WASHINGTON: A former U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer from Van Nuys was sentenced Monday to 37 months in federal prison for stealing checks from a mail facility and arranging to have an accomplice deposit them. Carlos Canjura, who had been a customs officer since 2008, was also ordered to pay $20,145 in restitution and to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on April 17.
Canjura, 54, was assigned to a U.S. Postal Service sorting facility in Torrance, where his duties included examining mail and parcels coming into the country for contraband, counterfeit goods, and possible fraudulent financial checks or credit cards. Canjura stole mail that contained traveler’s checks and third-party checks, which he gave to an accomplice to deposit into accounts at Bank of America, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The 2016 indictment against Canjura charged him with four counts each of bank fraud and possession of stolen mail.
