A former Border Patrol agent, accused of lying about his citizenship, also smuggled immigrants in his official vehicle while on duty and was heard talking about smuggling drugs, a prosecutor said yesterday.

A federal judge ruled that Oscar Antonio Ortiz, 28, should remain in jail without bail to prevent him from fleeing to Mexico, where he was born.

“You are an illegal alien,” U.S. Magistrate Judge Anthony J. Battaglia told Ortiz. “You have no right to work here. You have no right to live here.”

In 2001, Ortiz, then a seaman aboard the Tarawa, an amphibious assault ship, was arrested in San Ysidro with two illegal immigrants in the back of a car he was driving, the prosecutor said.

The two immigrants told authorities they each paid $200 to enter the United States, but no charges were filed.

His prices have gone up, since then.

Beginning last fall, Ortiz worked with a Mexican immigrant smuggling ring, meeting up with smugglers on the border, Jennings said.

“He would pick up the illegal aliens, put them in his Border Patrol vehicle and move them further into the United States,” she said.

She said Ortiz did that about 10 times and was paid $1,000 to $1,500 per migrant.

Ortiz used a counterfeit birth certificate to get into the Navy and the Border Patrol. Both times, he went through a thorough background check, government style.

T.J. Bonner, who heads a labor union of Border Patrol agents, said the FBI used to perform background checks on prospective employees but turned that work over to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

“It’s a two-minute phone call to verify whether the number [on the birth certificate] matches the name,” said Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council. “Any rookie who is trained in immigration law could have figured that out.”