The Juarez-Lincoln International Bridge near Laredo, Texas, is used by illegal immigrants and drug smugglers. A former CBP officer admitted to taking bribes to facilitate this traffic. The ex-official secretly helped Mexican drug gangs smuggle illegal immigrants into the US.
According to federal authorities, Emanuel Isac Celedon (36) has entered a guilty plea on four charges related to the unlawful entry of a migrant across the Juarez-Lincoln International Bridge. Along with the importation of cocaine, he acknowledged accepting bribes to facilitate the drug’s passage from Mexico.
In the smuggling case, Celedon will be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Diana Saldaña, and in the bribery case, by Marina Garcia Marmolejo. He might spend the next decade or more behind bars for human trafficking, fifteen years for bribes, forty years for cocaine, and perhaps hundreds of thousands of dollars for penalties.
According to officials, Celedon sought reassurance from others that he was helping with the organization’s smuggling operations by asking them to communicate information about his participation to Mexican traffickers.
The problem at the southern border has prompted worries about potential dangers to national security and the effects of the situation on large cities and border towns that are already overwhelmed by the continual flow of illegal migration.
Illegal migration has been at the center of heated political debates. But the problem resurfaced with the brutal murder of nursing student Laken Riley (22) in Georgia by an illegal migrant from Venezuela with a lengthy criminal record.
Celedon’s arrest further complicates the border issue.
The southern border and Laredo, Texas, in particular, is an often used entry point for illicit narcotics. Officers regularly confiscate drugs, including cocaine, methamphetamine, and fentanyl.
Officers confiscated drugs, including cocaine and methamphetamine, with a street value surpassing $10.2 million in a December drug raid at the World Trade Bridge.
