CUSTOMS AGENT LET DRUGS SLIP THROUGH

Case Is Example of Border Official Lured to 'Dark Side' By Easy Money

With surveillance cameras secretly rolling, U.S. Customs Inspector
Lizandro Martinez greeted the driver of a truck that pulled into his
inspection lane at 5:30 a.m.

The driver, a pal from the inspector's days as a police officer more
than a decade earlier, told Martinez that the cargo he'd been
expecting was right behind his truck. And sure enough, a white Ford
pickup appeared. It carried 1,635 pounds of marijuana, packed and
ready for the streets of America.

But Martinez didn't stop it, didn't inspect it, didn't call out the
dogs. He just waved it through on that lonely morning, FBI agents
say. And for that, agents say, drug traffickers paid him $10,000.

Three years later, Martinez, 44, is behind bars, suspected of taking
more than $1 million in bribes while waving through more than 50 tons
of drugs -- more than his law-abiding colleagues seized at eight
South Texas ports of entry in an entire year.

As Martinez awaits sentencing, set for April 26, authorities are
trying to figure out what happened, how an agent on the front lines
of the so-called "drug war" went so terribly bad. And what's
emerging, some former law enforcement officials say, is a troubling
picture, a striking example of how Customs failed to prevent flagrant
corruption on the Texas-Mexico border.

Neither Martinez, in custody since his arrest on Nov. 7, 2004, nor
his lawyer, Charles Banker, could be reached for comment.

In October, court records show, Martinez pleaded guilty to charges of
money laundering and conspiracy to import more than 1,000 kilos of
marijuana. He faces as much as life in prison and a $4 million fine.

What's most disturbing about his case, some law enforcement officials
say, is that U.S. Customs and Border Protection kept Martinez on its
payroll even as complaints against him mounted during his 13-year tenure.

Customs internal affairs officers investigated Martinez 15 times,
resulting in letters of caution, oral and written reprimands,
mandatory counseling, three short suspensions and two attempts to
fire him permanently, according to testimony at a Feb. 22, 2005, court hearing.

Customs officials declined to talk about why Martinez wasn't taken
off the streets sooner. "We don't comment on specific cases," said
Lynn Holinger, a CBP spokeswoman in Washington.

Martinez kept his job on one occasion, thanks to the Washington,
D.C.-based National Treasury Employees Union.

Union officials said they only tried to ensure that Martinez was
treated fairly.

"The role of NTEU or any union is to ensure that employees accused of
misconduct are fairly represented in proceedings with the agency,"
union president Colleen M. Kelley said in a statement.

Cash Purchases

According to court records, the FBI and Immigration and Customs
Enforcement learned that Martinez was allegedly taking drug bribes in
August 2003. The agencies -- along with the IRS and the Texas
Department of Public Safety -- began investigating him as part of
what they called Operation Dark Shadows.

Investigators found that Martinez and his wife, Sandra, who was not
charged in the case, appeared to be living far beyond their means. He
earned $55,664 a year and she did not report an income. Yet in 2003,
agents said, the couple made more than $400,000 in cash purchases.
They bought such items as diamond rings and a diamond-studded Rolex
watch. They purchased a $240,000 used car dealership in downtown
McAllen and 10 classic, big-engine "muscle cars" worth $76,800,
according to government documents.

They also made cash payments toward a $529,963 home in McAllen. The
luxurious house featured a swimming pool, elaborate stained-glass
windows, balconies, a basement movie theater and two free-standing
garages. Each room was equipped with a television.

All despite the fact that Martinez and his wife had gone through
bankruptcy proceedings in 2000 and had claimed assets of only $7,850,
court records show.

Martinez began working at Customs in September 1991. He had been a
police officer in the South Texas town of Hidalgo in 1984 and 1985.
While there, he met Roberto Dominguez, an officer since 1979. But
Dominguez was fired in 1996 after an alleged off-duty shoplifting
incident in McAllen, said his lawyer, Al Alvarez.

