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Customs officer pleads guilty to bribery
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Posted on Dec 29 1999
A former customs officer yesterday pled guilty to bribery charges filed against him by the government in connection with a cigarette smuggling discovered by authorities seven months ago.
Antonio Santos Reyes was sentenced to three years probation in the Superior Court, a much lower penalty than what he would have received on charges of bribery and misconduct in public office stemming from payoffs he received from the cigarette smugglers.
Mr. Reyes earlier pled not guilty to the two charges which carry a maximum of six years imprisonment and $6,000 in fines. With the change in plea, he will have to be placed on supervised probation for three years, pay a fine of $6,220 and serve a195-hour community work.
Two other custom officers — Benjamin S. delos Reyes and Raymond Borja, are facing similar charges after they were linked to the incident when they allowed four Koreans to bring in goods without paying taxes to the CNMI government.
Chan Ho Park, Hyun Chol Cho, Keun Ja Hwang and Moon Ho Kim violated customs regulations when they illegally sneaked in cartons of cigarettes for sale on the island.
According to government informants, certain customs officers allowed the entry of these goods in exchange for money received from the Koreans.
