Former CBP officer sentenced for human smuggling

   A former Customs and Border Protection officer, his girlfriend, a nephew and two of their associates were sentenced Thursday in federal court for participating in bribery and alien smuggling activities along the U.S./Mexico border spanning about two years, according to the U.S. Justice Department.
   Juan Carlos Guerrero, a former CBP officer from Mission, Texas, was sentenced to 108 months in prison and ordered to pay a $30,000 fine by U.S. District Judge Andrew S. Hanen in the Southern District of Texas after pleading guilty last year to one count of substantive bribery, one count of conspiracy to commit bribery and one count of alien smuggling conspiracy.
   Guerrero’s girlfriend, Claudia Flores, also of Mission, was sentenced to 60 months in prison and ordered to pay a $30,000 fine; Maribel Rivera, also of Mission, was sentenced to 30 months in prison; and Rodolfo Caballero Rojas of Oklahoma City was sentenced to 24 months in prison and ordered to pay a $6,000 fine. Guerrero’s nephew, Jose P. Cantu of Mission was sentenced to 52 months in prison after having pleaded guilty 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 2008 and May 2011, Guerrero worked the midnight shift at the Hidalgo, Pharr and Anzaldvas ports of entry, where he was responsible for, among other things, vehicle inspections of northbound traffic traveling from Mexico to the United States. He and his co-conspirators arranged for aliens from Mexico to be smuggled into the United States through Guerrero’s inspection lanes in exchange for bribe payments ranging from $500 to $3,000 per alien. Guerrero admitted that he organized and directed a total of 80 to 150 different smuggling events and that he knowingly permitted about 80 to 165 aliens to gain illegal entry into the United States.
   Guerrero, who was placed on administrative leave upon his arrest in October 2012, formally resigned his CBP post on Dec. 13, 2012, as part of his plea agreement.