Drug Moles Infiltrate Border Patrol

The US Border Patrol has been stepping up its efforts to recruit agents and so have the Mexican cartels. Investigators say the traffickers, faced with tightened, high-tech security along the border, are trying to corrupt border agents any way they can and to plant their own people in jobs. The recent hiring spree has made it easier for the cartels to infiltrate the agency, officials say.

"There is so much hiring; if you have a warm body and pulse, you have a job," one investigator tells the New York Times. The problem has been magnified by the relaxation of the practice of not letting agents serve in the areas where they grew up. Officials say polygraph testing has helped weed out people with ties to drug gangs, but they can only afford to test 10% of recruits.
(More drug cartel stories.)