A San Diego-based U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer pleaded guilty this week to federal drug importation charges for allowing vehicles containing drugs to pass through inspection lanes at the U.S.- Mexico border.<\/p>\n
Jesse Clark Garcia pleaded guilty on Tuesday in San Diego federal court to nine counts related to the importation of fentanyl, cocaine, and methamphetamine.<\/p>\n
Court documents filed by prosecutors last year cited confidential sources alleging Garcia was paid “tens of thousands of dollars per vehicle he admitted into the United States.”<\/p>\n
The documents stated Garcia “lives well-above his CBP salary” and referenced his co-ownership of a horse-racing stable, ownership of multiple vehicles, a home in San Diego, a planned ranch that was under construction in Mexico, and purchases of pricey Burberry apparel and items from Louis Vuitton.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors allege multiple drivers were informed to drive drug-laden vehicles through particular vehicle lanes of the Tecate Port of Entry at specific times when Garcia was assigned to those lanes.<\/p>\n
Garcia is slated to be sentenced in September.<\/p>\n
Another local CBP officer, Diego Bonillo, is also charged in the case and accused of letting drivers pass through the Otay Mesa Port of Entry in drug- loaded vehicles. Bonillo is scheduled to go to trial later this month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A San Diego-based U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer pleaded guilty this week to federal drug importation charges…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":52359,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,31265,3549,7264,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-52358","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-customs-and-border-protection","12":"tag-san-diego","13":"tag-sandiego","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-united-states-of-america","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114825356249533025","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52358\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}