Pubdate: Thu, 18 May 2000
Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
Copyright: 2000 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
Contact:  PO Box 120191, San Diego, CA, 92112-0191
Fax: (619) 293-1440
Website: http://www.uniontrib.com/
Forum: http://www.uniontrib.com/cgi-bin/WebX
Author: Matt Krasnowski

INS AGENT INDICTED, ACCUSED OF TRADING ILLEGAL ALIENS TO DRUG DEALER

LOS ANGELES -- A 15-year Immigration and Naturalization Service veteran was 
indicted Thursday on charges that he released 11 detained illegal aliens 
and turned some of them over to a convicted drug dealer, who held the 
immigrants until their families paid up to $1,800 in ransom.

Jesse Jerry Gardona, 40, a special agent in the INS's anti-smuggling unit 
in Los Angeles, reportedly swapped the immigrants, mostly Salvadoran, in 
1998 to settle a $20,000 to $30,000 debt he had with Jose Jesus Quintanilla 
Guzman, a Mexican national, convicted of drug trafficking in 1990, 
according to court documents released Thursday.

Gardona now faces six federal counts of harboring illegal immigrants, 
bribery and graft, conspiracy and related charges. Quintanilla, who is also 
facing charges of importing 50 kilograms of cocaine in a San Diego federal 
case, and his girlfriend, Leticia Chavez, were also charged.

Gardona was arrested May 9 and is free on $100,000 bond. Authorities kept 
his case under wraps because the investigation was ongoing, said Thom 
Mrozek, a spokesman with the U.S. attorney's office. Gardona's lawyer did 
not return a telephone message.

Sharon Gavin, a spokeswoman with the INS said, "We will cooperate fully 
with the investigation." She had no further comment.

Gardona has been on administrative leave since his arrest and will be 
placed on unpaid leave starting Friday (5-19), Gavin said.

Court papers detailing the Gardona investigation depict an agent who let 
his moonlighting efforts and his official duties commingle too much. Aside 
from his public service, Gardona ran a pay phone business and a soft drink 
vending machine business. According to two confidential informants who 
cooperated with federal agents, Quintanilla, who operates an East Los 
Angeles auto body shop, claimed that he lent $20,000 to $30,000 to Gardona 
to set up the businesses.

Gardona was the lead investigator in a July 13, 1998, case in which police 
discovered a group of illegal aliens being held by a group of smugglers in 
a Los Angeles apartment. Three suspected smugglers from Guatemala and 11 
Salvadoran immigrants were arrested. Four days later, Gardona OK'd the 
aliens' release.

"Jesse got them for me," Quintanilla told a confidential government 
informant, court papers state.

At Gardona's instruction, the aliens were picked up near the downtown Los 
Angeles INS lockup by Quintanilla and transported to a nearby house. They 
were kept captive until their relatives in the United States paid $1,000 to 
$1,800 in ransom, court papers state. The aliens remained in the country.

Three of the aliens interviewed by investigators this year said, "Gardona 
threatened that if any of the aliens revealed the circumstances of their 
release, he could track them down anywhere in the country and find them," 
court papers said.

The three immigrants were not held for longer than three days, court 
records state.

The affidavit by FBI Special Agent Ronald Twersky also quotes one 
confidential informant as saying Gardona once arranged for the release of 
three female illegal aliens from INS custody to work as dancers or 
prostitutes at a downtown Los Angeles club. Gardona allegedly showed off a 
book with photographs of the three women in nude poses. The affidavit 
states that Quintanilla knew the club's manager.

Gardona and Quintanilla had known each other since the mid-1990s and 
investigators say that in 1998 Gardona approved the release of 
Quintanilla's brother from INS custody in Arizona. Prosecutors contend Jose 
Quintanilla was involved in a cocaine trafficking network that moved the 
narcotic to Las Vegas, Denver and Chicago. He was arrested in November 1998 
after he and three other men were found driving two vehicles containing 50 
kilograms of cocaine at the U.S.-Mexico border. He faces a July 18 trial on 
charges of aiding and abetting the importation and distribution of cocaine. 
If convicted, he faces a mandatory minimum of 20 years in prison.

Quintanilla was again arrested in June 1999 for attempted illegal entry at 
the San Ysidro border crossing -- he had been deported previously in 1993 
and 1995. During that arrest, he claimed he was an informant for a Los 
Angeles INS officer named "Carbona," which helped trigger the Gardona 
investigation.

Quintanilla pleaded guilty to the illegal entry charge and is now serving a 
57-month sentence.

The court papers in the Gardona case indicate that possibly more than one 
agent may be involved in the suspected conspiracy. One informant said he 
saw Gardona and "two other plain-clothed men, wearing guns and law 
enforcement badges, outside of the same residents with Quintanilla."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Alicia Villarreal would not comment about the 
allegation, other than to say the investigation is continuing.

Just prior to his arrest, Gardona was seeking a transfer to the INS's Fresno. 
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