Border Patrol Agent Pleads Guilty to Accepting a Bribe to Smuggle an Illegal Alien Into the United States

ALBUQUERQUE – Gabriel Burke, 43, of Deming, N.M., entered a guilty plea this morning to a felony information charging him with accepting a bribe announced U.S. Attorney Kenneth J. Gonzales and Ervin J. Frankson, Special Agent in Charge of the ICE Office of Professional Responsibility, U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The felony information to which Burke pleaded guilty charges Burke with corruptly accepting a bribe between Dec. 2011 and Feb. 2012 in Dona Ana County, N.M., for being persuaded to do an act in violation of his official duty. At the time, Burke was a U.S. Border Patrol Agent assigned to the Deming Border Patrol Station.

In entering his guilty plea, Burke admitted that, between Dec. 22, 2011 and Feb. 1, 2012, while he was employed as a Border Patrol Agent, he accepted $1,100 to smuggle an undocumented alien from Mexico into the United States.

Burke was released under pretrial supervision pending his sentencing hearing, which has yet to be scheduled. At sentencing, Burke faces a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and a mandatory term of supervised release not to exceed three years.

This case was investigated by the ICE Office of Professional Responsibility in El Paso, Texas, and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark A. Saltman of the U.S. Attorney’s Las Cruces Branch Office.