Border agent helped cartel smuggle drugs, migrants into US, feds say. He’s sentenced
A U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent was caught working with a cartel to smuggle drugs and unauthorized people across the U.S. Mexico Border through a Texas port, federal officials said.
Emanuel Isac Celedon, 37, was sentenced to 117 months, or 9.7 years in federal prison, prosecutors in the Southern District of Texas said in a March 28 news release. He was also ordered to pay $17,980.
He pleaded guilty to four counts of bringing an undocumented alien to the United States for financial gain, bribery and attempted importation of cocaine in two separate cases, federal officials said.
In a statement to McClatchy News, Celedon’s attorney Juan Guerra said, “Mr. Celedon is a good man that made a terrible mistake. He has acknowledged that mistake by pleading guilty and accepting responsibility for his actions. However, he will not be defined by his mistake but rather learn, grow, and become a better man from it.”
The border official was working at a port in Laredo in 2023 when he sought contacts with a Mexican organization known as the Cartel del Noreste, prosecutors said. In exchange for money, he helped the criminal organization smuggle drugs and unauthorized migrants across the border, officials said.
To carry out the smuggling, Celedon would tell Homero Romero-Hernandez, a 32-year-old Mexican national, his daily lane assignment at the Lincoln Juarez Port of Entry, officials said. Romero-Hernandez then gave that information to Jose Osvaldo Zapata-Vasquez, 25, who was also a Mexican national and had ties to the cartel, prosecutors said.
Finally, 22-year-old Beatris Guadalupe Martinez, a Texas resident, would drive the contraband or unauthorized people through Celedon’s lane to cross into the United States, prosecutors said.
Between September and November 2023, Celedon allowed Martinez’s vehicle across the border nine times without inspecting the passengers, prosecutors said. He also falsely entered information so Martinez could avoid a second, mandatory inspection, according to federal officials.
Celedon’s scheme was exposed through an undercover operation, federal officials said. The operation made Celedon believe he was allowing several kilograms of cocaine to cross the border into Texas in exchange for $6,000.
Celedon had $1,980 on him at the time of his arrest, according to prosecutors.
He, in addition to three co-defendants, were indicted in December 2023, according to court documents.
Zapata-Vasquez, Romero-Hernandez and Martinez were previously sentenced to 46, 36 and 42 months in prison, respectively, officials said.
Over 27,000 pounds of cocaine were seized at the U.S.-Mexico border in the 2023 fiscal year, according to Customs and Border Protection data. Just over 6,100 pounds of cocaine was seized in the first two months of 2025, according to the most recent data.
Celedon is currently in custody and is awaiting transfer to a federal prison.
Laredo is about a 160-mile drive southwest from San Antonio.
This story was originally published April 1, 2025 at 2:03 PM with the headline "Border agent helped cartel smuggle drugs, migrants into US, feds say. He’s sentenced."
