said. “With this environment just across the border, we must be sure that we are taking the necessary steps to prevent the problem from getting a foothold here.”

The 2,000-mile border from Brownsville, Texas, to Imperial Beach, Calif.--a stretch with everything from congested cities to isolated desert--is prone to all kinds of drug trafficking.

“It has been said that wherever drugs exist, corruption exists,” Michael Bromwich, the Justice Department’s inspector general, told Congress this year.

“While I would like to believe that this bit of conventional wisdom is untrue, our experience tells us otherwise. The time, money and incentive which drug traffickers have to corrupt public employees represents a serious border problem.”

To combat it, the FBI has asked Congress for increases of $3.6 million and 20 agents to follow border corruption next year.

At the Customs Service and the INS, officials have developed ways of spot-checking border inspectors. Inspectors often do not know where they will be working each day, and drug-sniffing dogs check their vehicles when they arrive and leave.

No Denying U.S. Agents Corrupted

Customs Commissioner George Weise told Grassley’s panel that in 1996, 68 of his agency’s border employees were arrested, resigned or were fired “because of some relationship to serious or criminal misconduct.”

“Any instance of corruption is too much,” he said. “It is categorically incorrect to infer that we are not trying our utmost, using everything at our disposal, to identify, prosecute and remove every employee who does not honor his or her oath.”

INS Commissioner Doris Meissner, acknowledging that “we cannot deny that some of our employees have been corrupted,” told the same committee that her agency has increased its Border Patrol staff by 85% since 1993. New training and pre-employment screening programs have filtered out 125,000 applicants who could not meet new standards.

Law enforcement officers, whether federal agents in suits and ties or deputies like Haro in green-and-olive uniforms, have always been targets of criminals. A rookie like Haro, who was paid about $1,400 a month, can quickly pocket several times that amount for making a drug run.

Several arrested officers have described for authorities how the cartels managed to “get their hooks” into them, first by sending representatives to befriend them, then by paying them special attention around such occasions as their birthdays or their children’s baptisms. Next they present gifts, based on the Mexican cultural tradition that refusal of a gift is an insult.

“Once this relationship has been established, when your defenses are down, the next step is to talk about the lucrative business of drug smuggling and the possibility of working together,” said one disgraced federal law enforcement officer.

The officer, who had a 15-year career and $50,000 in drug profits until his arrest and conviction, testified before Congress with his identity hidden, saying that he has since worked with authorities to snare other law enforcement officers.

He suggested additional safeguards for preventing corruption: screening spouses and families before hiring new officers, recognizing good performance more readily and “keep[ing] a closer eye on officers who make frequent trips across the border.”

Federal officials in San Diego recently looked for help across the border, placing advertisements in Mexican newspapers that offered rewards for leads on corrupted U.S. law enforcement officers.

The labor union that represents customs agents promptly blasted the program because it could prompt the drug cartels to turn in honest agents that they do not like. “They can put any and all inspectors under suspicion,” said Robert Tobias, president of the National Treasury Employees Union.

Meanwhile, federal convictions of U.S. law enforcement officers continue to mount.

‘He’s a Kid Who Should Never Have Been a Cop’

In January, Ernest M. Garcia, an INS inspector at Calexico, was sentenced to 27 years in prison on drug importation and bribery charges. More than $1.2 million in cash was seized during the investigation.

In June, Rafael M. Ayala, an INS detention officer, was given life in prison on 33 counts of conspiracy to import cocaine, money laundering and income-tax evasion. Ayala also forfeited more than $500,000 that he had amassed in real estate and personal property.

Last Tuesday in McAllen, Texas, five former police officers and a former animal control officer pleaded guilty to conspiring to move hundreds of pounds of marijuana through South Texas. The convictions capped a two-year federal investigation that showed the ex-officers accepted payoffs for protecting the drug shipments.

The six defendants now face prison sentences of up to 40 years and fines as high as $2 million. “Ninety-nine percent of officers are good,” Assistant U.S. Atty. Terry Leonard said in announcing the guilty pleas. “But it’s that 1% that spoils the reputation of everyone else with a badge.”

Then there is the case of Haro, the 23-year-old deputy caught on two occasions with small amounts of cocaine and “sham” cocaine that he accepted from snitches working for the federal government. His take was $5,000.

Arrested here, he appeared at his court arraignment still dressed in his olive pants, white undershirt and black boots--all part of his Sheriff’s Department uniform. Gone were his badge and service revolver.

“He’s a kid who should never have been a cop,” said his federal public defender, George Soltero. “He was a good kid. But he just liked all the bells and whistles on his police car, and he liked to make money.”

His mother, Dora Haro, said the government was being unduly harsh on her son in its new push to combat police corruption. “When I saw him in court he was crying, and so was I. He put his head down. He was so ashamed, and so was I.”

James Lacey, the assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted the case, defended Haro’s 11 1/2-year prison term as in line with federal sentencing guidelines.

“I don’t think it was too much. I think it was appropriate, given the circumstances.”

* MEXICO DRUG FIGHT

An alleged cartel leader has reportedly been arrested. The U.S. will seek extradition. A3