Homeland Security Agents On The Take

A growing number of Homeland Security agents hired to protect the nation’s borders have instead been arrested for accepting bribes, drug trafficking and human smuggling.

From south Florida to Mexican Border States, federal agents working for Homeland Security agencies such as U.S. Customs and Border Protection are themselves committing the crimes they are paid with U.S. tax dollars to stop.

The problem is so rampant that a top Homeland Security official in Washington recently issued an alert to more than 20,000 federal officers nationwide about the “disturbing events” and the increasing number of employee arrests. A south Florida newspaper obtained the hard-hitting memo, authored by the agency’s assistant commissioner of field operations (Thomas Winkowski).

An embarrassment to the agency charged with protecting national security, the document lists examples of employees arrested for domestic violence, drunk-driving and drug possession. It goes on to remind the federal officers that it’s their responsibility to uphold laws, not break them, and that they must behave professionally at all times.

The memo didn’t mention the more serious offenses recently committed by federal agents across the nation. They include a Customs and Border Protection officer at a Florida airport charged with assisting a drug smuggling ring by tapping into sensitive federal databases and another convicted for accepting $1,000 each from several illegal immigrants entering the country through a separate Florida airport.

Other cases involve federal officers trafficking drugs, taking money for migrant smuggling, witness tampering and embezzlement. The agents worked at airports, seaports and checkpoints along the southern border. They had a sworn duty to protect the nation from the very element they teamed up with.