A San Diego-area Border Guard agent was charged Thursday with federal crimes related to on-duty corruption, including moving what he believed to be 23 pounds of methamphetamine and opening a border gate to allow the passage of an immigrant without papers possible.

Federal authorities arrested Officer Hector Hernandez, 55, Wednesday morning in Chula Vista, where he believed he would hand over the drugs in exchange for a $20,000 payment.

according to court documents.

Instead, his contact turned out to be an undercover agent for the Border Patrol’s parent company, the Department of Homeland Security.

Hernandez was settled

Thursday

on one count of attempted distribution of controlled substances and two counts of receiving a bribe as a government official. It was not immediately clear if he had a lawyer who could comment on his behalf.

Hernandez’s investigation began last month when officers from the department’s Inspector General’s Office learned he was “involved in border corruption,” according to an indictment and search warrant. Those alleged activities are not detailed in the court documents, and as of Thursday he did not face charges related to those allegations.

The under cover

DHS

agent spoke to Hernandez on Monday and drafted a plan to pay the Border Patrol agent $5,000 if he opened a gate along the U.S.-Mexico border fence during his shift that night to let an immigrant through, according to the complaint and search warrant.

During a phone call that day, Hernandez allegedly asked the undercover investigator to send three undocumented migrants instead of just one so he could receive a higher payment, according to court documents. Later that night, huh

allegedly

drove his Border Patrol vehicle to the agreed location and opened the gate.

No one poked through the gate, but Hernandez was told one person did, according to court documents.

The undercover investigator met with Hernandez the next day and paid him $5,000 for opening the gate, according to court documents. The undercover cop then pitched Hernandez on a new plan: help move drugs across the border.

Hernandez was hesitant at first, citing the example of another Border Patrol agent, Noe Lopez, who had been caught smuggling drugs, according to the complaint and search warrant. Hernandez said he didn’t want to pick up the drugs between the primary and secondary border fences.

the documents claim.

The undercover officer assured Hernandez he didn’t have to, but instead told him the drugs would be hidden somewhere along the fence on the U.S. side of the border, according to court documents. From there he would have to pick them up and transport them to Chula Vista.

Hernandez agreed to that plan, and while on duty Tuesday night, drove his Border Patrol vehicle to where he was told the drugs would be stashed, according to court documents. Once there, he packed a duffel bag that investigators had filled with 1 pound of real methamphetamine, 22 pounds of dummy drugs, and a tracking device, then drove to his home in Chula Vista.

authorities claim.

After dropping the bag at his home, Hernandez went back to work, according to court documents. When he was free from work in the morning, he picked up the bag and drove to the meeting place in Chula Vista, where he handed over the bag,

say the documents.

Then officers arrested him.

Border Patrol officials in San Diego did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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