Margarita Crispin, a corrupt customs inspector, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for letting marijuana pass through the border. She made nearly $5 million doing this, and lived frugally on the US side of the border while buying expensive homes and SUVs through straw buyers in Mexico. The FBI tracked her down.
On July 25, 2007, Margarita Crispin reported for work, just like any other day. Only this time federal officers were there to greet her”¦and walked her out in handcuffs. In April 2008, she pled guilty and was sentenced to 240 months in prison for conspiring to import drugs, but beyond that, for abusing the public trust.
This happened a few years ago. No doubt there is even more corruption now, as the border gets increasingly locked down and tense and violence soars.
Perhaps the most important question to ask about such corruption is, were they corrupted before or after becoming customs inspectors? It could easily be that some of them were cartel members all along. Don’t think this can’t happen. In one of the most notorious case of corruption in Los Angeles, LAPD officer David Mack said at his sentencing for bank robbery that he was a member of the Bloods. In New York City in 2009, two NYPD detectives, Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa, were sentenced to life in prison for racketeering, extortion, and murder on behalf of organized crime.
It seems probable that at least some of the time gang members (whether they be from L.A. street gangs, Mexican drug cartels or Italian Mafia) have deliberately infiltrated law enforcement.