INS INSPECTOR CHARGED IN SMUGGLING RING

Courts: The agent pleads not guilty to allowing marijuana and immigrants
into the United States at the San Ysidro checkpoint.

San Diego-An immigration inspector was charged Monday with accepting
$350,000 to allow thousands of pounds of marijuana and twenty illegal
immigrants to enter the United States over the course of a year at the San
Ysidro port of entry.

Richard Lawrence Pineda, 41, pleaded not guilty at his arraignment in
federal court to charges of racketeering and drug and immigrant smuggling.

Authorities also charged two Mexican nationals, including a Tijuana police
officer, with participating in the smuggling ring, but neither man is in
custody.

Federal agents unsuccessfully attempted over the weekend to lure the two
others across the border to the United States to be arrested, officials said.

Pineda was arrested Friday as he left his job at San Ysidro, where he has
worked as an inspector for the Immigration and Naturalization Service since
1987.

"Everybody is very upset because one of our officers has violated the public
trust," said INS spokesman Bill Strassberger.

This is the third arrest in less than two months for corruption at San
Ysidro, 15 miles south of San Diego just over the border from Tijuana.

Last week, authorities accused Keith Manuel Johnson, a former INS inspector,
with smuggling three illegal immigrants through a pedestrian checkpoint at
the port, the world's busiest border crossing.

In early June, another former immigration inspector, Daniel A. Goodrum, was
charged with stealing and selling green cards - two of which were later used
by drug smugglers to enter the United States, authorities said.

Pineda, who faces life in prison if convicted, earned a base salary of about
$43,000 from the INS but received about $75,000 annually after overtime
during the past two years, officials said.

In all, authorities allege Pineda allowed 20 migrants to enter the United
States illegally in five groups from Jan. 14, 1994, to Feb. 11.

He is accused of waving through five loads of marijuana, totaling 3,546
pounds, from May 31, 1998, to Feb. 11.

All of the drug shipments were later intercepted.

The two Mexican nationals allegedly earned at least $175,000 in the
enterprise, while Pineda received $350,000 in payments, according to the
indictment.