Two U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers have been accused of working for a Mexican drug trafficking organization to allow vehicles loaded with fentanyl, heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine to pass unchecked through their inspection lanes in southern California.
Prosecutors allege Jesse Clark Garcia and Diego Bonillo "profited handsomely," earning tens of thousands of dollars for each drug-laden vehicle they ushered into the U.S. without scrutiny, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported Thursday. The name of the drug cartel was not disclosed.
The indictment alleges that Garcia and Bonillo combined allowed more than 1,150 pounds of drugs into the U.S. on five occasions between April 2021 and February of this year. That total only accounts for the drugs that authorities later seized.
Details of the case were partially laid out in a search warrant affidavit unsealed Tuesday in federal court in San Diego, as well as in other filings by prosecutors in recent months, the Union-Tribune reported. The U.S. Attorney's Office in San Diego did not announce the arrests or the indictment as it has in previous cases of law enforcement officers accused, convicted, or sentenced for wrongdoing.
Garcia and Bonillo were arrested in early May after an investigation led by the FBI San Diego field office's Border Corruption Task Force, the Union-Tribune reported.
Their arrests came exactly a month before their former colleague, Leonard Darnell George, went on trial in a similar case. A federal jury convicted George in June of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for allowing smugglers to bring drugs and illegal immigrants through his inspection lane at the San Ysidro Port of Entry, just across the border from Tijuana.
Court records showed that Mexican authorities arrested Garcia and turned him over on May 2 to U.S. authorities at the Arizona border, the Union-Tribune reported. Prosecutors alleged that in late March, Garcia crossed into Mexico with a packed vehicle and did not return to the U.S. until he was in custody. Prosecutors said during that time, Garcia didn't show up for work and his CBP supervisors didn't know where he was.
Two days later, FBI agents arrested Bonillo in Las Vegas, where prosecutors alleged he was staying at the posh ARIA Resort and Casino and had $2,000 tickets to the May 4 boxing match between Canelo Alvarez and Jaime Munguia.
Garcia and Bonillo have pleaded not guilty and remain in custody after judges ruled both were flight risks, the Union-Tribune reported. Garcia's attorney declined to comment Wednesday. Bonillo's attorney did not respond to a request for comment.
A third defendant in the case remains a fugitive; that defendant's name is sealed but is not believed to be a CBP officer.
"Corruption undermines the integrity of our border security and poses a grave threat to public safety," U.S. Attorney Tara McGrath told the Union-Tribune in a statement Wednesday. "Allegations that border officials are complicit in fentanyl trafficking are especially troubling. This office will bring those who put our community at risk to justice."
A CBP spokesperson did not respond to questions from the Union-Tribune about the officers, including their employment status with the agency.
"We do not tolerate misconduct within our ranks," the spokesperson said. "When we discover any alleged or potential misconduct, we immediately refer it for investigation and cooperate fully with any criminal or administrative investigations. This is the case whether the alleged misconduct occurs on or off duty. Federal privacy laws prohibit discussion of individual cases."
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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