CRACKDOWN ON CORRUPT OFFICERS AT BORDER WIDENS

Law agents at all levels convicted. Government says effort pressures
Mexico to get tough on traffickers.

NOGALES, Ariz.Francisco Gabriel Haro was a fixture here, a cleancut kid
who played football in school and became a local deputy sheriff, then
became a role model for many in this community, which sits snug along the
border with Mexico. Then he was arrested in his squad car in March after a
federal sting operation caught him carrying a small package of cocaine
across a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint. Suddenly, Haro was the latest
poster boy for the federal government's crackdown on police officers
willing to sell their badges to benefit the drug cartels in Mexico. He
pleaded guilty.

At his sentencing, his career ruined, his future gone, he begged for mercy.
"A 10year prison sentence," he told the federal judge, "is more than
enough time for me and others in the police community to understand what I
did was very wrong." Instead he was given 11 1/2 yearsan extremely harsh
punishment for a relatively small, firsttime offense.

The case against the deputy comes at a time when American law enforcement
officials are beginning to demonstrate that Mexico is not the only country
with corrupt cops. Since 1991, the FBI, working with local agencies along
the Southwest border, has won 41 convictions of federal, state and local
law enforcement officers on drug charges. Twentysix of the convictions
have been obtained in 1996 and 1997 alone. And the U.S. Customs Service and
the Immigration and Naturalization Service are developing new programs to
ferret out still more problem cops along the border. Some Washington
policymakers believe that the rise in convictions helps this country in its
argument that Mexico is not doing enough to clean up its own corruption.

For years, the United States has complained that Mexico willingly allows
drug traffic into this country. Barry R. McCaffrey, who as director of the
White House Office of National Drug Control Policy is pushing a
multinational antidrug effort in the Western Hemisphere, suggests that as
long as the United States is being tough on its own internal corruption, it
can argue more forcefully that other nations should also be tough. "Anybody
is susceptible to drugmoney corruption," McCaffrey said in a recent
interview. "You name it. The press. Local elected officials. Law
enforcement officials. Federal law enforcement. The armed forces. "So the
FBI has a major responsibility to help keep us straight and to make sure we
don't get penetrated by these people."

Temptations Increasing, Senator Warns Sen. Charles E. Grassley (RIowa),
who chairs the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control, said that
although most peace officers "do a splendid job," the temptations for fast
drug money are increasing with the tide of drugs washing across the Rio
Grande. "Corruption has become a major, systemic problem in Mexican law
enforcement," Grassley said. "With this environment just across the border,
we must be sure that we are taking the necessary steps to prevent the
problem from getting a foothold here."

The 2,000mile border from Brownsville, Texas, to Imperial Beach, Calif.a
stretch with everything from congested cities to isolated desertis prone
to all kinds of drug trafficking. "It has been said that wherever drugs
exist, corruption exists," Michael Bromwich, the Justice Department's
inspector general, told Congress this year. "While I would like to believe
that this bit of conventional wisdom is untrue, our experience tells us
otherwise. The time, money and incentive which drug traffickers have to
corrupt public employees represents a serious border problem." To combat
it, the FBI has asked Congress for increases of $3.6 million and 20 agents
to follow border corruption next year. At the Customs Service and the INS,
officials have developed ways of spotchecking border inspectors.
Inspectors often do not know where they will be working each day, and
drugsniffing dogs check their vehicles when they arrive and leave.

No Denying U.S. Agents Corrupted Customs Commissioner George Weise
told Grassley's panel that in 1996, 68 of his agency's border
employees were arrested, resigned or were fired "because of some
relationship to serious or criminal misconduct." "Any instance of
corruption is too much," he said. "It is categorically incorrect to
infer that we are not trying our utmost, using everything at our
disposal, to identify, prosecute and remove every employee who does
not honor his or her oath." INS Commissioner Doris Meissner,
acknowledging that "we cannot deny that some of our employees have
been corrupted," told the same committee that her agency has
increased its Border Patrol staff by 85% since 1993.

New training and preemployment screening programs have filtered out
125,000 applicants who could not meet new standards. Law enforcement
officers, whether federal agents in suits and ties or deputies like Haro in
greenandolive uniforms, have always been targets of criminals. A rookie
like Haro, who was paid about $1,400 a month, can quickly pocket several
times that amount for making a drug run. Several arrested officers have
described for authorities how the cartels managed to "get their hooks" into
them, first by sending representatives to befriend them, then by paying
them special attention around such occasions as their birthdays or their
children's baptisms. Next they present gifts, based on the Mexican cultural
tradition that refusal of a gift is an insult. "Once this relationship has
been established, when your defenses are down, the next step is to talk
about the lucrative business of drug smuggling and the possibility of
working together," said one disgraced federal law enforcement officer.

The officer, who had a 15year career and $50,000 in drug profits until his
arrest and conviction, testified before Congress with his identity hidden,
saying that he has since worked with authorities to snare other law
enforcement officers. He suggested additional safeguards for preventing
corruption: screening spouses and families before hiring new officers,
recognizing good performance more readily and "keep[ing] a closer eye on
officers who make frequent trips across the border." Federal officials in
San Diego recently looked for help across the border, placing
advertisements in Mexican newspapers that offered rewards for leads on
corrupted U.S. law enforcement officers. The labor union that represents
customs agents promptly blasted the program because it could prompt the
drug cartels to turn in honest agents that they do not like. "They can put
any and all inspectors under suspicion," said Robert Tobias, president of
the National Treasury Employees Union. Meanwhile, federal convictions of
U.S. law enforcement officers continue to mount.

'He's a Kid Who Should Never Have Been a Cop' In January, Ernest M.
Garcia, an INS inspector at Calexico, was sentenced to 27 years in
prison on drug importation and bribery charges. More than $1.2
million in cash was seized during the investigation. In June, Rafael
M. Ayala, an INS detention officer, was given life in prison on 33
counts of conspiracy to import cocaine, money laundering and
incometax evasion. Ayala also forfeited more than $500,000 that he
had amassed in real estate and personal property.

Last Tuesday in McAllen, Texas, five former police officers and a
former animal control officer pleaded guilty to conspiring to move
hundreds of pounds of marijuana through South Texas. The convictions
capped a twoyear federal investigation that showed the exofficers
accepted payoffs for protecting the drug shipments. The six
defendants now face prison sentences of up to 40 years and fines as
high as $2 million. "Ninetynine percent of officers are good,"
Assistant U.S. Atty. Terry Leonard said in announcing the guilty
pleas. "But it's that 1% that spoils the reputation of everyone else
with a badge."

Then there is the case of Haro, the 23yearold deputy caught on two
occasions with small amounts of cocaine and "sham" cocaine that he accepted
from snitches working for the federal government. His take was $5,000.
Arrested here, he appeared at his court arraignment still dressed in his
olive pants, white undershirt and black bootsall part of his Sheriff's
Department uniform. Gone were his badge and service revolver. "He's a kid
who should never have been a cop," said his federal public defender, George
Soltero. "He was a good kid. But he just liked all the bells and whistles
on his police car, and he liked to make money." His mother, Dora Haro, said
the government was being unduly harsh on her son in its new push to combat
police corruption. "When I saw him in court he was crying, and so was I. He
put his head down. He was so ashamed, and so was I." James Lacey, the
assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted the case, defended Haro's 11
1/2year prison term as in line with federal sentencing guidelines. "I
don't think it was too much. I think it was appropriate, given the
circumstances."

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