SAN DIEGO (AP) -- A former U.S. Border Patrol agent has pleaded guilty to taking 100 dollars for each carload of illegal immigrants that he helped get past a highway checkpoint.
Jose Olivas Junior admitted scouting a Border Patrol checkpoint on Interstate 5 near San Diego and then calling an accomplice to give him an all-clear to follow.
Olivas pleaded guilty Friday to one count of conspiring to smuggle aliens and one count of conspiring to launder money. The 46-year-old faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison; a prosecutor says the government will likely seek to three to five years.
The agent admitted helping more than 100 illegal immigrants get into the United States from January 2006 until his arrest this year.
