EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – A driver and a “foot guide” are facing federal charges after border agents stopped a subcompact sedan speeding away from the Arizona-Mexico border with 10 people inside.
U.S. Border Patrol camera operators spotted a 2021 Kia Rio with a single occupant approach the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge west of Nogales and follow a road towards the international boundary with Mexico. Federal court records show the vehicle reemerged 25 minutes later with multiple occupants inside.
Border agents intercepted the Kia on Tres Bellotas Road before it could get onto Interstate 19 heading to Tucson. Court records show the driver complied with instructions to stop the vehicle, but a front seat passenger tried to exit. The agents faced down the passenger and commanded him to raise his hands; he complied.
The Kia held another nine people including citizens of Guatemala, El Salvador and Mexico sitting on top of each other and some traveling inside the trunk. Only the driver had documents authorizing him to be in the United States legally, court records show.
In post-arrest interviews, two Central American women said they paid thousands of dollars to smugglers in Mexico to get them into Arizona and arrange for travel to the interior of the U.S. They identified the front seat passenger as the “foot guide” tasked by the smugglers with getting them across the border and leading them to the location of a waiting vehicle.
A federal complaint affidavit alleges Raul Eduardo Lopez Saavedra admitted to agents being promised $250 by smugglers for every migrant that reached his or her destination. He said he received detailed GPS coordinates on his cell phone of where to find the Kia, records show.
Driver Luis Roberto Pacheco Rubio allegedly told investigators he was offered a job over a social media platform by a smuggling “coordinator.” Pacheco said he was given directions to a stretch of border where he would pick up the migrants. Pacheco would receive $2,000 for each migrant who reached a destination not specified in court records.
Pacheco and Lopez are scheduled to appear at a Jan. 10 preliminary hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Maria S. Aguilera in Tucson to answer to charges of bringing into the country and transporting illegal aliens for profit stemming from the Dec. 23 incident.
The migrants have been placed in removal proceedings, except for two women being held as material witnesses.
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