Sometime later, federal agents say, Dominguez began working with
traffickers. They allege he escorted trucks carrying drug loads and
tipped off Martinez when they were about to cross the border.

In November 2004, Dominguez was indicted along with Martinez and six
others. Now in custody, Dominguez has pleaded guilty to drug charges
and awaits sentencing.

During their investigation, agents filmed Martinez as he waved
drug-laden trucks through his lane at Progreso. The trucks' cargo
beds were covered with tarps and "filled to the top with marijuana
.. sometimes you could see it protruding," FBI agent Marella Ruelas testified.

To avoid letting the smugglers know that Martinez was being watched,
agents allowed the drug loads to pass through Progreso. But they
arranged for state troopers or police to stop the vehicles later and
seize the drugs as part of what would appear to be unrelated traffic
stops, Ruelas said.

The federal indictment formally charged Martinez with allowing eight
loads of marijuana totalling 9,530 pounds to cross at Progreso. Court
records show he was accused but not charged in connection with
another four loads weighing 3,945 pounds, meaning he was linked to a
total of 13,475 pounds of illicit cargo.

But investigators in the case suspect that Martinez actually waved
through much more contraband -- more than 100,000 pounds of drugs,
according to an estimate by an investigator familiar with the case.

That would be more narcotics than was confiscated at eight ports of
entry stretching from Brownsville to Del Rio in fiscal 2005, ending
Sept. 30. During that period, inspectors seized 79,633 pounds -- or
39.8 tons -- of marijuana and 10,600 pounds -- or 5.3 tons -- of
cocaine from cars and trucks, federal statistics show.

Investigators say their estimates of what Martinez allowed to cross
are based on interviews with drivers accused of bringing loads across
the bridge. They calculate he let through at least 100 loads.

Smugglers were so confident, sometimes they crossed the bridge in the
inspector's lane twice a day, agents say.

The smuggling operation fell apart after one participant and an
informant began talking to authorities, Alvarez said.

"All these cases end up the same way," said Alvarez. "There is no
honor among thieves, as they say."

Disciplinary Problems

What surprised some law enforcement officers was that Martinez wasn't
caught sooner. His history of disciplinary problems came to light at
the Feb. 22, 2005, McAllen court hearing in which his lawyer was
appealing a district court decision to hold him and Dominguez without bail.

According to testimony at the hearing:

Customs suspended Martinez for 30 days in August 1993 for allegedly
threatening to cut off the penis of a man he suspected of having an
affair with his wife. That punishment was reduced to 14 days after
union arbitration.

In May 1997, according to testimony, Customs fired Martinez after
internal affairs officers investigated allegations that he had been
spotted at a party attended by Mexican drug traffickers, made
threatening calls to the home where his ex-wife lived and used a
government vehicle to run personal errands.

But the union got Martinez reinstated, with back pay, in April 1998.

"We defended Mr. Martinez on a charge of misuse of a government
vehicle, not a drug-related charge," Kelley said in her statement.
"Whatever he may have been suspected of then or now had no bearing on
that case, and he was reinstated by a neutral third party.

"In our society, everyone is entitled to a defense and that is what
we provided Mr. Martinez in the case involving the government
vehicle. Any attack on our role in that matter is fundamentally an
attack on the right of every American to have adequate representation
when accused of an offense."

Given Last Chance

Customs later tried firing Martinez again, accusing the inspector of
being absent without leave, improperly copying Customs entry
documents and allegedly forcing a teenage girl to partially disrobe
even though female inspectors were available, a violation of search guidelines.

But after union arbitration, his proposed dismissal was reduced to a
30-day suspension in March 2001 and he was transferred to Progreso
under a "last chance" agreement.

Customs officials say that only a tiny minority of border agents is
ever accused of drug corruption.

"But is one too many? Darn tooting, and it's a sad thing," said David
Higgerson, acting director of field operations at the CBP's regional
office in Laredo.

"We are always concerned with these cases," Higgerson said. "We have
an ongoing program with our managers to spot these things before it
gets too bad. We have ways of ferreting out people who go over to the
dark side. And it's sad. These are people who have taken an oath."