Pubdate: Wed, 06 Nov 2013
Source: Arizona Republic (Phoenix, AZ)
Copyright: 2013 The Arizona Republic
Contact: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/sendaletter.html
Website: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/24
Author: Daniel Gonzalez
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/corrupt.htm (Corruption - United States)

AGENT GETS 15 YEARS FOR SELLING INTEL ON BORDER

As a Border Patrol agent assigned to a special undercover unit in 
Yuma, Ivhan Herrera-Chiang's job was to stop criminals from smuggling 
drugs into the U.S.

Instead, the agent used his position to help drug traffickers bring 
methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana across the border by providing 
them with secret information in exchange for bribes, according to 
court records and prosecutors.

On Tuesday, a federal judge sentenced Herrera-Chiang to15 years in 
prison. He pleaded guilty in April to four felony counts of bribery.

"You have done about the worst thing a law-enforcement agent could 
do, especially a Border Patrol agent, and that is passed confidential 
information" to criminal organizations, U.S. District Judge Paul 
Rosenblatt said during a sentencing hearing in Phoenix.

Before he was caught and arrested in 2012, Herrera-Chiang provided 
maps of hidden underground sensors, lock combinations to gates along 
the U.S.Mexican border and the location of Border Patrol traffic 
checkpoints to a former Arizona Department of Corrections officer, 
Michael Lopez-Garcia.

Lopez-Garcia, in turn, passed the information on to smugglers so they 
could evade detection and transport drugs into the country, according 
to court records and prosecutors.

Herrera-Chiang also improperly logged in to law enforcement databases 
on his Border Patrol computer to run drug-seizure checks for 
Lopez-Garcia and even provided the physical description of a 
confidential informant in Mexico. That forced federal law enforcement 
officers to rush in and rescue the informant to save him from hit 
men, according to court records.

About 10 Department of Homeland Security and Border Patrol agents, 
including several who assisted with Herrera-Chiang's investigation 
and prosecution, attended the sentencing.

They sat quietly in the back, across the courtroom from where about a 
dozen of Herrera-Chiang's family members and supporters sat. Some 
family members wept as Rosenblatt announced the 15year sentence.

Herrera-Chiang's defense lawyer, Philip Seplow, pleaded with the 
judge to sentence Herrera-Chiang to only three years in prison, 
arguing that he was an "honorable" person who admitted he "did a 
horrible thing."

Herrera-Chiang did not know the information he provided to 
Lopez-Garcia, his boyhood friend, was being used to assist drug 
smugglers, although he admitted he should have known, Seplow said.

Herrera-Chiang also denied giving information to Lopez-Garcia about 
the confidential informant, and received only about $4,500 in bribes 
for providing other information, including the lock combinations and 
drug-seizure records, Seplow said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Dominic Lanza said the case was "one of the 
most serious" Border Patrol corruption cases "in a long time."

"This is such serious misconduct, such tarnishing of the oath," Lanza 
said in asking Rosenblatt to sentence Herrera-Chiang to 15 years in prison.

Lanza said Herrera-Chiang's co-conspirator, Lopez-Garcia, told 
investigators that Herrera-Chiang received upward of $60,000 to 
$70,000 for the information he provided.

Regardless, Lanza said, "one dollar is too much" when selling 
confidential maps of underground sensors, lock combinations and "the 
identity of a confidential informant."

Lopez-Garcia pleaded guilty in May 2012 to several felony charges. He 
is currently serving a nine-year prison sentence.

Department of Homeland Security agents began investigating 
Herrera-Chiang and Lopez-Garcia in July 2011 after receiving a tip 
from a confidential informant.

Herrera-Chiang, a former Marine, joined the Border Patrol in August 
2006. In March 2011, he was assigned to the YumaSector's Smuggling 
Interdiction Group, a plainclothes enforcement team responsible for 
conducting surveillance, detection and interdiction of drug 
traffickers and human smugglers, according to court records.

He actually began working with Lopez-Garcia before he joined the 
unit, starting around September 2010, helping smugglers in Mexico 
bring drugs into the U.S., according to court records.

Lopez-Garcia acted as the middleman, paying Herrera-Chiang to provide 
sensitive information, which Lopez-Garcia then passed along to drug 
smugglers in Mexico.

During that time, Lopez-Garcia was discovered five different times 
participating in drug-smuggling activities with the help of Herrera-Chiang.

Unknown to the two men, however, the drug-smuggling activities were 
actually being orchestrated by undercover DHS agents posing as drug 
smugglers, according to court records.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom