SAN DIEGO (CNS) - A former San Diego-based U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer who pleaded guilty to allowing vehicles containing drugs to pass through inspection lanes at the U.S.- Mexico border was sentenced today to 15 years in prison.
Diego Bonillo, 31, admitted to sharing when he was working and his lane assignments at the Otay Mesa Port of Entry with a drug trafficking organization, which allowed vehicles carrying fentanyl, methamphetamine, and heroin to pass undetected into the United States.
Prosecutors say Bonillo allowed these cars to cross 15 times between October of 2023 and February of 2024. On one occasion, Bonillo informed traffickers that a driver was being followed by law enforcement officers, which prosecutors say allowed the driver to abandon the vehicle in a shopping center and flee through the back door of a convenience store.
In another incident, Bonillo was forced to refer a driver to a secondary checkpoint because the driver's visa was being revoked for a known tie to someone with a drug trafficking conviction. However, Bonillo did not monitor the vehicle to ensure it went to the secondary checkpoint, which prosecutors allege was done purposely.
Both drivers are currently fugitives.
Bonillo pleaded guilty shortly before he was set to go to trial on federal drug importation charges. Another San Diego-based CBP Officer, Jesse Clark Garcia, also pleaded guilty to multiple related charges, and is slated to be sentenced later this year.
Prosecutors say both officers received payments as part of the drug trafficking scheme that allowed them to live well above their means, while Bonillo's attorney, Marc Carlos, argued his client was not living as lavishly as prosecutors claimed.
In sentencing papers, prosecutors cited Gucci purchases, a trip to Europe, inquiries into purchasing properties in Mexico, and just more than $22,000 in cash deposits. Carlos said the $22,000 ``pales'' in comparison to amounts others were paid and likened Bonillo's compensation to that of a courier rather than a high-level member of the organization.
Carlos also disagreed with prosecutors' contentions that Bonillo was "motivated by greed'' and said he only became involved in trafficking because he was approached by someone who threatened him and he feared for his family's safety. Carlos said he should have reported the alleged threats to his superiors, but decided to try and take care of the problem himself.
In a statement to U.S. District Judge Ruth Bermudez Montenegro, Bonillo said, "I was against the wall and I didn't know what to do.''
Bonillo told the judge that he felt there would be "consequences'' if he did not comply.
"At the end of the day, I made that mistake and I'm deeply sorry from the bottom of my heart,'' he said.
But Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean Van Demark said an investigation into the purported threats yielded "not a single shred of evidence'' that Bonillo or any of his family members were threatened. Van Demark said the threats were a fabrication and asserted that despite Bonillo's guilty pleas, he had not taken accountability.
Aside from Bonillo and Garcia, several other San Diego-based CBP officers are facing prosecution or have been convicted for similar crimes. CBP Officers Farlis Almonte and Ricardo Rodriguez were charged earlier this year for allegedly allowing vehicles containing undocumented people through their lanes at the San Ysidro Port of Entry.
Another ex-CBP officer in San Diego, Leonard Darnell George, was convicted by a jury and sentenced last year to 23 years in prison for taking bribes to allow vehicles containing drugs and migrants through the border.
Copyright 2025, City News Service, Inc.
