A former U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer was sentenced Friday to 23 years in prison for accepting bribes to allow undocumented immigrants and illegal drugs to pass through the San Ysidro Port of Entry, according to federal prosecutors.

U.S. District Judge Todd Robinson imposed the sentence after the jury prisoner Leonard Darnell George, 42, was indicted earlier this year on allegations that he accepted bribes as a public official, conspired to import methamphetamine and twice conspired to bring undocumented immigrants into the United States.

George joined CBP in 2018 after previously working for CoreCivic, the private prison company that operates the Otay Mesa Detention Center.

“Public corruption, as in this case, is a betrayal of trust that erodes the fundamental principles of law enforcement and undermines the public’s perception of those who are held to higher standards,” said Shawn Gibson, special agent in charge of Homeland Security investigations in San. Diego said in a press release on Friday.

George’s attorney, Antonio Yoon, said in a sentencing brief filed with the court last week that his client, a U.S. Navy veteran and married father of four, did not know or have control over the amount or purity of the drugs brought.

“As the Bible teaches us, justice must be tempered with mercy,” Yoon said in the note.

The court ultimately rejected Yoon’s argument that a 10-year prison sentence would be sufficient punishment.

Federal prosecutors told a jury earlier this year that George began committing crimes in the fall of 2021 after meeting two traffickers at the Hong Kong Gentleman’s Club, a Tijuana strip club known to offer prostitution.

In exchange for cash, George told smugglers when he was working and which lane the vehicle was in when it entered the United States from Mexico, prosecutors said.

A plea agreement by one of George’s co-defendants stated that smugglers would send four or five vehicles full of drugs or undocumented immigrants George’s way every shift he worked. The co-defendant also estimates that approximately 300 undocumented immigrants entered the United States via George’s route.

Prosecutors said George was known among smugglers as “The Goalkeeper” and allowed smugglers to cross the border at least 19 times between October 2021 and June 2022, netting about $300,000 to $400,000.

Prosecutors said George used the bribe money to buy vehicles, motorcycles and jewelry. During his regular visits to the Hong Kong Gentlemen’s Club, he spent about $5,000 per trip and was seen “showering money” on the club’s dancers, prosecutors said.

At one point during the trial, prosecutors proved George’s connection to the criminal operation by showing a photo of one of the smugglers wearing George’s CBP uniform jacket, authorities said.

Prosecutors also showed text messages and audio recordings between George’s wife and a high-ranking member of the drug trafficking group discussing her husband’s payment.