Border Patrol agent convicted of aiding migrant and drug smuggling

Hector Hernández left Mexico for the United States in 1988 and became a naturalized citizen ten years later. In 2002, he took an oath to protect his new home country when he became a Border Patrol agent.

But Hernandez, 56, broke that oath last year by accepting bribes in exchange for helping traffickers move people and drugs across the border.

On Friday, U.S. District Judge Janis Sammartino sentenced Hernandez to seven years and three months in prison in front of more than two dozen Border Patrol agents to bring their former colleague to justice.

“You chose … to betray the agency, to betray the nation and to betray the public trust,” Sammartino told the defendant.

Hernández pleaded guilty in February to corruption and drug charges, admitting that on at least three occasions he opened a gate in the border fence, believing he was allowing undocumented migrants into the country. On another occasion, he transported drugs in his agency vehicle while on duty.

Prosecutors argued Friday in San Diego federal court and in sentencing documents that corruption went beyond those acts. Assistant U.S. Attorney Shawn Van Demark said an investigation revealed that Hernandez was addicted to cocaine and that on several occasions, while off-duty, he drove drug shipments from San Diego to Los Angeles on behalf of a smuggling organization.

“Perhaps most disturbing,” Van Demark wrote in the sentencing documents, was that Hernandez once attempted to kidnap an undocumented migrant living in the United States. He was told the man owed money to the smuggling group and that he needed to track it down, detain it and personally arrange for it to be sent to members of the smuggling organization in Mexico.

Hernandez allegedly drove to the man's home in his Border Patrol vehicle and was wearing his uniform. “Fortunately, the undocumented immigrant Hernandez was supposed to search for was not home and Hernandez was unable to complete this task,” Van Demark wrote.

Hernandez was investigated in April 2023 after an informant told investigators at the Department of Homeland Security, Border Patrol's parent agency, about a corrupt agent, according to a plea agreement and d other documents from the case. Hernández later admitted to giving members of the criminal organization a tour of the border, where he pointed out weak points.

As part of an undercover operation, Hernandez accepted $5,000 on two occasions for opening a gate in the border fence. He thought undocumented migrants would arrive, even though none actually arrived. In a phone call with an undercover agent, Hernández allegedly asked the group to send three undocumented people at a time instead of just one so he could receive higher payments.

Later, the undercover agent presented Hernandez with a new scheme involving transporting drugs across the border, per the plea agreement. Hernández agreed to a plan in which he would retrieve the drugs if they were hidden on the U.S. side of the border fence.

That night, while on duty, Hernandez recovered a duffel bag that investigators had filled with a pound of real methamphetamine, 22 pounds of fake drugs and a tracking device, according to the agreement of advocacy. He drove the bag in his agency vehicle to his Chula Vista home for safekeeping while he returned to work.

At the end of his shift in the morning, he picked up the bag and drove to another location in Chula Vista where he had agreed to meet his alleged accomplice, according to the plea agreement. But when he handed the bag to the undercover investigator, officers arrested him.

A search of his home revealed $140,000 in cash and 9 grams of cocaine, according to the plea agreement. Hernandez admitted that at least $110,000 was money he made through bribery and drug dealing – most of which he received before the sting operation.

Defense attorney Gerardo Gonzalez said Hernandez turned to alcohol to cope with marriage problems and struggled with financial difficulties, including a desire to help pay medical bills from his elderly and ailing father in Mexico. During this period, Hernández met an old friend.

“By design, this person got him addicted to cocaine,” Gonzalez said. The lawyer wrote in sentencing documents that the friend then introduced Hernández to people on both sides of the border who wanted him to abuse his position to help them commit crimes.

“I was so desperate,” Hernandez told the judge. He pleaded for leniency while saying he accepted full responsibility for his actions.

“I ask for your pity,” he said. “Give me a chance, a chance to prove that I have changed… I want to pay taxes, I want to work, I want to regain my dignity.”

U.S. Attorney Tara McGrath sat with Border Patrol agents during Friday's hearing. Outside of court, she praised the prosecutors and officers who were there to support them.

“We are grateful to these … officers for their commitment to public safety and to rooting out corruption as soon as it rears its head in their ranks,” McGrath said.

Gonzalez requested a 41-month sentence for his client, but Sammartino sided with the sentence requested by the government.

“It was a horrible way to end what was otherwise an honorable career,” the judge said.