Bail Set at $350,000 for INS Agent Arrested in Calexico : Drugs: He and two women are charged with conspiracy to smuggle cocaine through port of entry.

Bail was set at $350,000 Tuesday for a U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service inspector charged with conspiring to allow drug traffickers to smuggle cocaine through the Calexico Port of Entry.

Sergio Gonzalez, an eight-year INS employee, was arrested Friday by FBI agents and charged with conspiracy to smuggle 110 pounds of cocaine. Also arrested were Josephine Flores, 27, and her mother, Guadalupe Flores. No age was given for the elder Flores. Gonzalez is from El Centro, and the two women are from Calexico, in Imperial County.

Gonzalez’s arrest marks the second corruption case involving U.S. officials in two weeks. Last week, David Henry Brown, a U.S. Customs employee with access to sensitive computer records, pleaded guilty to charges that he sold information about a drug investigation to a man with ties to drug dealers.

The recent arrests resulted from an undercover investigation by FBI agents, who were told by an informant about an inspector at Calexico who allowed drugs to be smuggled across the border in exchange for money. According to Assistant U.S. Atty. John Pierce, agents were put in contact with Josephine Flores, who allegedly claimed to be a Customs inspector.

When confronted by undercover agents in September about her claim to be a federal employee, Flores admitted that she did not work for Customs, but told agents she could introduce them to Gonzalez, Pierce said. Agents met with Gonzalez in October to arrange a drug deal.

Gonzalez, 41, allegedly agreed to wave through a car carrying 50 kilos of cocaine, driven by an undercover agent and accompanied by Josephine Flores. The deal was set for Friday, but no drugs were actually transported by the agent, Pierce said.

According to a federal account of the incident, Guadalupe Flores positioned herself near the border crossing to direct her daughter and the agent to the lane where Gonzalez was working.

“When they approached Gonzalez’s lane, he waved them through,” Pierce said.

After Gonzalez finished his shift Friday, he drove to a nearby shopping mall, where he had allegedly agreed to meet the agents and pick up the drug payoff. Gonzalez was arrested, and the two women were taken into custody.

At a hearing Monday, Pierce told U.S. Magistrate Barry Ted Moskowitz that Josephine Flores was charging an additional $10,000 to guide drug loads through the lane worked by Gonzalez.

Bail for Gonzalez was set at $350,000, and the two women were ordered held on $75,000 bail each. Pierce said Gonzalez, who is on paid administrative leave, could be sentenced to 10 years to life in prison and fined up to $4 million, if convicted. The two women, who were also charged with conspiracy to smuggle cocaine, could receive the same sentences.

Although Gonzalez was charged with only one conspiracy count, federal prosecutors are also looking at the possibility of charging him with bribery, Pierce said. The prosecutor said he did not know how many drug loads Gonzalez might have allowed to pass through the port before his arrest.

FBI agents tape-recorded a conversation with Gonzalez on Oct. 22, in which he reportedly said his “flat rate” for allowing drug-laden cars into the United States without inspection was “$30,000 per smuggle,” court documents show. Four days after that conversation, during a test run, undercover agents paid Gonzalez $5,000 for waving a vehicle through without inspection, federal officials said.