Drug Control: INS and Customs Can Do More To Prevent Drug-Related Employee Corruption

• NCJ Number: 179542
• Date Published: 1999
• Length: 64 pages
• Corporate Author: US Government Accountability Office
• Sale Source: NCJRS Photocopy Services; US Government Accountability Office
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Report to the Chairman, Caucus on International Narcotics Control

Annotation

This report presents findings from a review of the Immigration and Naturalization Service's (INS's) and Customs' efforts to address employee corruption on the southwest border.

Abstract

The objectives of this investigation were to determine the extent to which INS and Customs have and comply with policies and procedures for ensuring employee integrity; to identify and compare the Departments of Justice's and the Treasury's organizational structures, policies, and procedures for handling allegations of drug-related employee misconduct and determine whether the policies and procedures are followed; to identify the types of illegal drug-related activities in which INS and customs employees on the southwest border have been involved; and to determine the extent to which lessons learned from corruption cases closed in fiscal years 1992 through 1997 have led the changes in policies and procedures for preventing the drug-related corruption of INS and Customs employees. Some INS and Customs employees on the southwest border have engaged in a variety of illegal drug-related activities, including waving drug loads through ports of entry, coordinating the movement of drugs across the border, transporting drugs past Border Patrol checkpoints, selling drugs, and disclosing drug intelligence information. Both INS and Customs have policies and procedures for ensuring the integrity of their employees; however, neither agency is taking full advantage of its policies, procedures, and the lessons to be learned from closed corruption cases. These policies and procedures consist primarily of mandatory background investigations for new staff and 5-year reinvestigations of employees, as well as basic integrity training. Although the agencies generally completed background investigations for new employees by the end of their first year on the job, reinvestigations were typically overdue, in some instances by as many as 3 years. Appended summaries of closed cases in which INS or Customs employees were convicted of drug-related crimes (fiscal years 1992-97)