Ex-INS Agent Gets 5 Years for Smuggling

A former Immigration and Naturalization Service inspector was sentenced Monday to five years in prison for smuggling illegal immigrants from Mexico into the United States.

Keith Manuel Johnson, 39, could have received up to 15 years for his conviction on one count of conspiracy and three counts of immigrant smuggling.

U.S. District Judge Napoleon Jones rejected Johnson’s request for a new trial or dismissal of the charges for lack of evidence. Johnson was convicted by a jury in April.

Johnson, who worked at the San Ysidro border crossing in San Diego, was arrested in 1998 after he was seen guiding three illegal immigrants, all women from Mexico, through the pedestrian area of the port of entry. He resigned from the INS 12 days later.

Federal investigators placed Johnson under surveillance after an agricultural inspector at the border saw him leading small groups of immigrants through the pedestrian area and became suspicious, said assistant U.S. attorney John Parmley.

The three women paid smuggling fees of between $1,600 and $2,000 to enter the country with Johnson’s help, but it is unknown how much of that the inspector received, Parmley said.

At the time of his arrest, Johnson was living with a woman from Mexico who was in the United States illegally--though he denied knowing her immigration status, Parmley said.

Johnson’s lawyer, Michael Burke, did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.