A longtime immigration agent faces up to 20 years in federal prison when he’s sentenced in July for helping a Mexican national with multiple convictions re-enter the country illegally.
Felix Cisneros Jr. was found guilty late Monday, following a four-day trial in federal court in downtown Los Angeles, of four felony counts: conspiracy to aid and assist the entry of an alien convicted of an aggravated felony into the United States, acting as agent of another person in a matter affecting the government, falsification of records in a federal investigation, and making false statements.
The 44-year-old Murrieta resident was acquitted of two counts of obstruction of justice.
Cisneros worked with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for 11 years and was assigned to the agency’s Homeland Security Investigations office in the Inland Empire when charged last year. He is now on indefinite suspension from the agency.
Working as an undercover agent who investigated money laundering as well as human and narcotics trafficking, Cisneros was contacted in 2013 by a key figure of a criminal organization based in Southern California to assist the Mexican national.
At the time, the man was working for the organized crime leader in the oil and gas industry, and had traveled to Mexico to negotiate business transactions. When he man tried to re-enter the United States in July 2013, he was detained at Los Angeles International Airport and his passport was confiscated because of an arrest warrant for fraud.
The Mexico native was a legal permanent resident of the U.S. but had multiple criminal convictions for financial fraud. Cisneros helped the felon regain his passport and re-enter the U.S. at LAX.