INS Inspector Accused of Smuggling Drugs, People

A U.S. immigration inspector was charged Monday with smuggling undocumented immigrants and marijuana from Tijuana through the San Ysidro border crossing.

Racketeering and smuggling charges were unsealed against Richard Lawrence Pineda, 41, who began working for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service in 1987.

Pineda allegedly worked with a pair of Tijuana men, still at large, in smuggling 20 immigrants and 3,500 pounds of marijuana in various trips, from January 1998 to last February.

Hugo Alberto Herrera Culebro, 39, allegedly recruited drivers and loaded vehicles with immigrants and marijuana. Jose Saul Curley Dominguez, 37, directed drivers to the lane where Pineda worked, according to the indictment. He allegedly waved them through.

To avoid suspicion, Pineda let many other vehicles through his lane without inspection, “playing the part of the ‘lazy’ INS inspector,” the indictment said.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Edward C. Weiner said it was the first time that immigrant smuggling was the basis for racketeering charges. The three men face maximum life sentences.

Last Tuesday, federal agents arrested INS inspector Keith Manuel Johnson, 38, on charges that he sneaked three Mexican women without documents through the San Ysidro entry while on duty a year ago.