Texas border agent helps smuggler sneak in cocaine – as other agents watched, feds say

The smuggler sent the U.S. Border Patrol agent a photo of the backpack cooler he’d use to sneak cocaine past a Texas checkpoint.

Hide the drugs within the walls of the cooler with insulation, the agent replied, later suggesting the cocaine be smuggled during a shift when “the team sucks” and “the (agents) are all rookies,” according to a criminal complaint.

A couple of days earlier, Border Patrol agent Oberlin Cortez Pena Jr. had met the smuggler at a shopping mall in McAllen to discuss terms of the deal, the complaint says, and he agreed to help transport 5 kilograms of cocaine past the Falfurrias checkpoint in South Texas for $1,000.

He also coached the smuggler on places to hide contraband in a vehicle and tactics to distract drug-sniffing dogs, the complaint says.

On the morning of the June 25 smuggling attempt, Pena instructed a driver to use the middle lane where a rookie was assigned and waited at the truck stop along the highway to confirm the vehicle passed through, the complaint says.

Later in the day, Pena met the smuggler at a Whataburger in his hometown of La Joya and got paid $1,000, according to the complaint.

The plan seemingly worked.

But Pena apparently didn’t realize he was being watched by other agents the entire time.

About a week before the mall meeting, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General began an investigation into Pena. Special agents in the watchdog agency developed a “cooperator” involved in smuggling who agreed to meet with Pena.

Special agents, not a smuggler, loaded the backpack cooler with 5.9 kilograms of cocaine into the vehicle and drove toward the checkpoint on the morning of the smuggling attempt, officials say.

Pena again met with the cooperator and agreed to “conduct counter-surveillance” for $1,000, the complaint says.

The plan was nearly identical to the time before.

On Friday, Pena unwittingly instructed special agents on which lane to drive through with with 5.9 kilograms of cocaine in a backpack cooler, the complaint says.

This time Pena met the cooperator at the truck stop and received a $1,000 payment, the complaint says.

Then Pena drove to the nearby U.S. Border Patrol station for work and he was arrested.

Pena appeared in federal court Monday on a charge of attempting to aid and abet smuggling cocaine, officials said.

He faces a minimum of 10 years in prison and a possible $10 million fine.

This story was originally published July 12, 2021 at 5:47 PM.