EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Two San Diego residents returning from a trip to an Indian casino are facing federal felony charges after picking up “hitchhikers” near Ocotillo, California.
Alan Joseph Cunningham and Derek Paul Mayne were arrested last Tuesday along State Route 2 after their Ford Expedition allegedly made a U-turn as it came upon a U.S. Border Patrol highway checkpoint.
Border agents observed the maneuver, deemed it suspicious and followed the vehicle to a gas station in Ocotillo. The SUV appeared “heavily laden” in the back and both of its rear passenger-side windows appeared cracked, the agents reported.
When the Expedition entered Interstate 8, the agents stopped it to conduct an immigration check. Court records show an agent approached the vehicle and saw through one of the broken windows that someone was trying to duck down.
The agent interviewed the driver and front-seat passenger. They stated they were coming back from the Golden Acorn Casino in Campo, California, spotted hitchhikers in the middle of the road and “decided to give them a ride to San Diego.”
When pressed, Cunningham told the agent it was possible the hitchhikers were undocumented migrants, but that he didn’t think it was crime to give them a ride.
The two U.S. citizens and their six “hitchhikers” were taken to the Border Patrol’s El Centro Station, where the passengers admitted to being undocumented foreign nationals, one of them previously removed from the United States.
According to a criminal complaint filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, the migrants from the Mexican states of Oaxaca, Tlaxcala and Veracruz. They had paid or committed to pay between $10,000 and $20,000 to smugglers to take them to Tijuana and Mexicali and smuggle them into the U.S. From there, they were to be transported to jobs in Los Angeles, Chicago and other major cities in the interior of the country.
When asked why he had made a U-turn at the checkpoint, Cunningham allegedly said it was because his vehicle was not running well, and he needed to turn back to a town. He added that now he knows that it’s a crime to transport migrants unlawfully present in the country.
The complaint further states that Cunningham has previous criminal convictions stemming from the sale of narcotics and leading authorities on a high-speed chase.
Mayne also has previously been convicted for possession of narcotics, according to the complaint.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office has charged Cunningham and Mayne with transportation of illegal aliens. One of the migrants was charged for re-entry into the United States after deportation.
Arraignment for the Americans is set for Sept. 9 before U.S. Magistrate Judge Lupe Rodriguez Jr. in El Centro, Calif.
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