Federal Agent Going to Prison – His Crime Is Unforgivable
(DailyVantage.com) – Every year, human smugglers try to make their way across the US border from Mexico, often transporting migrants in harrowing, dangerous conditions. The migrants pay the smugglers a lot of money for their chance at what they see as freedom in a better land. Many times, they’re apprehended before they make it into the US. Still, sometimes, the smugglers have help from unlikely sources, and the illegal immigrants make it into the country’s interior. Last week, a court sentenced a federal agent to time in federal prison for taking bribes and looking the other way while smugglers repeatedly crossed the border with truckloads of immigrants.
On Tuesday, May 24, US District Judge Diana Saldana sentenced Rodney Tolson, Jr., 36, a former Border Patrol agent, to 21 months in federal prison. Tolson, arrested in May 2021, entered a guilty plea in July and confessed to taking bribes of $400 per migrant.
A former federal agent has been sentenced for his role in human smuggling.https://t.co/OVc2bOxX64
— Border Report (@BorderReportcom) May 25, 2022
The scheme came to light in March 2019, following the arrest of a human smuggler named Ronaldo Vidaurri, Jr. When police pulled him over and arrested him in Texas for transporting five migrants, he told officers he had help and turned on Tolson. Working with an unnamed co-conspirator, Tolson used WhatsApp to communicate his agreement to the plan. The former border patrol agent would then call the unnamed conspirator and set up specific times and lanes for him to wave through the smugglers at the Laredo, Texas, checkpoint.
Tolson pleaded guilty to conspiracy to transport an undocumented migrant within the United States. The judge who sentenced him also ordered him to submit to three years of supervised release following his term of confinement.
Tolson’s earnings for his crimes remain unclear, and his attorney has not responded to requests for comment.
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