2 customs officers plead guilty to allowing drugs to enter US through their lanes
San Diego – Two customs and border protection officers have pleaded guilty this month to allow vehicles filled with illegal drugs to enter the United States of Mexico, federal prosecutors announced on Monday.
The couple sent an SMS “a secret code based on emoji” to let Mexican traffickers know which inspection ways they were managing the Tecate and Otay Mesa border passages, the American prosecutor’s office said in a statement. The prosecutors said that when drugs loaded, the police would sign them.
The officers Jesse Clark Garcia, 37, and Diego Bonillo, 30, each pleaded guilty to several accusations, especially in conspiracy in order to import controlled substances such as cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin, said the press release.
As part of his advocacy agreement, Bonillo admitted that he had allowed at least 165 pounds (75 kilograms) of fentanyl to enter the country, prosecutors said.
The defendants “took advantage of wide, funding both national and international trips as well as purchases of luxury items and attempts to buy real estate in Mexico,” the statement said.
Garcia’s conviction is scheduled for September 26 and Bonillo will be sentenced on November 7. They could each incur a maximum perpetuity prison sentence, prosecutors said.
