INS AGENT INDICTED, ACCUSED OF TRADING ILLEGAL ALIENS TO DRUG DEALER

LOS ANGELES -- A 15-year Immigration and Naturalization Service veteran was
indicted Thursday on charges that he released 11 detained illegal aliens
and turned some of them over to a convicted drug dealer, who held the
immigrants until their families paid up to $1,800 in ransom.

Jesse Jerry Gardona, 40, a special agent in the INS's anti-smuggling unit
in Los Angeles, reportedly swapped the immigrants, mostly Salvadoran, in
1998 to settle a $20,000 to $30,000 debt he had with Jose Jesus Quintanilla
Guzman, a Mexican national, convicted of drug trafficking in 1990,
according to court documents released Thursday.

Gardona now faces six federal counts of harboring illegal immigrants,
bribery and graft, conspiracy and related charges. Quintanilla, who is also
facing charges of importing 50 kilograms of cocaine in a San Diego federal
case, and his girlfriend, Leticia Chavez, were also charged.

Gardona was arrested May 9 and is free on $100,000 bond. Authorities kept
his case under wraps because the investigation was ongoing, said Thom
Mrozek, a spokesman with the U.S. attorney's office. Gardona's lawyer did
not return a telephone message.

Sharon Gavin, a spokeswoman with the INS said, "We will cooperate fully
with the investigation." She had no further comment.

Gardona has been on administrative leave since his arrest and will be
placed on unpaid leave starting Friday (5-19), Gavin said.

Court papers detailing the Gardona investigation depict an agent who let
his moonlighting efforts and his official duties commingle too much. Aside
from his public service, Gardona ran a pay phone business and a soft drink
vending machine business. According to two confidential informants who
cooperated with federal agents, Quintanilla, who operates an East Los
Angeles auto body shop, claimed that he lent $20,000 to $30,000 to Gardona
to set up the businesses.

Gardona was the lead investigator in a July 13, 1998, case in which police
discovered a group of illegal aliens being held by a group of smugglers in
a Los Angeles apartment. Three suspected smugglers from Guatemala and 11
Salvadoran immigrants were arrested. Four days later, Gardona OK'd the
aliens' release.

"Jesse got them for me," Quintanilla told a confidential government
informant, court papers state.

At Gardona's instruction, the aliens were picked up near the downtown Los
Angeles INS lockup by Quintanilla and transported to a nearby house. They
were kept captive until their relatives in the United States paid $1,000 to
$1,800 in ransom, court papers state. The aliens remained in the country.

Three of the aliens interviewed by investigators this year said, "Gardona
threatened that if any of the aliens revealed the circumstances of their
release, he could track them down anywhere in the country and find them,"
court papers said.

The three immigrants were not held for longer than three days, court
records state.

The affidavit by FBI Special Agent Ronald Twersky also quotes one
confidential informant as saying Gardona once arranged for the release of
three female illegal aliens from INS custody to work as dancers or
prostitutes at a downtown Los Angeles club. Gardona allegedly showed off a
book with photographs of the three women in nude poses. The affidavit
states that Quintanilla knew the club's manager.

Gardona and Quintanilla had known each other since the mid-1990s and
investigators say that in 1998 Gardona approved the release of
Quintanilla's brother from INS custody in Arizona. Prosecutors contend Jose
Quintanilla was involved in a cocaine trafficking network that moved the
narcotic to Las Vegas, Denver and Chicago. He was arrested in November 1998
after he and three other men were found driving two vehicles containing 50
kilograms of cocaine at the U.S.-Mexico border. He faces a July 18 trial on
charges of aiding and abetting the importation and distribution of cocaine.
If convicted, he faces a mandatory minimum of 20 years in prison.

Quintanilla was again arrested in June 1999 for attempted illegal entry at
the San Ysidro border crossing -- he had been deported previously in 1993
and 1995. During that arrest, he claimed he was an informant for a Los
Angeles INS officer named "Carbona," which helped trigger the Gardona
investigation.

Quintanilla pleaded guilty to the illegal entry charge and is now serving a
57-month sentence.

The court papers in the Gardona case indicate that possibly more than one
agent may be involved in the suspected conspiracy. One informant said he
saw Gardona and "two other plain-clothed men, wearing guns and law
enforcement badges, outside of the same residents with Quintanilla."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Alicia Villarreal would not comment about the
allegation, other than to say the investigation is continuing.

Just prior to his arrest, Gardona was seeking a transfer to the INS's Fresno.