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Friday, March 29, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Grim Charges Against|Border Patrol Supervisor

SAN DIEGO (CN) - A Border Patrol supervisor was arrested on charges of using his position to have a legal resident arrested repeatedly for causing the agent's relative to be investigated on child rape charges in Mexico, federal prosecutors said.

The federal complaint against Border Patrol Supervisory Agent Martin Rene Duran was unsealed Friday, the day after Duran was arrested.

Also arrested and charged in the indictment is Duran's brother-in-law, Raymundo Estrada Figueroa, who is accused of raping the son of Duran's "target" for 2 years in Tijuana. Estrada was the boyfriend of the child's mother during the time of the alleged abuse, from 2010 and 2013, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

Duran, 46, of Chula Vista, is a supervisor at the Imperial Beach Border Patrol Station.

Estrada, 48, was arrested at his own home in Chula Vista. Both are being held for a detention hearing on Wednesday, the U.S. attorney said in a statement.

Duran's alleged target is a frequent border-crosser, identified in the indictment as R.C., to protect his son's identity.

According to the indictment, R.C., a Mexican national and legal U.S. resident with no criminal background, was sent to secondary inspection and detained five times at the San Ysidro border crossing in 2013 based on false alerts Duran entered into the system.

Duran's alerts said, among other things, that R.C. was "known to carry firearms," and was "associated with recent threats to CBP [Customs and Border Patrol] personnel," according to the indictment and the U.S. attorney's statement.

Duran is charged with five counts of unlawful deprivation of liberty under color of law and falsification of records. He faces up to 26 years in federal prison. He is charged in a separate indictment with illegal transportation of firearms: buying guns in Arizona and swearing he was an Arizona resident, though he lived in California.

Estrada, charged with two counts of traveling from the United States to Mexico to engage in illicit sexual conduct, could be sentenced to life.

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