Things are hard all over. But that was their second mistake — it didn’t seem like things were all that hard for Jesse and Diego. I don’t know if it was the $2000 dollar handbags and Louis Vuitton clothes, the tickets to boxing prize fights that cost just as much as the handbags, or possibly the MANSION one of them was building in Mexico, but at some point… the FBI Border Corruption Task Force got curious.
That was their second mistake, but the pair’s first mistake was (allegedly) throwing their hat in with the Cartels’ smuggling operations to make a little spending money on the side.
Let’s take up the story from The Post Millennial:
Two US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents have been accused of helping Mexican cartels smuggle fentanyl, heroin and other drugs into the United States, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
Jesse Clark Garcia and Diego Bonillo reportedly started living the high life earlier this year and alarm bells went off. Prosecutors have argued that the two were spending thousands of dollars on luxury items from Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Burberry, while one invested in horse racing and building a mansion in Mexico and the other had taken several European vacations and was planning on a front row seat at a Las Vegas prize fight.
Prosecutors say Garcia and Bonillo of “profited handsomely,” from alleged illegal activities, skimming tens of thousands of dollars every time a vehicle filled with illegal drugs made it across the southern border unmolested. The indictment accuses the pair of allowing more than 1,150 pounds of drugs into the US in five separate jobs between April 2021 and February of this year but that amount only reflects what was actually seized by US authorities.
Whatever it was that finally triggered the investigation, at some point the FBI started looking a little closer at what was happening. How were these two Border Agents living so high on the hog? Let’s have a look at some of the newest info from the San Diego Union Tribune:
Details of the case, which has not previously been reported, were partially laid out in a search warrant affidavit unsealed Tuesday in federal court in San Diego, as well as in other filings by prosecutors in recent months. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Diego did not announce the arrests or the indictment as it has in previous cases for law enforcement officers accused, convicted or sentenced for wrongdoing.
Both men were arrested in early May as the result of an investigation led by the FBI San Diego field office’s Border Corruption Task Force. Their arrests came exactly one month before their former CBP colleague, Leonard Darnell George, went on trial in a similar but seemingly unrelated case. A federal jury convicted George in June of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for allowing smugglers to bring drugs and undocumented migrants through his inspection lane at the San Ysidro Port of Entry.
Court records showed that Mexican authorities arrested Garcia and turned him over on May 2 to U.S. authorities at the Arizona border. Prosecutors alleged that in late March, he crossed into Mexico with a fully packed vehicle and did not return to the U.S. until he was in custody. Prosecutors said that during that time, Garcia didn’t show up for work and his CBP supervisors didn’t know his whereabouts.
Two days later, FBI agents arrested Bonillo in Las Vegas, where prosecutors allege he was staying at the ARIA Resort and Casino and had $2,000 tickets to the May 4 fight between legendary Mexican boxer Canelo Alvarez and Tijuana’s Jaime Munguia.
So that’s the 30,000 foot view, but that doesn’t answer what actually happened. And that makes for a great story!
CA: 2 CBP Officers are being accused of working with the cartel and turning a blind eye to drugs passing through the a San Diego port— “Jesse Clark Garcia and Diego Bonillo are accused of working for an unnamed Mexican drug trafficking organization to allow vehicles loaded with… pic.twitter.com/Smz26fjFtu
— Ali Bradley (@AliBradleyTV) September 5, 2024
So here’s the details of the investigation that really led the FBI to believe something sketchy was probably going on. Let’s rejoin our previous Tribune story:
Prosecutors allege that one afternoon in August 2023, Garcia was assigned to a pedestrian lane in Tecate when he suddenly asked another officer working in a vehicle inspection lane to switch with him. Moments after the switch, Garcia waved through the border a woman driving a Toyota Camry. Not long after that, Garcia’s shift ended and he headed back toward San Diego on state Route 94, followed closely by the driver of the Camry.
Agents at a Border Patrol checkpoint along the highway allowed Garcia in his own vehicle to pass but stopped the Camry. Inside the car, the agents found more than 475 pounds of cocaine and nearly 9 pounds of fentanyl, according to prosecutors. The Camry’s driver later pleaded guilty to two federal charges and admitted her car was loaded with drugs when it passed through Garcia’s border inspection lane. Prosecutors said crossing records showed that the woman also frequently went through Garcia’s lane when crossing into the U.S.
By February, FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration agents appeared to be monitoring Garcia’s actions. One day early in the month, undercover agents secretly followed two different vehicles that passed through his lane within about two hours of each other. When they eventually stopped those vehicles, they found about 130 pounds of methamphetamine in one; the other was loaded with 120 pounds of cocaine, 82 pounds of methamphetamine and 71 pounds of fentanyl.
It appears a records check on the driver of one of those vehicles is what led the FBI and DEA agents to Bonillo, a 30-year-old Army veteran who joined CBP in April 2023. When crossing the border in Otay Mesa, a much larger crossing than Tecate, that driver had often crossed through Bonillo’s lane.
USA: Border agents Diego Bonillo and Jesse Garcia were charged with aiding a Mexican drug trafficking organization by admitting vehicles with methamphetamines, fentanyl, and cocaine into the US in exchange for hefty payments.
1/2 pic.twitter.com/2WVrWxKiis— Crime Intel (@WorldCrimeIntel) September 6, 2024
The alleged crime paid, until it didn’t. I still wonder if it was the $13,000 travel expenses in a 6 month period, or was it the racehorse business Garcia operated while he wasn’t guarding the border?
I know the FBI isn’t playing around with Meth & Fentanyl smuggling charges. Both men are looking at a MINIMUM 10 year prison sentence if the charges stick. The next court date is later next month, so we may have some answers in a few weeks.
According to the Latin Times, the two alleged smugglers have been sitting behind bars for quite awhile now:
The two Border Patrol agents have been held without bail since May, accused of being dangerous to the community and flight risk, according to a federal magistrate judge. The duo is due back in court on October 25.
Even with their arrest date nearly four months ago, this is still “breaking news” of sorts, as the story was only broken through records obtained peripherally. I guess the Biden-Harris “regime” (as President Trump likes to call it) isn’t too keen on letting the Customs and Border Patrol look TOO bad under their leadership.
Regardless, the story has broken, so no doubt we’ll have more info to report at least by the next court date. We’ll bring you more when we have it!
Join the conversation!
Please share your thoughts about this article below. We value your opinions, and would love to see you add to the discussion!