Calexico, CA, CBP officer charged with bribery, conspiracy

OFF THE WIRE
I Will Be Posting about things ,The BLUE GANG DOES FROM NOW ON
Screwdriver
By Greg Moran

Friday, September 24, 2010 at 6:44 p.m.

A Customs and Border Protection Officer stationed in Calexico was one of two men arrested by federal agents Thursday and charged with bribery and conspiracy to smuggle drugs through the port of entry, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced.

A court complaint says that the officer, 30-year-old Oscar Osbaldo Ortiz Martinez, took $22,000 in bribes arranged by a second man, Victor Manuel Silva Jr., to allow vehicles he thought were smuggling drugs through the entry lane he was assigned to at the Calexico border crossing.

Ortiz was arrested Thursday as he went to a meeting to pick up what he thought would be $30,000 in bribe money. Silva was arrested later that day.

Court records say that Silva arranged a bribe for Ortiz in October 2009 from an undercover narcotics officer posing as a drug trafficker. Ortiz had been working for the agency since 2008. Before that both he and Silva worked as security guards at an immigration processing center in El Centro, the complaint says.

The complaint also says he received another $20,000 to allow a car supposedly laden with drugs to cross the border in June. He allowed a second car supposedly carrying methamphetamine through the inspection area on Tuesday. It was when he went to pick up another $30,000 payment for that load that he was arrested by agents in El Centro on Thursday.

Silva and Ortiz are both being detained until their next court hearing on Tuesday.

greg.moran@uniontrib.com • (619) 293-1236 • Twitter @gregmoran