CBP officer sentenced to 23 years after accepting bribes

A former U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer was sentenced Friday to 23 years in prison after accepting bribes to allow undocumented immigrants and illegal drugs to cross the San Ysidro port of entry, according to federal prosecutors.

U.S. District Judge Todd Robinson handed down the sentence after a jury. convicted Leonard Darnell George, 42, earlier this year for receiving a bribe as a public official, conspiring to import methamphetamine and two counts of conspiring to bring undocumented immigrants into the US.

George joined CBP in 2018 after previously working for CoreCivic, the private prison company that operates the Otay Mesa Detention Center.

“Public corruption, as in this case, is a betrayal of trust that erodes the foundations of the very principles of law enforcement and undermines the public’s perception of those who are held to a higher standard,” he said. Shawn Gibson, special agent in charge of Homeland Security investigations in San Francisco. Diego said in a news release on Friday.

In a sentencing memorandum filed with the court last week, George’s attorney, Antonio Yoon, said his client, a U.S. Navy veteran and married father of four, had no knowledge or control over the quantity or purity of the drugs introduced.

“As the Bible teaches us, justice must be tempered with mercy,” Yoon said in the memo.

The court ultimately rejected Yoon’s argument that 10 years in prison would have been a sufficient sentence.

Federal prosecutors told a jury earlier this year that George began committing his crimes after meeting two bootleggers at the Hong Kong Gentleman’s Club, a Tijuana strip club known for offering prostitution, in the fall of 2021.

In exchange for cash, George told smugglers when he was working and what lane he was in at the vehicle crossing entering the United States from Mexico, prosecutors said.

A plea agreement from one of George’s co-defendants said smugglers would send four or five vehicles loaded with drugs or undocumented immigrants through George’s lane during each shift he worked. The co-defendant also estimated that about 300 undocumented immigrants entered the United States through George Lane.

Prosecutors said George became known as “The Doorman” among smugglers and earned between $300,000 and $400,000 by allowing smugglers to cross the border at least 19 times between October 2021 and June 2022.

George used the bribe money to pay for vehicles, motorcycles and jewelry, prosecutors said. During his regular visits to the Hong Kong Gentlemen’s Club, he spent about $5,000 per trip and was seen “spilling” money on the club’s dancers, prosecutors said.

At one point during the trial, prosecutors demonstrated George’s connection to the criminal operation by showing a photograph of one of the smugglers wearing George’s CBP uniform jacket, officials said.

Prosecutors also showed text messages and audio recordings between George’s wife and a high-level member of the drug trafficking group discussing her husband’s payment.