2 CBP Officers Plead Guilty to Allowing Illegal Drugs to Pass Through Border Inspection

Prosecutors alleged that the defendants used ‘a secret emoji-based code’ to inform drug traffickers of their assigned lanes.

Customs and Border Protection agents check pedestrians as they exit Mexico into the customs area of the United States on the east side of the San Ysidro port of entry in Tijuana, Mexico, on Nov. 19, 2018. Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times

Two Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers have pleaded guilty to allowing drug-laden vehicles to enter the United States without being inspected at the U.S.–Mexico border, federal prosecutors said on July 28.

Jesse Clark Garcia, 37, and Diego Bonillo, 30, admitted to conspiring with members of a Mexican drug trafficking organization to allow vehicles carrying fentanyl, methamphetamine, and other controlled substances to enter through inspection lanes they were assigned to, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California.