A former Customs and Border Protection officer has been sentenced to 12 years in federal prison for conspiring to allow drugs to be smuggled through his inspection lane in exchange for money.
The office of U.S. Attorney Laura E. Duffy confirmed Wednesday that Oscar Osbaldo Ortiz-Martinez, 33, was sentenced to 144 months in prison, five years of supervised release and a $22,000 fine.
Ortiz-Martinez was arrested on September 23, 2010, on allegations that he accepted monetary bribes in exchange for letting loads of cocaine and methamphetamine into the United States.
Prosecutors say Ortiz-Martinez – who had been working for the CBP for two years – was assigned to the Calexico Ports of Entry.
Court documents say he and an accomplice, Victor Manuel Silva Jr., believed they were working with people with ties to a drug trafficking organization and began making a deal to allow the smuggling of drugs across Ortiz-Martinez’s inspection lane in exchange for approximately $50,000.
In reality, the men were unwittingly doing business with undercover agents and federal law enforcement officials posing as drug traffickers.
Ortiz-Martinez and Silva were recorded discussing the smuggling of drugs with an informant.
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In two conversations, Ortiz-Martinez made plans to allow the informant to cross five to 12 kilograms of cocaine through his lane in exchange for a bribe of $20,000, and 15 kilograms of methamphetamine for $30,000.
Court documents show that Ortiz-Martinez even established code words for the informant to use if the checkpoint computer randomly required him to send the informant to secondary inspection.
They agreed the code words would prompt the informant to abandon his vehicle and run back to Mexico. At one point, Ortiz-Martinez suggested the informant use motorcycles to smuggle drugs, because then they could then cross narcotics via his lanes “every day.”
Ortiz-Martinez wound up accepting $22,000 in bribes. In one exchange, he was recorded on video leaving the informant’s truck with a bag of money in hand.
He was taken into custody on September 23, 2010, when he showed up to collect another $30,000 from the informant. Silva was arrested on the same day.
Silva pleaded guilty in February 2011 to conspiracy to import at least five kilograms of cocaine. He testified against Ortiz-Martinez, and said they wanted to make as much money as possible in their drug smuggling and bribery scheme.
Ortiz-Martinez was convicted by a federal jury in September 2012 of conspiracy to import controlled substances and bribery. After Wednesday’s sentencing, he’ll be placed into prison.
Pete Flores, Director of Field Operations for U.S. CBP in San Diego, had this to say about the sentencing of Ortiz-Martinez:
“Corrupt acts are a disgrace and the exact opposite of the values that form the basis of who we are. CBP is a world-class law enforcement agency and enjoys a special position of national trust as the sole border enforcement agency. The vast majority of our officers are highly skilled, hard-working professionals dedicated to our mission to protect the American public,” he said.
“We will actively ferret out and work to prosecute to the fullest extent of the law any employees who commit unethical or unlawful acts that violate that special trust. This case will send a strong message to the community at large that we will not tolerate corruption in our workforce.”
