Double Standard
This particular group was caught in Arizona.
The article describes how massive loads were allowed to pass. Near the end, I discovered that all those caught would be allowed to plead to a single charge with a maximum five-year sentence. While this may be an appropriate sentence for their crime, it is not in line with what a common citizen would receive. Not even close.
The men let over a thousand pounds of cocaine go by and some even escorted loads to ensure they would get into the country safely in government owned vehicles. By current law, any conspiracy involving over five kilos puts an offender into minimum mandatory status (ten year minimum). Being law enforcement officials, I assume all were carrying weapons, which carries a minimum mandatory five years to run consecutive to the immediate offense for the first offense, and then goes up to twenty-five years for each offense thereafter.
I would also assume that accepting a bribe is also still against the law—I know from experience that paying one is.
Now, what do you think the odds would be that a black resident of DC caught in similar circumstances would be afforded to same benevolent treatment by our “justice” department? Or for that matter anyone not connected to law enforcement?
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Follow up
Submitted on June 1st, 2005 by Don Henry Ford Jr.Corruption crosses the border with agent bribes
MCALLEN - The Border Patrol checkpoint on a remote stretch of South Texas ranchland was the ideal route for a drug trafficking ring to move tons of marijuana.
To make sure their product got through, traffickers paid $1.5 million to U.S. Border Patrol agent Juan Alfredo Alvarez, 35, to wave trucks loaded with a ton or more of marijuana through checkpoints outside Hebbronville, according to a plea bargain Alvarez agreed to earlier this month.
As Mexican drug cartels have transformed the Texas-Mexico border into one of the major transport corridors for marijuana, cocaine and heroin, traffickers have stepped up their efforts to bribe agents.
While attention has been focused on the wide-scale corruption of Mexican law enforcement officials by powerful drug organizations, recent investigations along the border have revealed corruption of several U.S. agents at key international crossings...