Did Ex-Marine Take US Customs Job in Plan to Help Mexican Drug Smugglers?
Faced with miles of new fencing at the United States border and upgraded security technology, Mexican traffickers reportedly are using another tactic to bring illegal drugs into this country—corrupting the border police.
Among those who may have applied for a Customs and Border Protection job with the intention of cooperating with drug dealers is Luis Alarid, 32. An ex-U.S. Marine Corps. veteran who served in Iraq, he is now serving a seven-year federal prison sentence for pocketing some $200,000 while working as a customs inspector, reports the New York Times.
“We are very concerned,” says James Tomsheck, who serves assistant commissioner for internal affairs, of the possibility that drug traffickers are infiltrating Customs and Border Protection in the midst of a hiring boom.
“There have been verifiable instances where people were directed to CBP to apply for positions only for the purpose of enhancing the goals of criminal organizations,” he tells the Times. “They had been selected because they had no criminal record; a background investigation would not develop derogatory information.”
To prevent such infiltration, polygraph screening has so far been an effective tool to supplement standard background-check techniques, according to the newspaper. But such lie-detector testing is performed on only a small fraction of recruits, officials say, because they can’t afford to test all of them.
Related earlier coverage:
ABA Journal: “Justice in the Rough”
ABAJournal.com: “AG Says 303 Arrested in 19-State Raid of Most Violent Mexican Drug Cartel”
ABAJournal.com: “Mexican President Replaces AG Who Fought Drug Cartels”
ABAJournal.com: “Lawyer for Suspected Drug Kingpins Is Murdered; 2nd Such Killing in 1 Month”
