Steve Quayle News Alerts

September 10, 2002
By A.J. COOK

Veronica Brickey overheard a suspicious telephone conversation between her husband, Ronnie, and his uncle.

She asked him if he was doing "dirty business." Ronnie, a U.S. Border inspector, said, "I just had to close my eyes and I would get $15,000 per car."

Ronnie worked for the Immigration and Naturalization Service at the San Luis, Ariz., Port of Entry. For the prior seven years, he had been earning less than $32,000 a year, and his wife, Veronica, had been earning minimum wage. Then suddenly he started buying expensive items, including a new truck, many computer gadgets, a digital camera, a laptop computer, a new car and furniture.

Veronica overheard another telephone conversation Ronnie had with his uncle Pablo. Ronnie told him he was getting low and asked when were they going to be crossing more "tacos"? ... "Make sure there is someone across the border in the hotel watching me," she heard him say, "because they switch lanes every 30 minutes."

Once during a visit by Uncle Pablo, after he and her husband left the bedroom, she saw a drawer filled with packs of $20 and $50 bills. Another time, she saw her queen-size bed covered with money. And twice after Ronnie returned from taking his two sons to Mexico, she saw money in diaper bags she had given him to take with the children.

Later, after an argument with Ronnie, she went to the port of entry to talk to a supervisor. She told two government agents what Ronnie had been doing.

Then she left for California to visit her aunt. When she returned, Ronnie gave her a diamond bracelet. This took the starch out of her desire to be a good citizen. She signed a letter retracting what she said to the officials.

The Internal Revenue Service, however, began checking his tax return. An agent determined Ronnie's income by adding bank deposits with cash expenditures and subtracting what looked nontaxable. This amounted to $155,831 instead of the $31,415 Ronnie had reported.

He was charged with filing a false return and tax evasion.

In court, he denied allowing carloads of illegal drugs to enter the United States. He added that the extra money spent came from savings he had accumulated.

To no avail, however. He was convicted on both counts and ordered to pay $40,200 and serve 37 months in prison plus three years' supervised release.

(A.J. Cook, lawyer and accountant, is counsel with the Memphis law firm of Pietrangelo and Cook.)

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