Murrieta ICE agent allegedly arrested for helping man get into US w/ organized crime ties

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- A 10-year veteran with ICE and Murrieta resident was arrested on suspicion of helping a person barred from entering the U.S. back into the country.

Federal authorities arrested 42-year-old Felix Cisneros Wednesday afternoon. Cisneros was assigned to the Homeland Security Investigations Inland Empire Office.

A complaint filed against him alleges that he helped a man who was a legal permanent resident in the U.S. get back into the country. The man had previous felony convictions and was subsequently barred from entering again.

The complaint suggests that Cisneros took steps to get the man back into the states because he was acting on the request of a local organized crime unit with business interests in Mexico.

The man he helped was also employed by the organized crime unit to negotiate with a Mexican company. The complaint said the crime group asked Cisneros to help the man get back into the country after a trip to Mexico in 2013.

Cisneros is suspected of getting the man's passport that had been seized months earlier when he had attempted to reenter the states. He then facilitated the reentry at Los Angeles International Airport.

The complaint alleges that Cisneros convinced officers with U.S. Customs and Border Patrol to return the man's passport and readmit him "likely through deception."

Cisneros faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison if convicted on the felony charges.