The U.S. government is trying to convince a federal judge in Tucson that a Border Patrol agent who it says trafficked narcotics for a cartel will flee the country if he’s released from custody.
Carlos Passapera worked as a Border Patrol agent for 10 years. He resigned just after federal investigators arrested him in August after they say they tracked him smuggling hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills and dozens of pounds of cocaine, heroin and fentanyl.
Agents say they recovered more than $300,000 from Passapera’s Buckeye home, and that he and his wife tried to conceal $311,000 they had stashed in a safe deposit box from the federal court.
Passapera’s job as an agent was to monitor cameras placed along the U.S. Mexico border from the Border Patrol’s Ajo station. Federal investigators noted his strong ties to Puerto Rico and deemed him a flight risk.
