Ex-federal agent arrested on suspicion of accepting bribes

A former Homeland Security Investigations special agent from Murrieta was arrested Tuesday after accepting cash and other benefits to help someone linked to organized crime, the Department of Justice announced.

Felix Cisneros Jr., 46, the ex-agent, faces charges of conspiracy to commit bribery of a public official, bribery and 26 counts of money laundering, federal prosecutors said. Apart from accepting money, authorities say, Cisneros also worked to help two foreign nationals enter the United States.

The February 16 indictment was unsealed Tuesday and detailed how over 18 months, beginning in

September 2015, Cisneros accepted cash, checks, luxury hotel stays, private jet travel, meals and other goods from a person who was associated with a criminal organization, according to spokesman Thom Mrozek.

That person allegedly gave the former agent at least $122,000 in 2015 and 2016, Mrozek said.

In return for the bribes, Cisneros used a Department of Homeland Security database to remove “derogatory information” about a German national, officials said. Cisneros also used the database to alert himself to any law enforcement interest in an illegal marijuana growing operation so he could warn the person bribing him.

Cisneros also obtained an official Department of Homeland Security letter allowing the parole of the brother in-law of the person who bribed him so he could enter the United States from Mexico, Mrozek said. Cisneros later advised the briber about the status of the brother-in-law’s asylum application, according to prosecutors.

The former agent also gave the briber information about an investigation involving an associate, authorities said.

For the conspiracy charge, Cisneros may face up to five years in federal prison. The bribery charge carries a sentence of up to 15 years and each money laundering charge can result in a maximum sentence of 20 years, authorities said.