Two Border Patrol agents were convicted Wednesday by a federal court jury of assault, evidence tampering, weapons charges and civil-rights violations in the February 2005 shooting of an admitted drug smuggler, the El Paso Times reported today on its Web site.

The agents, Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean, face a minimum of 10 years in prison for shooting Osvaldo Aldrete Davila in the buttocks as he ran toward Mexico near Fabens, Texas, and failing to report the shooting to their superiors, according to the Times.

From a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years for the gun charge, the agents could be sentenced up to life in prison on the civil rights charge, prosecutors told the paper.

After a two-week trial in El Paso, jurors deliberated for two days this week before returning the guilty verdicts on Wednesday. The men were acquitted of assault with intent to commit murder, the Times reported.

Robert W. Gilbert, chief patrol agent for the Border Patrol's El Paso sector and the men's boss, said in a statement issued Wednesday that the agents "chose to violate the trust of the citizens they swore to protect," the paper reported.

"The jury spoke pretty loudly," chief prosecutor Assistant U.S. Attorney Debra Kanof told the Times. "It's very important that we police our own."

Defense lawyers told the paper that the government had offered the agents a plea bargain requiring 18 months prison just a month ago.

"How did it go from a five-day suspension without pay to a federal indictment?" asked defense attorney Mary Stillinger. "How did the system go that wrong?"

Aldrete, who has admitted to smuggling drugs, also plans to sue the Border Patrol over the incident, according to earlier reports.

The Associated Press also has an account of the verdict. The AP reports that after the shooting agents found about 700 pounds of marijuana inside the van Aldrete was driving.

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