The FBI said an Arizona Border Patrol agent handed hundreds of thousands of dollars over to drug traffickers and picked up cocaine while on the job in a remote part of Southern Arizona. The 32-year-old Vail resident resigned in September, after facing a separate weapons charge.
In a federal criminal complaint cited by the Arizona Daily Star, an FBI agent said Ramon Antonio Monreal Rodriguez gave $650,000 to traffickers and picked up 90 pounds of cocaine from smugglers.
The FBI agent wrote that Monreal’s payment was 6 pounds of narcotics and $66,000. The Daily Star reported that Monreal is a 10-year veteran of the agency who left his job after a federal grand jury indictment alleged he hired two men to help him illegally buy firearms in Tucson.
Prosecutors allege that Monreal tried to arrange assaults on his ex-girlfriend and a corrections officer she was dating, also reported by The Daily Star.
