The Associated Press
TUCSON, Arizona- A U.S. customs agent has plead guilty to accepting a $50,000 (euro40,000) bribe to let a motor home packed with 440 pounds (200 kilograms)of cocaine pass through his checkpoint.
Fernando Arango, 52, of Rio Rico, faces a maximum sentence of life in prison and a $4 million (euro3.15 million) fine when is sentenced Jan. 11, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office in Phoenix.
Arango entered a guilty plea to a charge of attempting to possess with intention to distribute cocaine on Wednesday.
Arango was caught in a sting operation last October where a law enforcement informant met him and paid him for his help. Federal prosecutors said that in other meetings with the informant during the operation, Arango advised him to buy a recreational vehicle and taught him how to build a false compartment to hold the smuggled cocaine.
Authorities said Arango was earlier charged with a felony marijuana violation in Polk County, Florida, in 1989. They said he then fled to Colombia and resurfaced 10 years later, working as a police informant in Florida.
Law enforcement officials he worked with reportedly helped him obtain a job with Customs and Border Protection.
The investigation was conducted by the FBI and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office of Professional Responsibility.