Former border officer sentenced to prison in bribery case
TUCSON, Ariz. - A federal judge in Tucson has sentenced a former U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer from Nogales to 2.5 years in prison on a bribery conviction.
U.S. District Judge Rosemary Marquez sentenced 58-year-old Jose Rosalio Fuentes on Jan. 13 and ordered him to surrender by March 26 to begin serving his prison sentence.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for Arizona says Fuentes in 2018 agreed while working as a CBP officer at the Nogales port of entry to allow a person not authorized to enter the United States to cross the border in exchange for a $6,000 bribe.
According to the office, Fuentes knew the person was a convicted felon, and the office says surveillance video showed Fuentes pretending to swipe the person’s identification and waving the person through a pedestrian gate and into the United States.
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