U.S. CBP officers in San Diego are being accused of participating in cross-border drug smuggling operations
A series of search warrants that have been issued over the past few months provide some detail about how the officers allegedly coordinated with smugglers to let them into the U.S. at ports of entry
At least two U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents are being accused of working with drug traffickers to smuggle meth, fentanyl and other narcotics from Mexico into California, court documents show.
Those court documents include search warrants that I just happened to come across today on Court Listener (more on those later). Then I did a Google search and realized that none of this has been in the news, oddly enough.
U.S. CBP officers Jesse Clark Garcia and Diego Bonillo were arrested in May. An indictment that was unsealed on May 7 lists 11 counts alleging that they helped import cocaine, meth, fentanyl and heroin across the border on a regular basis.
A third individual was also charged, but that person’s name is redacted in the indictment because they are still at large. It’s unclear if the third defendant is also with CBP.
The indictment says their alleged drug smuggling lasted until February 2024. A series of search warrants give a little more insight into the FBI and DEA investigation that led to their arrests:
Search warrant for a Google account belonging to Garcia
On April 18, 2021, a woman driving a 2016 Kia Soul was in a vehicle lane managed by Garcia, even though his line was backed up and there was an empty lane right next to her. After the CBP agent in the empty lane prodded her to switch over, she finally relented. That’s how she got caught with about 63 kilos of a fentanyl-based substance and 12 kilos of meth. Records showed that she crossed the border seven times previously, including four times in Garcia’s lane. Since CBP assigns agents randomly to one-hour shifts, the warrant said it seemed to indicate a high level of coordination.
On Aug. 22, 2023, the driver of a Toyota Camry was arrested at a Route 94 checkpoint, located about 24 miles east of the city of San Diego. She had about 216 kilos of cocaine and 4 kilos of fentanyl. Agents traced her arrival into the U.S. to the Tecate Port of Entry, where Garcia had been assigned to work the pedestrian lanes but switched with a colleague so he could be in the vehicle lane that she was in. Records showed that Garcia let that driver into the U.S. on 12 of her 32 previous crossings.
Search warrant for a Macbook Air belonging to Bonillo
From November 2023 to March 2024, the search warrant alleges that Bonillo spent well above his CBP salary, which was about $65,000 base and another $18,000 in average annual overtime. In a span of barely more than six months, he spent about $13,000 on travel plans to Paris, Ireland, Amsterdam, Luxembourg, Cancun and Big Bear — not to mention a $1,500 purchase at Gucci during that same time period.
From December 2023 to February 2024, Bonillo was allegedly looking to make some big real estate moves. First he was looking to buy a property in Tijuana’s La Colonia Del Rio neighborhood. Then, on a separate transaction, he told a realtor that he had a $349,000 budget to acquire some investment properties. The warrant says it’s unclear if any of those purchases came to fruition.
Search warrants for multiple iPhones that belonged to the defendants
On Feb. 6, 2024, Garcia allegedly admitted two cars into the U.S. through his lane at a port of entry (doesn’t say which one). Both vehicles were being surveilled by federal agents after entering the U.S. and eventually stopped. The two of them combined were carrying substances that appeared to be fentanyl, meth and cocaine. Crossing records and messages on platforms such as WhatsApp showed that the drivers had coordinated their border crossings with Garcia and Bonillo, the warrant alleges.
On Feb. 15, 2024, the driver of a Buick LaCrosse was in Bonillo’s lane at the Otay Mesa Port of Entry. The driver had been admitted into the U.S. by Bonillo four previous times, which the warrant says is “a statistically improbably number of crossings unless coordinated.” After entering the U.S., he was tailed by SDNET, an enforcement group that tries to follow suspected smugglers and locate stash houses or other people/points of interest. After the driver abandoned the LaCrosse in a store parking lot and fled out the back of the store, agents believed that Bonillo tipped him off about the tail.
Both defendants are being detained as the case moves through California’s Southern District Court under Judge Ruth Bermudez Montenegro.