CHULA VISTA, Calif. _ Two Tijuana police officers are facing conspiracy charges after allegedly trying to steal $1 million from a Chula Vista home, authorities confirmed Wednesday.
FBI agents arrested the police officers last week, after they allegedly met with an undercover agent at a Kohl's store and then drove to a Chula Vista home where they believed there would be $1 million inside to steal, according to charging documents released by the San Diego County District Attorney's Office.
An FBI spokeswoman identified the two Tijuana police officers as Jesus Estrada Torres and Marco Castillo Quijas. She said they appeared in a San Diego Superior Court on Tuesday for an arraignment and were facing various charges.
A spokesman for the DA's office, who also confirmed two of the six defendants in the case were Tijuana police officers, said they entered "not guilty" pleas to conspiracy to commit robbery and conspiracy to commit residential burglary, with firearm enhancement linked to those charges.
According to the complaint, Estrada Torres and Castillo Quijas did not have guns with them during the incident, but others with them did. Therefore, state law allows the pair to be charged with gun-use allegations under a theory that they were "vicariously" armed during the commission of a crime.
The district attorney spokesman said they face 10 years in prison if convicted of the charges.
The police officers were ordered held in lieu of $1 million bail at an arraignment Tuesday.
The Tijuana police department and the city's Secretary of Security and Municipal Citizen Protection issued a statement confirming the arrests, without naming the officers.
Their statement said the officers were facing serious charges in the United States.
Security and Citizen Protection Secretary Jorge Alberto Ayon Monsalve said the agency would not tolerate "bad elements" on the police force.
"(Ayon Monsalve) reiterates his commitment to require all the (police) elements to conduct themselves with rectitude and honor, both in their performance as officers and in their daily lives ...," according to a written statement he released Tuesday.
"(Ayon Monsalve) is also committed to collaborate with the authorities of the (United States), if necessary, and inform the press on any facts of interest ... as long as that does not interfere with the legal procedures or compromise investigations or affect the human rights of anyone involved."
The charging documents released by the district attorney's office state that Castillo and Torres provided countersurveillance as other members of their criminal team met unknowingly with an undercover FBI agent at a Kohl's in Chula Vista.
The group then drove to a home in Chula Vista where they believed there would be $1 million in cash to steal, according to the documents.
One of the defendants then entered a code into a lockbox that contained a key to enter the home, the documents state. The Tijuana police officers face charges with four other defendants whose names are: Ignacio Martinez Cruz, Mario Eugene Hall, Emmanuel Tomas Ramirez and Nicholas Jeremiah Shaw.
Tijuana's weekly investigative newspaper Zeta first reported on the officers' arrests. That article said the officers were allegedly in possession of drugs, their service weapons and their Tijuana police radios at the time of their arrest.
