Border Agent Arrested With 550 Pounds of Pot

A U.S. Border Patrol agent assigned to a lonely stretch frequented by drug smugglers was arrested with more than 550 pounds of marijuana in his patrol vehicle, authorities said Wednesday.

The agent, Thomas Bair, was arrested early Tuesday in rugged eastern San Diego County after fellow agents told supervisors he was behaving suspiciously, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman Rodney Adams said.

Bair was being held without bail, accused of possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute, federal prosecutors said.

The FBI and the U.S. Justice Department’s internal affairs office also are looking into the case, Adams said. “We are handling this as a standard narcotics smuggling investigation,” he said.

Bair’s defense attorney, Bill Brown, of Federal Defenders of San Diego Inc., did not return repeated calls for comment.

But Bair told one DEA agent that he was aware of drug trafficking in the area and had intended to intercept the drugs and become the “hero” of his unit, according to a DEA statement filed in court.

Johnny Williams, chief of the San Diego Border Patrol, said it was the first such arrest in his three years on the job.

“We’ll let the criminal justice system decide his guilt or innocence. It’s not our job to pass judgment,” Williams said. “We are participating 100% in the investigation. I’m very proud of the officers who brought this to the attention of their supervisors.”

The arrest occurred at a time when the Border Patrol finds itself at the front lines of the war against large-scale narcotics traffic, which has become deeply entrenched in Mexico.

U.S. officials suspect that 70% of all illegal narcotics entering the country now come over the U.S.-Mexico border. A significant portion is believed to move through San Diego, often on lonely back roads like the dirt track outside the U.S. border town of Tecate where the Tuesday incident began.

The two Border Patrol agents who reported the incident told the DEA they came upon Bair well after midnight on Tecate Mission Road. He seemed to be attempting to kick something under his vehicle, according to the statement of a DEA agent.

Bair was not at his assigned post or with his partner, Assistant U.S. Atty. Michael Wheat said.

The agents spotted military-style duffel bags in the rear passenger seat, stuffed with what appeared to be marijuana, the DEA statement said. Bair became edgy and confrontational, the report said.

“Bair began shouting that the agents were not supposed to be there and that they had ruined everything,” the statement said.

One Border Patrol agent said he thought he heard people running away toward Mexico in the darkness. When he asked if they should pursue them, Bair told them no, the DEA account said. The agents left the scene and notified supervisors.

A short time later, Bair arrived at a Border Patrol checkpoint, where the agents were reporting the incident to a DEA agent, and he turned in the marijuana.

Bair told the DEA agent he knew people who were smuggling drugs in Tecate and had made arrangements with people to meet him with the marijuana, the statement said.

Wheat said there were nine duffel bags in the van, and two more nearby. The DEA estimated the worth of the seizure at $200,000 to $300,000 at wholesale prices.

Bair is being held at the Metropolitan Correction Center in San Diego until his detention hearing Aug. 12, Wheat said.

If convicted, the agent would face a minimum mandatory sentence of five years in federal prison, Wheat said. The maximum sentence is 40 years, he said.

“This kind of conduct is not tolerated in the ranks, and when it comes to light we vigorously pursue it,’ said Virginia Kice, spokeswoman for the Western region of the Immigration and Naturalization Service.