IMMIGRATION CRACKDOWN DRIVES CORRUPTION AT BORDER CROSSINGS

SAN DIEGO - Richard Pineda was one of the nation's gatekeepers,
a 10-year veteran immigration inspector who could grant entry to the
United States with a wave of his hand.

But authorities say Pineda, 41, had a lucrative sideline working with
smugglers to get drugs and immigrants through San Ysidro, the world's
busiest border crossing that links Tijuana to San Diego.

Tipped off by Pineda's supervisors at the Immigration and
Naturalization Service, federal investigators watched him for a year
as he allowed vehicles carrying 1 1/2 tons of ))marijuana(( and 20
illegal immigrants across the border for a payoff of $350,000.

"He would simply wave through the load cars without really inspecting
them, appearing to be lazy," said Paul C. Johnson, a federal
prosecutor in San Diego.

Pineda pleaded innocent Aug. 2 to smuggling and racketeering charges,
making him the third INS inspector in two months indicted on separate
allegations of corruption at San Ysidro.

Law enforcement officials say the arrests reflect an unexpected result
of a 5-year-old crackdown on illegal immigration. Increased security
along the 2,000-mile border has made smugglers more desperate to bribe
their way into the United States and federal agents are tempted with
the offers, often several times more than their annual salaries.

One San Ysidro agent was accused of selling 14 green cards, the prized
documents that allow immigrants to work and live in the country, for
between $200 and $1,000 each. Authorities say he sold them at least
twice to Mexican drug smugglers.

The third agent was accused of leading three illegal immigrant women
through the pedestrian crossing for between $1,600 and $2,000 each.

It's not just a San Ysidro problem. Three current and one former INS
inspector at the Nogales, Ariz., checkpoint admitted earlier this year
to taking bribes to allow drugs into the United States, including one
who took $300,000 to allow 11,000 pounds of ))cocaine(( across in 10
vehicles. He received 3 1/2 years in prison, a sentence that was
shortened when he cooperated with authorities. The others are awaiting
sentencing.

"There is gobs of money ... offered because we have the biggest prize
going," INS spokesman Greg Gagne said. "People want to get into this
country badly and they want to get drugs into this country badly."

The extent of the corruption at San Ysidro and the 33 other crossings
along the Southwest border is unknown. But officials with the
Department of Justice's Office of the Inspector General, which
investigates wrongdoing by INS employees, suggest more arrests are
likely.

"We've got a lot of activity at the ports that we're taking a look
at," said Joseph Artes, special agent in charge of the OIG's San Diego
office.

The cases are difficult to investigate and to prosecute, usually
requiring a year or more of surveillance to build a case. That can
lead to further problems -- sending a message to loyal agents that
corruption isn't taken seriously, Artes said.

>From the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico, there are about 3,300
inspectors who check incoming cars, trucks and pedestrians for illegal
cargo. About two-thirds work for the U.S. Customs Service and the rest
work for the INS, but both agencies screen people at the border.

During the last two fiscal years, eight INS immigration officers were
charged with corruption; nine so far this year, OIG spokesman Paul
Martin said.

Statistics on the number of U.S. Customs agents accused of corruption
at the border weren't available because employee arrests aren't
grouped into specific categories, spokesman Dean Boyd said.

In any case, the General Accounting Office, a research division of
Congress, studied 28 cases of corruption among Customs and INS
employees at the Southwest border between 1992 and 1997. Both agencies
were faulted for security problems.

The GAO asked the agencies to expedite updated background checks on
veteran employees, including a list of financial assets.

Such a requirement might have prevented some extreme cases of
corruption, such as that of a southwestern Border Patrol agent who, on
a base salary of less than $60,000, owned a $200,000 home with an
Olympic-sized swimming pool, five cars, 40 acres of land, 100 weapons
and two boats. He had no debt.

Customs and INS agreed to implement the GAO's anti-corruption measures
- -- which included limiting people from choosing their own lane when
crossing the border so they couldn't coordinate routes with corrupt
inspectors.

But adopting the measures won't eliminate the problem, said Richard
Stana, who authored the GAO report.

"People who keep their mouths shut and are good at it will get away
with it," he said. "Who knows how many agents are involved with this."