U.S. bribery charges for CBP officer, associates

   The U.S. Justice Department has charged a Customs and Border Protection officer, his girlfriend and an associate in Brownsville, Texas, for engaging in a multi-year bribery and alien smuggling operation along the U.S./Mexico border.
   The indictment, which was unsealed Friday in U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Texas, charged CBP Officer Juan Carlos Guerrero, 39, of Mission, Texas; and girlfriend Claudia Flores, 34, and Maribel Rivera, 43, also both of Mission, each with one count of conspiracy to commit bribery, one count of conspiracy to smuggle aliens for financial gain and various substantive counts of bribery and alien smuggling.
   In a related case, Guerrero’s nephew Jose P. Cantu pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Texas on July 24 to conspiracy to commit bribery and alien smuggling, and a separate charge of conspiracy to import marijuana and cocaine.
   According to court documents, between October 2009 and January 2011, Guerrero worked the midnight shift as a CBP Office of Field Operations officer at the Pharr and Anzalduas ports of entry near McAllen, Texas. As part of his duties, he was responsible for handling vehicle inspections of northbound traffic traveling from Mexico to the United States. During this period, Guerrero, his girlfriend Flores and their associates – including Rivera and Guerrero’s nephew Cantu – perpetrated a bribery and alien smuggling operation along the U.S./Mexico border. Guerrero and Flores allegedly charged between about $1,000 and $3,000 per person.
   The Justice Department said a trial date for Guerrero, Rivera and Flores has not yet been set. Cantu’s sentencing date has also not been set.