TEXAS
A federal judge sentenced an associate of a former U.S. Border Patrol Agent to four years in prison followed by one year of supervised release for conspiring to accept money in return for helping to smuggle marijuana and other illegal drugs into the United States.
U.S. District Judge Gray H. Miller also ordered Daniel Hernandez, 46, of California to forfeit $5,000.
Hernandez pleaded guilty to one count of bribery on Feb. 5, 2019.
According to the plea documents, between 2013 and May 2014, Hernandez and Border Patrol Agent Robert John Hall Jr., agreed to help drug traffickers smuggle illegal drugs, including marijuana, into the U.S. from Mexico.
Hall was sentenced to more than nine years in prison in March for accepting bribes to help the drug trafficking organization, according to federal officials.
In exchange for cash payments, they provided an individual they believed to be a member of the drug organization with Border Patrol sensor locations, the locations of unpatrolled roads at or near the U.S.-Mexico border, the number of Border Patrol agents working in a certain area, keys to unlock CBP locks located on gates to ranch fences along the border, and Border Patrol radios.
In total, Hernandez accepted about $5,000 in cash in return for helping to smuggle illegal narcotics into Texas without law enforcement detection, according to officials.
DOJ NOTED:
The FBI investigated the case with assistance from CBP Office of Professional Responsibility. Trial Attorneys Rebecca Moses and Peter M. Nothstein of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys John Pearson and Arthur R. Jones of the Southern District of Texas are prosecuting the case.