Federal prosecutors charged a Border Patrol agent Monday with drug smuggling after they tracked him making a run from the border in to Phoenix and dropping off packages that agents later found to be filled with cocaine, heroin and fentanyl.
Carlos Victor Passapera Pinott was arrested Sunday after making the trip.
The FBI said when his home in Buckeye, Arizona, was searched, agents found $329,000 in cash. They found another $40,000 in the vehicle he used to make the trip from the border to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.
According to the criminal complaint, Agent Passapera left his home in Buckeye early Sunday morning, drove to the Border Patrol station he works out of in Ajo, then drove down to the remote desert east of the border crossing point at Lukeville. He then retraced the route back north, rendezvousing with someone at the airport, where he transferred two duffel bags to the other person’s vehicle.
That other person was stopped and searched and agents found 350,000 pills they identified as fentanyl containing, as well as 21 kilograms of cocaine, one kilogram of heroin and one kilogram of fentanyl.
Customs and Border Protection, which oversees the Border Patrol, said it was cooperating in the investigation.
“CBP stresses honor and integrity in every aspect of our mission, and the overwhelming majority of CBP employees and officers perform their duties with honor and distinction, working tirelessly every day to keep our country safe,” the agency said in a statement.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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