2 Border Agents Held on Weapons Charges
SAN DIEGO -- Mexican federal authorities said Tuesday that they
have charged two U.S. Border Patrol agents on weapons-related offenses
after customs officials found nearly 1,300 rounds of ammunition
in their vehicle.
German Verdugo and David Allen Navarro were arrested Friday while
trying to cross the border into Mexicali from Calexico in Imperial County.
Mexican customs agents found a box on the back seat of the agents' sport
utility vehicle containing 1,286 .40-caliber cartridges, according to the
Mexican attorney general's office in Tijuana.
The agents, who were off duty and driving a private vehicle, are assigned
to the El Centro sector, which patrols the Imperial County border with Mexico.
Border Patrol officials said they would cooperate with Mexican authorities
in their ongoing investigation, said Agent Danielle Suarez, a spokeswoman
for the agency.
"If there is an agent doing something unethical, we won't accept
that at all," Suarez said.
The agents, who are being held in a Mexicali jail, face possible five-year prison
terms if found guilty. A bail hearing has been scheduled for today.
The arrests come less than a month after another agent from the El Centro
sector pleaded guilty to smuggling several hundred pounds of marijuana
in a Border Patrol vehicle.