Yesterday two Border Patrol agents working the Arizona-Mexico border were indicted of violating the civil rights of four convicted drug smugglers in an incident that occurred back in November of 2008.
Agents Dario Castillo and Ramon Zuniga stopped four men suspected of drug smuggling across the border. However, instead of simply arresting the men who were in the country illegally, the agents then proceeded to ask the men to take their clothes off. The agents then burned the clothes and demanded that the Mexican nationals eat the marijuana they were carrying and made them flee into the cold desert night, barefoot and semi-naked.
U.S. prosecutors saw this as unreasonable search and seizure, which is a violation of someone’s civil rights.
Both men if convicted fact up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
