Ex-border officer pleads guilty to smuggling migrants into US, accepting bribes

A former Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer who worked at a Texas port of entry has pleaded guilty after being accused of smuggling migrants into the U.S. and accepting bribes to allow what he thought was cocaine to enter the country, authorities said Monday.

Emanuel Isac Celedon, 36, of Laredo, worked at the Lincoln Juarez Port of Entry in Laredo, where prosecutors said he told smugglers what lane he was assigned to in advance and let them through without inspection or documentation of passengers at least nine times between September and November 2023, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas said in a statement.

During at least two of these occasions, prosecutors said that Celedon falsely entered information into a CBP database to avoid sending the driver to a mandatory secondary inspection.

Investigators determined that Celedon asked others to advertise his role in the human smuggling effort to Mexican smugglers and assure them he was “doing his part,” prosecutors said.

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Celedon was found with $1,980 in cash at the time of his arrest, which he told authorities was payment for human smuggling.

Fox News Digital reached out to the CBP for comment but did not immediately hear back.

In a separate drug case, Celedon had agreed to smuggle what he believed were kilograms of cocaine from Mexico through his assigned lane at the Laredo Port of Entry twice in October 2023, the statement said.

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Celedon was caught in an undercover investigation that showed him express interest in smuggling cocaine into the U.S. for payment, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He provided his duty schedule and told others to direct certain vehicles into his lane so that he could allow them to cross safely.

Prosecutors said Celedon was paid $6,000 after the vehicles with fake cocaine crossed the port of entry. 

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Celedon faces up to 80 years in prison on the four counts of bringing an undocumented alien to the U.S., along with the bribery and drug charges.