Corruption accusations up among U.S. border agents

The number of corruption-related investigations of U.S. Customs officials has more than tripled since 2006, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Sources told the paper that since the Customs force on the border has expanded so rapidly in the past five years, authorities have been more lenient about red flags that suggest applicants for Customs jobs might become drug smugglers themselves. One Customs agent was a former Mexican law enforcement officer who managed a nightclub linked to drug traffickers when he applied for--and got--the job. Read more about the corruption concerns here.