INS INSPECTOR ACCUSED OF SMUGGLING DRUGS, PEOPLE

SAN DIEGO--A U.S. immigration inspector was charged Monday with
smuggling undocumented immigrants and marijuana from Tijuana through
the San Ysidro border crossing.

Racketeering and smuggling charges were unsealed against Richard
Lawrence Pineda, 41, who began working for the U.S. Immigration and
Naturalization Service in 1987.

Pineda allegedly worked with a pair of Tijuana men, still at large, in
smuggling 20 immigrants and 3,500 pounds of marijuana in various
trips, from January 1998 to last February.

Hugo Alberto Herrera Culebro, 39, allegedly recruited drivers and
loaded vehicles with immigrants and marijuana. Jose Saul Curley
Dominguez, 37, directed drivers to the lane where Pineda worked,
according to the indictment. He allegedly waved them through.

To avoid suspicion, Pineda let many other vehicles through his lane
without inspection, "playing the part of the 'lazy' INS inspector,"
the indictment said.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Edward C. Weiner said it was the first time that
immigrant smuggling was the basis for racketeering charges. The three
men face maximum life sentences.

Last Tuesday, federal agents arrested INS inspector Keith Manuel
Johnson, 38, on charges that he sneaked three Mexican women without
documents through the San Ysidro entry while on duty a year ago.