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Border Patrol agent who picked up drugs along fence for apparent traffickers gets prison

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For 10 years, Noe Lopez wore the olive green uniform of a Border Patrol agent.

On Wednesday, the olive green garb he wore in a San Diego courtroom was markedly different. It was that of a federal inmate.

“You held a position of trust,” U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw scolded Lopez. “This was the ultimate betrayal and breach of that trust.”

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That betrayal played out at the end of 2016, when the agent coordinated drug load drop-offs along remote portions of the U.S.-Mexico border fence and then picked up the loads while on-duty.

“It is the antithesis of what you were supposed to be doing,” Sabraw said.

The judge then sentenced him to 70 months in prison.

Lopez, 38, apologized both to his family and to his former Border Patrol colleagues sitting on opposite sides of the courtroom.

“It’s something I regret — I’m going to regret — the rest of my life,” said Lopez, who worked out of the Imperial Beach station.

The case began in October 2016, when Lopez met a man at a house party in San Ysidro. Prosecutors said Lopez had bragged about his prior success in bringing drug-laden backpacks from the border fence — a claim that Lopez has since adamantly denied.

Several days later, Lopez drove the man up and down the border fence pointing out areas that aren’t closely monitored. Lopez offered to smuggle drugs for a fee of $1,000 to $2,000 per unit, according to prosecutors.

Unbeknownst to Lopez, the new friend was working as a confidential informant for law enforcement, and days later he told the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration of Lopez’s offer.

Authorities set up a sting, with the informant pretending to have ties to drug traffickers in Mexico and asking for Lopez to use his position in the Border Patrol to help smuggle drugs.

Lopez and the informant discussed the logistics at a Chula Vista restaurant, and later Lopez went out to buy backpacks for the drug loads — items that were mentioned in code as “piñatas” and “candy.”

On Dec. 6, 2016, they were ready to cross the first load, and Lopez had to switch patrol locations with another agent so he was working in the planned drop spot, known as “S*** Bridge.”

That afternoon Lopez picked up a backpack at the fence containing what he thought was 6 pounds of methamphetamine. After his shift, he met the informant at a Chula Vista strip mall and handed off the backpack. He was paid $3,000 the next day.

They immediately started planning the next transaction — 7 kilograms of cocaine in another area.

“Honestly, the thing is that there aren’t — there aren’t any cameras. Nothing, nothing, nothing,” Lopez was recorded telling him.

Lopez later marked the spot with a cola bottle and sent the informant two photos of the location, and on Dec. 8 he picked up another backpack left at the fence.

He was paid $7,000 that time.

On Dec. 14, 2016, after Lopez had switched areas with another agent in preparation for a third smuggling event, authorities moved in and arrested him at the Border Patrol station.

He pleaded guilty in June to attempted distribution of methamphetamine and cocaine.

Prosecutors speculated that the motivation appeared to be monetary. Lopez owned a restaurant, Main Street Bar and Grill, in Chula Vista from 2013 to 2015, but the business failed. In February and October 2016 he filed for bankruptcy. He owed the IRS money and was also caring for three children.

But, prosecutors also pointed out, he held a job that paid more than $100,000 a year.

“That Lopez was nevertheless willing to engage in drug trafficking suggests his motivation was greed rather than true financial need,” Assistant U.S. Attorney David Leshner wrote in his sentencing memorandum.

Also in 2016, in the months leading up to the smuggling, Lopez earned a bachelor’s degree in business management, was involved in an alleged domestic violence dispute with a woman he’d dated, and finalized his divorce.

Several letters from Lopez’s friends and family filed with the court expressed shock over his involvement with drug smuggling.

Born and raised in San Diego, Lopez served in the Marines from 1998 to 2004, was honorably discharged, and served in the reserves for another two years, according to his defense attorney.

Prosecutors said the evidence shows Lopez had “no qualms” about smuggling drugs into the United States, and was instead an “eager and willing participant.”

“He was not some knowing but powerless pawn in this,” Leshner argued.

But Lopez’s prior defense attorney, Robert Carriedo, said in sentencing papers that he remained “troubled” as to why Lopez was introduced to the informant. “Noe speculates whether he was singled out or targeted,” the lawyer said.

Lopez said that at times he felt “intimidated” by the informant, who made statements that seemed intended to create some concern for the safety of himself or his family, Carriedo said.

Rodney Scott, chief patrol agent for the San Diego sector, said in a statement Wednesday that Lopez’s crime “tarnished the badge that our agents wear proudly and professionally represent every day.” He added that “Noe Lopez is the anomaly; he does not represent the professionalism, honor and distinction that Border Patrol agents exhibit everyday safeguarding our nation.”

However, cases such as his have become increasingly common over the past several years, especially as the federal government has pushed to increase border staffing quickly.

The Project on Government Oversight reported this week that 80 Border Patrol agents and 127 Customs and Border Protection officers have been arrested on charges relating to corruption from October 2004 through March 2018, according to data obtained through federal Freedom of Information Act requests. CBP officers typically man the ports of entry while Border Patrol agents cover the areas in between.

kristina.davis@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @kristinadavis

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