Mexico Charges 5 in Border Extortion

TIJUANA —  Five Mexican immigration officers were charged Thursday with “illicit enrichment” for allegedly extorting money from some of their countrymen trying to sneak into the United States.

The top official of the Mexican Immigration Department in Mexico City, Jose Ortiz Arana, said during a news conference here that, including the five men accused, a total of 22 officers have been affected by the “cleaning of the office of immigration from corruption.”

In the last month, 10 officers have been fired and seven have been transferred to the state of Chiapas, which shares a border with Guatemala. On Wednesday, formal charges were presented against the five men to the federal district attorney in Tijuana.

The five men are continuing to work, but their future depends on the district attorney’s findings, Ortiz said.

Ortiz said the allegations were based on the kind of properties the men purchased with their salaries, estimated at about $200 a month. Some of the men had several homes, new cars and other possessions they probably could not afford on their salaries.

The investigation involves immigration officers on the U.S. border with Mexico and Mexico’s border with Guatemala, Ortiz said.