A longtime immigration agent was indicted Friday by a federal grand jury on a felony count of helping a Mexican national with multiple convictions re-enter the country illegally.
Felix Cisneros, a 42-year-old Murrieta resident, had worked with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for 10 years and was assigned to the agency’s Homeland Security Investigations office in the Inland Empire, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles.
Cisneros worked as an undercover agent and investigated money laundering as well as human and narcotics trafficking, according to court records.
He was contacted in 2013 by a key figure of a criminal organization based in Southern California to assist the unidentified Mexican national, according to a federal affidavit.
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, the document states.
When the 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 affidavit said.
The Mexico native was a legal permanent resident of the U.S. but had multiple criminal convictions for financial fraud. Cisneros allegedly helped the felon regain his passport and re-enter the U.S. at LAX “likely through deception,” according to the affidavit.
Cisneros is scheduled to appear for arraignment Thursday in Los Angeles federal court. The offense carries a possible sentence of up to 10 years in federal prison.
–City News Service