Former federal agent who took bribes from organized crime is jailed

A former federal agent in Murrieta was sentenced Monday to 10 years in prison for accepting bribes to help an organized crime figure by providing updates on investigations and suppressing information from a database. government data, prosecutors said.

Felix Cisneros Jr., 48, was also ordered to pay a $30,000 fine and lose $133,000. He was found guilty in May of 30 crimes: 26 counts of money laundering, one count of bribery, one count of conspiring to bribe a public official and two counts of submitting a false tax return.

The charges stem from an 18-month period beginning in September 2015 during which Cisneros was employed as a special agent by Homeland Security Investigations.

“Cisneros accepted cash, checks, private jet travel, luxury hotel stays, meals and other valuables from a person … who was associated with a criminal organization,” according to the office. of the United States Attorney for the Central District of California. The person was only identified as “Individual 1”, and the organization was not disclosed.

Cisneros received about $100,000 in checks and gifts from the person and returned multiple favors in return, prosecutors said.

In one incident, Cisneros accessed a government database and deleted “derogatory information” about a German national.

He placed an alert in a law enforcement database for an address associated with an illegal marijuana grow operation, allowing him to learn of law enforcement’s interest in the operation and to notify the Individual 1.

He gathered information about an associate of Individual 1 whose home had been raided by law enforcement and provided Individual 1 with information about the investigation.

Cisneros also obtained an official letter from the Department of Homeland Security which allowed Individual 1’s brother-in-law to be paroled in the United States from Mexico, then provided updates on the status of the brother-in-law’s asylum application.