The Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General recently announced court activity in two trucking-related crime investigations. Here’s a summary of what happened with each:
Arizona motor carrier border inspector charged with bribery
Claudio Estrada, a border inspector with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, was indicted July 27 on charges of bribery.
OIG’s investigation found that Estrada accepted $1,000 in 2012 from a man he suspected of being a drug trafficker and provided assistance with illegal smuggling operations through the Naco, Ariz., port of entry, OIG says.
Estrada was arrested July 28 for accepting the bribe, and he has been suspended from work pending the outcome of the Nov. 15 trial.
Ohio man pleads guilty to creating, providing false overweight permits
Shadd Hiles, doing business as Permit Guys Consulting in Crooksville, Ohio, pleaded guilty Aug. 4 to false statements and wire fraud.
OIG says Hiles came up with a scheme to defraud trucking companies by providing and billing customers for fraudulent overweight state permits. He had previously been charged via criminal complaint and arrested in February.
Permit Guys Consulting obtained overweight state permits required for the trucking companies along their route, but Hiles defrauded these companies by providing falsified overweight permits issued by the Wisconsin DOT and Illinois DOT, according to the OIG, between May 2012 and December 2015.
