CORRUPTION ADDS TO PROBLEMS ON BORDER

Even As It Works to Beef Up Security, the U.S. Government Is Turning
Up Hundreds of Agents WHO May
Already Be Compromised

WASHINGTON -- He was an ambitious drug smuggler with ties to a Mexican
cartel; she a newly minted U.S. Border Patrol agent wooed into a
romance with the trafficker.

"I asked her if she wanted to hang out with me, and she said yes,"
recalled Diego Esquivel, who, according to court testimony, hoped to
start smuggling more lucrative shipments on his own. "I asked her what
I could do to avoid being caught. ... She provided
information."

Rookie agent Raquel "Kelly" Esquivel - no relation to Diego - is
serving 15 years in a North Texas federal prison, one of many federal
law enforcement personnel targeted by Mexican drug cartels in
criminals' widening campaign to infiltrate or buy turncoats within the
expanding ranks of 20,700 Border Patrol agents and 21,000 Customs and
Border Protection officers stationed at airports, seaports and land
crossings.

Investigations of border security personnel have expanded in each of
the past four years, with at least 1,036 inquiries under way,
including some 267 focused on suspected corruption. Additional
corruption-related investigations are conducted by the FBI or internal
affairs agents within the agencies.

Smugglers have become "more creative and clever in their illicit
activities," said Charles Edwards, the Department of Homeland
Security's acting inspector general. "They have turned to tempting DHS
employees to assist in smuggling efforts for private gain."

Since 2004, 127 border security officers and support staff have been
arrested, charged or convicted of corruption - including 95 so-called
"mission compromising corruption" cases involving officers like Kelly
Esquivel.

The former Del Rio sector agent knew Diego Esquivel from their school
days. According to records, she advised him on at least three
occasions in 2007 on what highway to take, what motion detectors to
avoid, the timing of a local sheriff's visits to a boat ramp used for
deliveries and the Border Patrol's deployment schedule. She even gave
him a Border Patrol shirt and cap.

"I thought I could impress the guys in Mexico with it," the smuggler
said.

'Sensitive' information

He gave the cap and coveted intelligence to his boss in Mexico before
being arrested on a last drug run north. Prosecutors believed he had
overseen the shipment of as much as 5 tons of marijuana during a
two-year period.

The smuggler and the agent were convicted of conspiracy to possess
drugs with intent to distribute more than 2,200 pounds of marijuana.
The former law enforcement officer provided what prosecutors deemed
"sensitive law enforcement information" to her boyfriend. He pleaded
guilty and agreed to testify against her.

The case illustrates that stepped-up efforts are needed to detect
corruption and infiltration after border security agents are on the
job, says Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, chairman of the oversight
panel within the House Committee on Homeland Security. McCaul is
asking Congress' investigative Government Accountability Office to
look into corrupted border security to set the stage for an inquiry by
his committee.

"The cartels buy off police chiefs and elected officials in Mexico,
and now they're trying to buy off our Border Patrol agents who are our
first line of defense," said McCaul.

Other border protection officers in Texas and elsewhere also have
faced federal corruption charges in recent years.

CBP technician Martha Alicia Garnica, 44, is serving a 20-year
sentence after pleading guilty last year to charges in El Paso that
she conspired to import more than 220 pounds of marijuana and smuggle
undocumented aliens and offered or paid $5,500 in bribes to Customs
and Border Protection officers to turn a blind eye.

Former CBP officer Alex Moses Jr., of Eagle Pass, is serving five
years of probation after pleading guilty to smuggling about 6 grams of
cocaine from Mexico in 2008.

And former CBP officer Sergio Garza, 36, was sentenced in Laredo in
2008 to three years in prison for aiding the smuggling of an
undocumented alien into the U.S. - one of at least 10 undocumented
immigrants whom he admitted allowing into the country.

"We recognize that there are bad apples in the barrel," says Alan
Bersin, head of Customs and Border Protection, which includes the
Border Patrol. "It is our job to prevent corruption, detect it when it
happens (and) prosecute it after investigating it."

Lie detector test backlog

Yet challenges remain. Only 22 percent of new hires are subjected to
lie detector tests amid expanding enlistments and shortages of
polygraph specialists. The agency is expanding the number of
polygraphers from 35 to 52, but it will be at least 2013 before it can
polygraph all new hires.

Efforts also lag in identifying compromised law enforcement officers
already within the ranks. An estimated 60 percent of veteran law
enforcement officers initially fail periodic lie detector tests
required every five years to verify honesty and backgrounds, officials
said. Nearly 15,200 officers who have failed the routine polygraphs
await follow-up background checks.

Even with all the precautions, senior officials concede they can only
guess at the breadth of infiltration or corruption by Mexican cartels.

"I could not give you a specific number," concedes Bersin, the top
border security official. "In the course of reviewing these
(employees), we do come across cases in which people reveal themselves
to either have outright criminal backgrounds or links to organized
criminal elements based in Mexico or gangs based in the United States,
which disqualifies them."