More U.S. agents on Mexico border. More people to bribe.
You don’t need no stinking standards!
U.S. Border Patrol agent Reynaldo Zuniga was arrested last month lugging a bag of cocaine up from the Rio Grande, one of a growing number of law enforcement officers accused of taking bribes from drug gangs…
The increasing use of bribes by Mexican drug cartels to corrupt U.S. agents comes as Washington is sending $400 million to help Mexico’s army-led war on the trafficking gangs, whose brutal murders have surged to unprecedented levels…
Data on agents convicted of graft are not made public, but the U.S. government is probing hundreds of border corruption cases where a decade ago it saw a few dozen a year. The FBI-led Border Corruption Task Force says it is busier than ever…
A sudden influx of Border Patrol agents may have worsened the problem. The number of agents along the border has jumped to more than 14,700 now from less than 9,000 four years ago…
“Just given the increases, the odds are you’ll get more bad agents,” said Paul Charlton, a former U.S. Attorney for Arizona.
Several factors are always the same in law enforcement. You always have access to bribes. You know that going in – and it had better be an ethical question you sort beforehand.
Gangsters aren’t especially in business to outsmart the law. It’s always been easier, safer, to put someone on the payroll.
Officers in charge know this, as well. Aside from being potential centers for corruption, themselves. Another reason for a hierarchy of checks on any police system. You trust the guys running the game – but, you cut the cards.
