A Baja California state police officer who tried to drive through the San Ysidro Port of Entry in a drug-laden vehicle pleaded guilty Thursday to a federal drug count.
Victor Alfonso Moreno-Mejia, 35, who Mexican officials said had been an officer for seven years, was arrested last September with around 100 pounds of cocaine in his car.
A criminal complaint states Moreno-Mejia’s vehicle was inspected by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers, who discovered 35 packages hidden in the driver’s seat, passenger seat and rear seats.
According to the complaint, Moreno-Mejia told investigators that he did not know drugs were in his car, but stated that a few days earlier, he had left his car at a mechanic’s shop in Tijuana that he had previously investigated “for having possible ties to cartels.”
His plea agreement states Moreno-Mejia left his vehicle at the mechanic’s shop for one week and was told that after picking it up, he’d have to drive the car into the U.S. Prosecutors allege he did not inspect what his vehicle might contain, but was aware of the possibility it had been loaded with drugs.
Moreno-Mejia is the third person employed in Baja California law enforcement and criminal justice circles arrested in San Diego County within the last year for drug smuggling offenses.
Earlier this year, an ex-employee of the Baja California prosecutor’s office pleaded guilty in San Diego federal court to conspiracy to distribute cocaine. He had driven a car loaded with drugs across the border and handing it over to a co-defendant in National City.
Another Baja police officer, Mizraim Berumen Gascon, pleaded guilty to state charges of methamphetamine importatation and was sentenced to a stint in county jail.
– City News Service