MCALLEN – A former McAllen Border Patrol agent is pleading guilty to making a false statement involving a drug seizure.

The Department of Justice said law enforcement learned a load of cocaine Border Patrol seized in 2007 may have been staged with diluted narcotics to allow drug traffickers to steal the original narcotics.

Prosecutors said 49-year-old Eduardo Bazan admitted to receiving $8,000 for helping the drug traffickers stage the seizure.

Bazan could be sentenced to prison for five years.