It’s not just a lack of walls or border security that’s driving the crisis at the southern border. It’s also sometimes the treachery of those who are supposed to protect us.

According to a news release by the Department of Justice, a former Border Patrol agent is set to spend over nine years behind bars after pleading guilty to charges that he accepted bribes to help drug traffickers smuggle their wares over the border.

“Robert Hall, 45, of La Feria, Texas, a former BPA, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Ewing Werlein Jr. of the Southern District of Texas, who also ordered Hall to pay a fine in the amount of $20,000. Hall pleaded guilty to one count of bribery on Sept. 14, 2018, which was unsealed today,” the news release from Friday stated.

“According to the plea documents, between 2004 and 2014, Hall, working with others including Daniel Hernandez, 46, of Roseville, California, facilitated the trafficking of illegal drugs, including marijuana, into the United States from Mexico on behalf of a drug trafficking organization (DTO),” it continued.

“In exchange for cash payments, he provided an individual in the DTO with CBP sensor locations, the locations of unpatrolled roads at or near the U.S.-Mexico border, the number of BPAs working in a certain area, keys to unlock CBP locks located on gates to ranch fences along the border and CBP radios.

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“In total, Hall accepted over $50,000 in cash from the DTO in exchange for using his position as a BPA to enable the DTO’s drug shipments to cross the border into Texas without law enforcement detection.

“Daniel Hernandez pleaded guilty Feb. 5 to one count of conspiracy to bribe a public official before U.S. Magistrate Judge Nancy K. Johnson in the Southern District of Texas,” the release added.

“Sentencing has been scheduled for May 9, before U.S. District Judge Gray H. Miller, who accepted the plea on Feb. 8.”

According to ABC News, Hernandez also worked for Customs and Border Protection, albeit as a nurse.

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“In one instance, Hernandez was paid $500 for a map containing sensor locations and a copy of a key that opened CBP locks, according to court documents,” ABC News reported.

The crisis at the southern border doesn’t just involve illegal immigration, mind you, and this case is proof of that.

Consider the fact that, according to the Department of Homeland Security, we’ve seen a double-digit increase in the amount of heroin, amphetamines and fentanyl coming over our southern border, including a 73 percent increase in fentanyl — the synthetic opioid most closely linked to the current drug epidemic.

And, instead of protecting our southern border from this kind of drug invasion, this man was actively facilitating it.

In many ways, things at our southern border are much worse than we think. If you want proof, just look at this.

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Do you think this is the only guy who’s helping Mexican drug lords get their product across the border?

Of course not.

A wall may not stop this, but getting serious on border security will. It’s well past time we did that — increasing our pressure on drug lords, human traffickers and, yes, building a wall.

It’s a package deal.

We ignore this sort of behavior at our own peril.

It’s time for our political parties to come together and make America safe again from people like Robert Hall.

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