A former U.S. Border Patrol agent from Chula Vista was sentenced April 25 to 70 months in federal prison for attempting to distribute methamphetamine and cocaine in two incidents.
The prosecutor sought an 84-month term for Noe Lopez, 37, while his attorney, Robert Boyce, asked for a 3-year term.
“Mr. Lopez has suffered and will suffer for who he is in prison,” said Boyce, adding that he has experienced “anguish and disgrace” for the loss of his job he had for many years.
Lopez apologized to the judge and “everybody here, my family and friends,” some of whom were his former colleagues sitting in the audience in San Diego. He added: “I regret…I know all the damage I’ve done.”
U.S. District Court Judge Dana Sabraw said he had to impose the 5 year, 10 month sentence as a result of Lopez’s “betrayal of trust” in the Dec., 2016 incidents. Sabraw said this activity was like “a cancer on the rule of law.”
“You used your position as a Border Patrol agent,” said Sabraw, calling it “very, very serious.”
The judge said Lopez picked an area where there were no surveillance cameras and once used his patrol vehicle to pick up a backpack that he believed contained illegal drugs.
“Ultimately you allowed these other matters, financial…to commit these crimes,” said Sabraw. “Society cannot tolerate it. There has to be significant punishment.”
Lopez pleaded guilty to attempting to distribute meth and cocaine because the substances in the back packs were fake. A confidential informant, whom Lopez happened to meet at a party in San Ysidro in October 2016, was part of a sting operation.
Lopez became friendly with the informant, and texted messages back and forth. They also drank together, his lawyer said. Lopez later wondered if he had been deliberately set up, according to defense documents.
However, Lopez was paid $3,000 in cash after smuggling one backpack and $7,000 in cash after the second smuggling attempt.
“The defendant was preparing for a third smuggling event that very day (of his arrest),” said Assistant U.S. Attorney David Leshner. “The defendant’s involvement in smuggling was going to continue.”
Leshner told the judge Lopez thought he was smuggling six pounds of methamphetamine in one incident. Lopez and the informant met at a Chula Vista restaurant and later at a strip mall in Chula Vista to discuss the arrangements.
Lopez was the former owner of Main Street Bar & Grill in Chula Vista from 2013-2015 before it went out of business. He also was in the U.S. Marine Corps, which the judge said he served honorably for 4-5 years.
“He had many years of good service in the Border Patrol,” said Sabraw.
Lopez has been in the Metropolitan Correctional Center since his arrest in Dec., 2016 and will get credit for that time against the 70 months. The judge ordered forfeiture of his 2011 GMC Yukon vehicle since Lopez used it for one smuggling venture. Lopez was also photographed coming out of a Walmart store where he purchased the new backpacks for the smuggling area near the border.
“This is a fitting sentence for a law enforcement agent who, instead of policing drug traffickers, joined them,” said U.S. Attorney Adam Braverman afterwards. “Noe Lopez will pay a high price for betraying his fellow agents and his badge.”
“The arrest and subsequent guilty plea by former Border Patrol agent Noe Lopez tarnished the badge that our agents wear proudly and professionally represent every day,” said Rodney Scott, San Diego Sector Chief Patrol agent.
“Noe Lopez is the anomaly; he does not represent the professionalism, honor and distinction that Border Patrol agents exhibit everyday safeguarding our nation,” said Scott.
