A human smuggling coordinator, Luis Alfredo Quintero-Gonzalez, pleaded guilty on August 11, 2022, for Conspiracy to Commit Bribery and Alien Smuggling by bribing a Border Patrol agent.
Agent Carlos Passapera was charged separately for his alleged involvement in the conspiracy and has pleaded not guilty. His jury trial is scheduled to begin on April 3, 2023.
Sentencing for Quintero-Gonzalez is scheduled for October 25, 2022.
According to the Department of Justice, Quintero-Gonzalez paid former United States Border Patrol (USBP) agent Carlos Passapera thousands of dollars in cash bribes for smuggling undocumented noncitizens into the United States between August and December 2019.
Quintero-Gonzalez claimed that he conspired to coordinate and coordinated the illegal entry of undocumented noncitizens by acting as the middleman between Passapera and the individuals seeking illegal passage into the United States. It is alleged that while working as a USBP agent, Passapera would receive communication from Quintero-Gonzalez and then pick up the undocumented noncitizens along the U.S.-Mexico border near Lukeville, Arizona. Passapera would then allegedly smuggle the individuals through Border Patrol checkpoints and deliver them to locations within the Phoenix area. Throughout the conspiracy, Quintero-Gonzalez and Passapera smuggled at least eight undocumented noncitizens into the United States. In exchange for his role in the conspiracy, Passapera allegedly received approximately $64,000 in bribery payments from Quintero-Gonzalez.