A former Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer pleaded guilty to charges of accepting bribes to smuggle illegal immigrants and drugs across the southern border through the Laredo, Texas, Juarez-Lincoln International Bridge. The former official collaborated with Mexican drug cartels to covertly assist illegals in their efforts to gain entry into the United States.

Emanuel Isac Celedon was caught after an investigation involving several different federal agencies including the Drug Enforcement Administration and Homeland Security Investigations, with assistance from the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Emanuel Isac Celedon, 36, of Laredo, pleaded guilty on Monday to four counts of bringing a migrant into the United States through the Juarez-Lincoln International Bridge.

In a separate case, he also admitted to bribery and attempted importation of cocaine for taking money to allow what he thought was cocaine to cross into the United States from Mexico, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

U.S. District Judges Diana Saldaña and Marina Garcia Marmolejo will sentence Celedon at later dates on the smuggling and bribery cases, respectively. He will remain in custody pending those sentence hearings.

Celadon faces up to 10 to 15 years for the human smuggling cases, 15 years for the bribery and 40 years for the cocaine charges. He also faces hundreds of thousands in possible fines, authorities said.

Celedon participated in an intricate scheme to help smugglers ensure that their clients made it safely over the southern border.

“As part of the smuggling conspiracy, Celedon provided his daily lane assignment to conspirators to allow entry without inspection or documentation of passengers. This occurred on at least nine occasions between September and November 2023,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

“Authorities also discovered that during at least two of these smuggling events, Celedon falsely input information into a CBP database in order to avoid sending the driver to mandatory secondary inspection.”

Further investigation revealed that Celedon asked others to relay information about his role to Mexican smugglers in attempts to reassure them he was doing his part to facilitate the organization’s human smuggling efforts, authorities said.

The bust occurs against the backdrop of an ongoing crisis at the southern border that has persisted since 2021. It has raised concerns about possible threats to national security, and the impact the crisis has had on border towns and major cities struggling to deal with the constant influx of illegal immigrants and asylum seekers.

Immigration has remained a hot topic of political discussion over the past three years. But the issue was once again in the spotlight after the vicious murder of 22-year-old Georgia nursing student Laken Riley at the hands of a Venezuelan illegal alien, who has a long criminal history.

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Celedon’s story adds another dimension to this problem. If this individual was willing to line his pockets by colluding with human smugglers, how many more CBP officers might be engaged in the same activity?

As the legal proceedings against the former border patrol officer conclude, the conversation surrounding law enforcement and border security remains ongoing.

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