A 20-year veteran of law enforcement, John Carman is in what he calls "the real war on drugs: fighting corruption within the US Customs Department."

Carman, who began his career in the White House Secret Service, became an inspector with US Customs/San Diego in 1983. He was proud to be going to the frontlines, where the movement of drugs into the United States could be stopped. He was soon a top-rated inspector, nabbing drug couriers before they could deliver their deadly goods.

But Carman's job evaluations suddenly took a dive when he reported to his superiors about corruption within his department. Carman broke ranks when his many reports of illegal activity within the agency were ignored. When, for example, he showed a supervisor a memo from a ranking Customs official which allowed 167 Mexican nationals to transit—without inspection—through the San Diego Customs district, the supervisor agreed that the order was illegal. But the only action he took was to throw the memo in the trash.

Later, when Carman supported allegations made by a former Customs inspector, he became a marked man: a whistleblower. He was threatened with dismissal on trumped up charges which proved baseless. His car has been tampered with on more than one occasion. He's heard people trying to break into his house.

When border inspectors get sick from spending endless hours in clouds of carbon monoxide, they are moved to less toxic locations; when Carman got sick, he was told to stand his ground or go home.

Just a few days before he was to return to work after sick leave, his car was broadsided near his home by a driver who was going over 50 in a 30 mph zone, headlights off, and never sounded his horn or braked before plowing into Carman's car. Despite the attempt on his life, Customs ordered him to fly across country to attend a training course, with no sidearm and no other security. When he refused, Carman was fired. His wrongful-termination suit is now in the courts.

Carman's ordeal has left him broke and sick but determined to go on. "I've got to do what I feel is right no matter what people think," he says. "It's important not for me, but for the people I'm sworn to protect." In a world where bribes and/or intimidation silence many challengers, John Carman is standing his ground.