Ex-BP Agents Convicted of Smuggling Sentenced to Decades in Prison

Originally published at 8:50 a.m. Friday June 21.

Two Border Patrol agents convicted of bringing illegal immigrants into the U.S. for financial gain were handed lengthy sentences in downtown San Diego Friday.

U.S. District Court Judge John Houston sentenced Raul Villarreal to 35
years in federal prison and Fidel Villarreal to 30 years behind bars. Both were
fined $250,000.

A federal jury found the brothers guilty of accepting bribes and conspiring to launder money while running an alien-smuggling organization with several other accomplices.

According to evidence presented during a five-week trial, one of the Villarreals' co-defendants, Armando Garcia, led groups of illegal immigrants across the U.S.-Mexico border at locations other than ports of entry on a number of occasions in 2005 and 2006.

Fidel Villarreal and his younger sibling then picked up the illegal immigrants in their patrol vehicles and released them stateside, according to prosecutors.

Along with the brothers, the jury convicted Garcia of bringing illegal immigrants into the U.S. for financial gain, as well as conspiracy money laundering.

The Villarreals, both in their 40s, were arrested in Tijuana in October 2008, along with Garcia, who is also in his 40s, and another accomplice, Claudia Gonzalez. 

The suspects were transferred to Mexico City for extradition proceedings and returned to San Diego in March 2009.

The indictment against them was handed down by a federal grand jury in April 2008. Their trial ended in August.

Gonzalez pleaded guilty in December 2009 to conspiracy to smuggle illegal immigrants for financial gain, bribery and money laundering.

– City News Service