It was a busy weekend for border agents and smugglers.
Border Patrol agents caught smugglers moving humans. Border agents also caught them moving drugs.
But they also caught a garden-variety sex fiend.
All in all, it was another profitable few days for the agency, if profits are measured in apprehensions of people and dangerous drugs that aren’t supposed to be in the country.
Three Human Smugglers and a Pervert
On Monday just after midnight, officers at the Calexico Port of Entry in California apprehended a 30-year-old American man in a 2010 Chevy Aveo.
As he awaited inspection, Customs and Border Protection reported, a “human and narcotics detector dog” caught a whiff of something familiar. Further inspection revealed a 43-year-old Mexican woman hidden behind the dashboard of the subcompact car.
The American landed in jail for human smuggling.
Border Patrol officers caught two more smugglers with 10 illegal Mexicans in the Yuma Sector on Arizona’s border on Friday and Saturday.
Late Friday night, the agency reported, officers stopped a white Ford Fusion on Interstate 10 and found four Mexican illegals ages 18 through 30. The driver, 21, was a lawful permanent resident who didn’t appear to care much for American immigration laws. Border Patrol locked up the unlawful lawful permanent resident for smuggling, and lodged immigration violations against the others.
Six hours later, at a little after 4 a.m., agents stopped another vehicle on Interstate 10. This time, the driver was an American citizen with six illegal Mexicans in the car. The driver was charged with smuggling, the Mexicans with illegal entry.
Most illegals these days, however, are not Mexicans. They’re Central Americans, and smugglers are increasingly daring in trying to sneak those illegals, many bused to the border, into the country.
Knowing that border authorities will not detain families and instead release them to disappear, illegals “rent” children from other illegals to establish a fake family. Smugglers also recycle children; i.e., they place them in a family to cross the border, then take them south again for another crossing with another “family.”
Anyway, while the illegal Mexicans caught in the last few days had already entered the country and might have just gotten away, a man suspected of molesting a child was stupid enough to enter the country at the port at Columbus, New Mexico.
Agents collared the mismonikered Angel Jesus Esquivel, 25, whom authorities in Otero County wanted for fondling a child, a little after 8 a.m. on Thursday, CBP reported. At the port of entry, agents looked at his documents and then learned he was wanted on the fondling charge.
CBP did not divulge the man’s nationality.
Weekend Drug Haul Tops $1M Again
The biggest drug haul was Saturday night’s bonanza at the Port of San Luis, Arizona.
A 30-year-old Mexican woman, driving a Honda Van, CBP reported, tried sneaking into the country with 55 pounds of meth worth $164,000, nearly 26 pounds of cocaine worth more than $620,000, and another 2.5 pounds of marijuana valued at more than $68,000. The 60 packages of drugs were stashed throughout the vehicle. A canine inspection turned up the drugs.
That bust followed a much smaller haul earlier the same day. A 20-year-old “Mesa woman” tried smuggling in 23 pounds of meth worth $70,000, and two pounds of fentanyl worth $21,000. She hid the drugs in the trunk and quarter panels of her Honda sedan.
On Friday, border agents nailed a 23-year-old “Yuma resident” when he tried to enter the county with 80 packages of methamphetamine weighing more than 86 pounds and worth $259,000, the agency reported. A canine inspection disclosed the drug in his Honda sedan’s doors and quarter panels.
Not that Hondas are the vehicle of choice for drug smugglers.
At California’s Calexio port on Friday, CBP reported, border agents used their imaging system to nail a 21-year-old American in a Ford Ranger. The system “detected anomalies in the roof area of the camper shell.” Officers found 56 pounds of methamphetamine wrapped in 24 packages hidden in a customized compartment. Value: $90,000.
On Saturday, officers collared a 25-year-old Mexican and “legal permanent resident” in a Jeep SUV. An inspection revealed “tampering around the transmission housing of the vehicle.” Officers called in the canine team, which sniffed out 17 pounds of heroin in 16 packages, worth $130,000, jammed inside the transmission.
Photo: AP Images
