2 American border inspectors are responsible for taking bribes to signal to people without documents

San Diego-Two American border inspectors in southern California have been accused of having taken thousands of dollars in bribes to allow people to enter the country by the most frequented entry of the country without showing documents, prosecutors said.

Customs and American border protection agents Farlis Almonte and Ricardo Rodriguez were assigned to immigration inspection stands at the port of entrance to San Ysidro. They were charged after the investigators found telephone evidence showing that they had exchanged messages with traffickers of human beings in Mexico and discovered unexplained cash deposits in their bank accounts, according to an unchanged criminal complaint on Thursday.

The surveillance video showed at least one case in which a vehicle with a driver and a passenger stopped at a checkpoint, but only the driver was documented as having entered the country, prosecutors said.

The prosecutors said the police had waved dozens of vehicles carrying people without documents. They said the two men had been paid thousands for each vehicle they gave.

It was not immediately known if Almonte has a lawyer who can speak on his behalf. The National Council of the border patrol, the union representing officers of border patrol, did not immediately return an email asking for comments.

Rodriguez's lawyer Michael Hawkins said that the case was still in the “stages of infants” and that Rodriguez had the presumption of innocence.

“We are impatient to work in the current situation,” said Hawkins in an email in which he described Rodriguez as a worker and faithful.

The investigation into Almonte and Rodriguez began after three migrant smugglers who were arrested last year told federal investigators that they worked with American border inspectors, federal prosecutors said.

While Almonte was in detention, the investigators would have seized nearly $ 70,000 in cash, they believe that his romantic partner was trying to move to Tijuana. The prosecutors wrote in a judicial file that Almonte is potentially confronted with additional accusations of money laundering and obstruction of justice, the San Diego Union Tribune reported.

“Any customs agent and border protection that helps or make their eyes on smugglers leading undocumented immigrants to the United States betrays their oath and endangers our national security,” American prosecutor Andrew Haden said in a statement.

There have been five American customs and border protection agents assigned to the San Diego region to cope with similar corruption accusations in the past two years.

Last year, former American border inspector Leonard Darnell George was sentenced to 23 years in prison for having taken bribes for allowing people and vehicles responsible for drugs to enter the country by the San Ysidro border. Two other former border officers of the Otay Mesa and Tecate entrance ports were charged last year with similar charges. We expect them to be judged this summer.

Copyright 2025 by the Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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