Couple sentenced for border bribery

A Customs and Border Protection officer and his wife have both pleaded guilty to bribery and importation charges in connection with a scheme to allow more than 600,000 fake Ecstasy pills to enter the country through the U.S. Port of Entry at San Luis, Ariz.

According to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Phoenix,  CBP Officer Henry M. Gauani, 41, and his wife Flora A. Gauani, 46, both of Yuma, pleaded guilty Thursday to conspiracy to commit bribery and conspiracy to import the drug Ecstasy.

A conviction for conspiracy to commit bribery carries a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment, a $250,000 fine or both. A conviction for conspiracy to import Ecstasy carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment, a $1,000,000 fine or both.

In a joint investigation by federal law enforcement, the Gauanis were arrested Jan. 27 after allowing a shipment of what they believed were 500,000 Ecstasy pills to pass through Henry Gauani’s inspection lane, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

On Feb. 3, a federal grand jury returned an indictment charging each with one count of conspiracy to commit bribery, two counts of bribery and one count of conspiracy to import Ecstasy.

The scheme was to allow vehicles loaded with controlled substances, specifically methylene-dioxy-meth-amphetamine (MDMA), or Ecstasy, to pass through the U.S. Port of Entry at San Luis without proper inspection.

In return for allowing the vehicles to pass from Mexico into the United States without proper inspection, the Gauanis were paid $33,000 in cash, the U.S. Attorney's office said.

During the course of the conspiracy, Henry Gauani arranged with Flora Gauani and a confidential informant to have vehicles loaded with Ecstasy arrive at his lane of inspection at the port, the U.S. Attorney's Office said in the news release.

When the vehicle passed into Gauani's inspection lane at the ports, he would allow the confidential informant’s vehicle to pass through his lane into the United States without proper inspection, the release said.

A complaint unsealed earlier this year in federal court alleges the couple were paid $8,000 to allow what they believed were 100,000 Ecstasy pills to pass through Henry Gauani's inspection lane at the port in December.

Those pills were fake pills provided by federal authorities as part of a surveillance operation targeting the couple, the complaint said.

They were arrested after a second shipment of what the Gauanis believed were an additional 500,000 Ecstasy pills were allowed to pass through Gauani's lane, the complaint said.

The Gauanis allegedly believed they were to be paid $25,000 for the second shipment.

The approximate street value of the 600,000 Ecstasy pills they thought were being smuggled into the U.S. is almost $11 million, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

The FBI used a confidential informant to set up the deals with the Gauanis in November and December after learning that an alien smuggling organization had previously bribed Henry Gauani to allow undocumented Chinese immigrants pass through the port in August, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.