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An immigration agent probing a South American migrant smuggling network was charged with accepting kickbacks from a paid federal informant.A federal undercover agent investigating an Ecuadorean-Chinese smuggling ring accepted cash kickbacks and other gifts from a paid U.S. government informant involved in the probe of the illegal migrant network, according to an indictment unsealed Monday.

Veteran Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Pedro Cintron, 52, is charged with taking $8,300 -- along with a gold bracelet and cellphones worth about $2,000 -- from the unidentified informant who worked with him in 2004 and 2005.

Cintron, who lives in Weston, also accepted $12,000 from a Chinese smuggler based in Ecuador as a down payment for bringing illegal migrants into the United States in late 2005, according to the indictment.

In addition to accepting illegal gratuities, Cintron is charged with theft, disclosing the name of a confidential informant and making false statements to authorities in the 14-count indictment. He was arrested Friday.

Bond was set at $200,000 for Cintron, whose wife, mother and other relatives attended a federal hearing Monday. His arraignment is scheduled for Dec. 5.

His attorney, Brian Tannenbaum, said he did not want to comment because he had not reviewed the indictment. He said his client, who is on paid suspension from ICE, would plead not guilty.

If convicted of all charges, Cintron faces a maximum sentence of 57 years in prison.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Clark said Cintron''s alleged kickback scheme unfolded in 2004 when he demanded a 10 percent cut of ICE''s $125,000 payment to the government informant helping the agency penetrate the migrant smuggling operation.

The informant introduced Cintron, whose undercover identity was ''''Jose,'''' to a Chinese national, Yongquan Fang, who lived in Ecuador. In October 2004, the ICE agent negotiated with Fang to transport several Chinese migrants to the United States at a cost of $88,000.

After the smuggler wired the money to an ICE undercover bank account, a federal grand jury in Miami indicted Fang and four others in a migrant smuggling-for-profit case.

In July 2005, Cintron negotiated another smuggling deal with Fang to send three more Chinese migrants to the United States -- this time for $85,000.

By year''s end, the undercover ICE agent solicited and accepted $12,000 from Fang as the down payment to transport four additional Chinese migrants into this country.

''''Pedro Cintron did not document this payment . . . in any report of the investigation,'''' according to the indictment.

As the smuggling investigation unfolded, Cintron asked the government informant for certain financial favors, said Clark, the prosecutor. Among them: The ICE agent instructed the informant to deliver $300 to Cintron''s girlfriend in Ecuador. In addition, the informant gave Cintron a gold bracelet valued at $800 and obtained cellular telephones valued at $1,000 for the girlfriend in Ecuador.

And as Cintron paid the informant for his insider tips in what was known as ''''Operation Palmdale,'''' the government source in turn kicked back $3,000, then $5,000 and finally $300 to the undercover agent.

According to the indictment, Cintron committed further unlawful acts: He told an ''''unauthorized individual'''' the identity of the informant and revealed that Fang, the Chinese smuggler, was wanted on federal charges in Miami.

In 2007, Cintron lied three times to ICE officials that the informant had not been in contact with Fang, who by then was a federal fugitive wanted in Miami, according to the indictment.

Cintron, who has worked as a federal agent for more than 25 years, is also charged with obstruction of justice for impeding the arrest of Fang. The Chinese smuggler pleaded guilty to a smuggling conspiracy charge in October, and was sentenced to one year in prison.