A former U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer convicted of taking bribes to allow drug-laden vehicles across the U.S.-Mexico border was sentenced Friday to over 23 years in prison.
Prosecutors say that in late 2021, Leonard Darnell George, 42, was assigned to the primary inspection booth at the San Ysidro Port of Entry when he met two people who were part of a drug-trafficking organization.
Following that encounter, George began taking cash to let vehicles carrying drugs and migrants through when he was on duty, earning him the nickname "The Goalie" from traffickers, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Law enforcement officials and prosecutors discovered 19 separate occasions over a six-month period in which George allowed vehicles through his lane for money.
On one occasion, George was paid $68,000 for letting four vehicles cross the border undetected. Among the purchases George made with his bribe money were cars, motorcycles and jewelry, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors allege George was so entrenched with the drug traffickers that one trafficking associate took a selfie photograph of himself wearing George's CBP uniform jacket. George also purchased a 2020 Cadillac CT5 for one of the trafficking associates and personally delivered the vehicle to Ensenada.
George was charged last year along with several others with conspiring to bring drugs and undocumented migrants into the United States. A San Diego federal jury convicted George of four counts, including receiving bribes by a public official. Several co-defendants in the case pleaded guilty prior to George's trial.
On Friday, U.S. District Judge Todd Robinson sentenced George to 280 months in prison. George's defense attorney, Antonio Yoon, said at the sentencing hearing that George intends to file an appeal.
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