A border patrol officer is sitting in federal prison after receiving money and sexual favors from illegal immigrants coming from Mexico to the United States.
The FBI apprehended U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officer Jose Luis Cota, 50, Wednesday along with two undocumented immigrants he allegedly helped cross into San Diego. Gilberto Aguilar-Martinez, 31, and Miriam Juerez-Herrera, 31, had previously been deported from the United States, according to an FBI statement.
The report describes Aguilar-Martinez as a “two-time convicted felon” and says he and Juerez-Herrera were running an “alien smuggling operation.” Juerez-Herrera admits to bribing Cota with cash and sexual favors in exchange for allowing other illegal immigrants to be smuggled through his vehicle inspection lane. Cota let them pass through the San Ysidro Port Of Entry on four different occasions, and “large sums of cash were deposited into Cota’s bank accounts” each time, the FBI notes.
Some of the charges facing the trio are: bringing in unlawful aliens for financial gain; misuse of a passport and aiding and abetting; destruction, alteration or falsification of records; bribery of a public official and receiving a bribe from a public official. All of the charges carry either a 15 or 20-year maximum sentence along with hefty fines.
Cota’s wife doesn’t doubt the allegations and had plans to flee Cota after several beatings sent her to the hospital, ABC 10 reports.
Cota, Juerez-Herrera, and Aguilar-Martinez are awaiting their first hearing Sept. 14.
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