Wednesday, January 16, 2013

New GAO report on border corruption among federal customs agents

From a GAO report published earlier this month related to corruption in border security operations:
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data indicate that arrests of CBP employees for corruption-related activities since fiscal years 2005 account for less than 1 percent of CBP’s entire workforce per fiscal year. The majority of arrests of CBP employees were related to misconduct. There were 2,170 reported incidents of arrests for acts of misconduct such as domestic violence or driving under the influence from fiscal year 2005 through fiscal year 2012, and a total of 144 current or former CBP employees were arrested or indicted for corruption-related activities, such as the smuggling of aliens and drugs, of whom 125 have been convicted as of October 2012. Further, the majority of allegations against CBP employees since fiscal year 2006 occurred at locations along the southwest border. CBP officials have stated that they are concerned about the negative impact that these cases have on agencywide integrity.
See related MSM coverage from Fox News, "Study finds corruption on rise among border agents, rep says security at risk," which included this tidbit from Texas Congressman Mike McCaul: "In fiscal year 2011 alone, the DHS Inspector General received almost 900 allegations of corruption from within CBP and ICE." 

Though unrelated to the Customs service, the corruption angle provides an opportunity to link to a remarkable story from the Houston Chronicle about a Houston PD cop caught laundering cartel drug money: "Ex-HPD officer faces 25 years for running drug money."

See also prior, related Grits posts:

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Less than 1 percent of CBP employees are arrested for being corrupt? That's a pretty horrific number. I would not be proud of that, if I were a CBP manager.