The recent arrest of Border Patrol Agent Luis F. Alarid has authorities increasingly worried about the possibility of Mexican drug cartels infiltrating the U.S. Border Patrol, even as the agency steps up its enforcement of the border. Alarid is accused of purposefully waving in marijuana- and immigrant-filled trucks across the U.S. border in exchange for over $200,000 in cash. But Alarid is not the only agent who has been subject to corruption from the cartels.
Anti-corruption investigators say that the cartels research potential targets and then offer them sex, drugs, money –whatever it takes, in order to get the agents to join their team. Many of the defendant’s San Diego criminal attorneys believe the newly-hired agents can be easily swayed because their $70,000 a year paychecks are minuscule compared to the payments they can receive for smuggling through only a few illegal trucks.
Arrests of agents has gone up 40% in the last few years. Officials even believe the cartels are urging their own operatives to seek out positions in the agency. As long as the person has no criminal record, the admission to the agency may be somewhat easy. The rash of hiring at the agency has made the corruption even easier; “there is so much hiring; if you have a warm body and pulse, you have a job,” said one investigator.
To read more about the increase in corruption, see the article in the New York Times. Image Via Jim.Greenhill [Flickr].