A retired high-ranking U.S. immigration officer pleaded guilty Thursday in a Miami federal court to conspiracy to obstruct justice for helping members of a Mexican drug-trafficking organization evade arrest.
Prosecutors said Richard Cramer, who at one time was in charge of the Nogales office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, supplied smugglers with confidential law-enforcement background checks.
Cramer, 56, of Sahuarita, had originally faced three counts of cocaine smuggling, which were dropped in exchange for his guilty plea.
Felony obstruction carries a maximum 20-year prison sentence, but under the plea deal prosecutors will recommend Cramer, who is in custody in Florida, serve two years when he is sentenced on Feb. 18.
In court Thursday, prosecutors outlined their case against Cramer: In 2006, he was stationed as an attaché in Guadalajara, Mexico.
A Mexican money launderer hiding in Miami needed assurance that he was not being sought by authorities before returning to Mexico.
Drug traffickers reached out to Cramer, who arranged for law-enforcement background checks. Those showed the money launderer was not wanted.
Federal agents later moved in on the traffickers and found they had paper copies of the background checks. Those led agents back to Cramer, who was arrested in September.
The case began with an investigation by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency in Florida.
In the original criminal complaint, DEA agents accused Cramer of working with drug traffickers and investing up to $25,000 of his own money in a shipment of 300 kilograms of cocaine from Panama to Spain that was seized by agents.
Cramer's friends and relatives have remained stalwart in their defense of him, insisting he would never have intentionally broken the law.
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