2 US border inspectors are charged with taking bribes to wave in people without documents

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2 US border inspectors are charged with taking bribes to wave in people without documents

2025-04-07 11:15 Last Updated At：11:20

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Two U.S. border inspectors in Southern California have been charged with taking thousands of dollars in bribes to allow people to enter the country through the nation's busiest port of entry without showing documents, prosecutors said.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers Farlis Almonte and Ricardo Rodriguez were assigned to immigration inspection booths at the San Ysidro Port of Entry. They were charged after investigators found phone evidence showing they had exchanged messages with human traffickers in Mexico and discovered unexplained cash deposits into their bank accounts, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Thursday.

Surveillance video showed at least one instance in which a vehicle with a driver and a passenger stopped at a checkpoint but only the driver was documented as having entered the country, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said the officers waved dozens of vehicles carrying people without documents. They said both men were paid thousands for each vehicle they waved through.

It wasn't immediately known if Almonte has an attorney who can speak on his behalf.

Rodriguez’s attorney, Michael Hawkins, said the case was still in the “infant stages” and that Rodriguez has the presumption of innocence.

"We look forward to working through the current situation,” Hawkins said in an email in which he described Rodriguez as hardworking and loyal.

The investigation on Almonte and Rodriguez started after three migrant smugglers who were arrested last year told federal investigators they had been working with U.S. border inspectors, federal prosecutors said.

While Almonte was in custody, investigators allegedly seized nearly $70,000 in cash they believe his romantic partner was trying to move to Tijuana. Prosecutors wrote in a court filing that Almonte is potentially facing additional charges for money laundering and obstruction of justice, The San Diego Union Tribune reported.

“Any Customs and Border Protection agent who aids or turns a blind eye to smugglers bringing undocumented immigrants into the U.S. is betraying their oath and endangering our national security,” Acting U.S. Attorney Andrew Haden told the newspaper in a statement.

There have been five U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers assigned to the San Diego area to face similar corruption charges in the last two years.

Last year, former U.S. border inspector Leonard Darnell George was sentenced to 23 years in prison for taking bribes to allow people and drug-laden vehicles to enter the country through the San Ysidro border crossing. Two other former border officers at the Otay Mesa and Tecate ports of entry were charged last year with similar charges. They are expected to go on trial this summer.

The story has been updated to remove a reference to the National Border Patrol Council, which does not represent Customs and Border Protection officers.

Swollen rivers are flooding towns in the US South after a prolonged deluge of rain

2025-04-08 00:59 Last Updated At：01:02

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Days of unrelenting heavy rain and storms filled up rivers to near record levels across Kentucky on Monday, submerging neighborhoods and threatening a famed bourbon distillery in the state capital of Frankfort.

Swollen rivers posed the latest threat from a series of persistent storms that have killed at least 20 people since last week — 10 of them in Tennessee — as they doused the region with heavy rains and spawned destructive tornadoes. Teeming waterways kept the flood threat high in other states, as well, including in Tennessee, Arkansas and Indiana.

Cities ordered evacuations and rescue crews in inflatable boats checked on residents in Kentucky and Tennessee, while utilities shut off power and gas in a region stretching from Texas to Ohio. Floodwaters forced the closure of the historic Buffalo Trace Distillery, close to the banks of the swollen Kentucky River near downtown Frankfort.

“I think everybody was shocked at how quick (the river) actually did come up,” said salon owner Jessica Tuggle, who was watching Monday as murky brown water approached her business in Frankfort.

She and friends packed up her salon gear, including styling chairs, hair products and electronics, and took it to a nearby tap house up the hill.

“Everybody was just ‘stop raining, stop raining’ so we could get an idea of what the worst situation would be,” she said.

Officials diverted traffic and turned off utilities to businesses in the city as the river was expected to approach a record crest Monday.

Ashley Welsh, her husband and four children — along with their pets — had to quickly depart their Frankfort home along the river Saturday evening, leaving a lifetime of belongings later submerged by floodwaters.

When she awoke to water coming into their house early Saturday, Welsh woke everyone up and they packed their truck. They alerted guests to leave an Airbnb they own down the road, packed up the Airbnb and then helped her sister, who lives next to the Airbnb, evacuate. After they took a short nap at their house, the water had risen.

“By the time we woke up, there was already three feet of water that we had to wade through to get out,” she said.

The water rose up to their second floor. By Sunday morning, she checked her house's cameras.

“My stuff was floating around in the living room. I was just heartbroken. Our life is up there,” Welsh said.

The 20 reported deaths since the storms began on Wednesday included 10 in Tennessee. A 9-year-old boy in Kentucky was caught up in floodwaters while walking to catch his school bus. A 5-year-old boy in Arkansas died after a tree fell on his family’s home, police said. A 16-year-old volunteer Missouri firefighter died in a crash while seeking to rescue people caught in the storm.

Two men sitting in a golf cart were killed when a tree fell on them at a golf course in Columbus, Georgia, according to Muscogee County Coroner Buddy Bryan.

The National Weather Service warned Sunday that dozens of locations in multiple states were expected to reach a “major flood stage,” with extensive flooding of structures, roads, bridges and other critical infrastructure possible.

In north-central Kentucky, emergency officials ordered a mandatory evacuation for Falmouth and Butler, towns near the bend of the rising Licking River. Thirty years ago, the river reached a record 50 feet (15 meters), resulting in five deaths and 1,000 homes destroyed.

The Kentucky River was cresting at Frankfort Lock at 48.27 feet (14.71 meters) on Monday morning, just shy of the record of 48.5 feet (14.78 meters) set there on Dec. 10, 1978, according to CJ Padgett, a meteorologist with the weather service’s Louisville, Kentucky, office.

Carroll County Deputy Judge-Executive Michael Humphrey in Kentucky ordered mandatory evacuations in some places, warning that a “significant flooding event of which history has never seen” is expected.

Across Kentucky, more than 500 state roads were still closed Monday morning, Gov. Andy Beshear said. Beshear said more than 1,000 people had no access to water and nearly 3,000 were under boil water advisories. He said at least 20 water systems were affected.

The City of Harrodsburg, Kentucky, said on social media that its water system had to discontinue pumping around midnight due to flood levels on the Kentucky River. Bottled water was being handed out Monday. The post said officials from Harrodsburg and Mercer County and leaders from factories, hospitals and schools had been discussing how to minimize water use in the community about 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of Frankfort.

More than 100 structures were destroyed in McNairy County, Tennessee, where a tornado tore through the town of Selmer with winds estimated up to 160 mph (257 kph), local emergency management officials said. State officials have confirmed five people were killed by the severe weather in the county of roughly 26,100 residents.

The storms come after the Trump administration cut jobs at NWS forecast offices, leaving half of them with vacancy rates of about 20%, or double the level of a decade ago.

Forecasters attributed the violent weather to warm temperatures, an unstable atmosphere, strong winds and abundant moisture streaming from the Gulf.

The NWS said 5.06 inches (nearly 13 centimeters) of rain fell Saturday in Jonesboro, Arkansas — making it the wettest day ever recorded in April in the city. Memphis, Tennessee, received 14 inches (35 centimeters) of rain from Wednesday to Sunday, the NWS said.

Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Anthony Izaguirre in New York; Kimberlee Kruesi and Jonathan Mattise, in Nashville, Tennessee; Sarah Brumfield in Cockeysville, Maryland; Rebecca Reynolds in Louisville, Kentucky; Jeff Amy in Atlanta; Adrian Sainz in Memphis; Tennessee; and Obed Lamy in Rives, Tennessee.