EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Three U.S. citizens who allegedly sent a migrant to pick up eight foreign nationals from the brush in southern Arizona are facing federal conspiracy charges.
The arrests of Anthony Joseph Gavarone, Harlan Dawson Sorkin and Hector Solis came after border agents near Rio Rico witnessed the aborted pick-up of unauthorized migrants by a man driving a black pickup truck pulling a trailer.
Court records show a man later identified as Solis allegedly yelled a keyword for the migrants to get in the trailer and hide under wood, cardboard and a tarp. One of the migrants being held as a material witness in the case said the pickup drove a short distance, stopped and the driver told everyone to get out. The man allegedly told them Border Patrol agents were in the area watching the vehicle and taking pictures, records show.
The migrants waited an hour for Omar Osuna Armenta – an undocumented migrant himself – to show up in a Chrysler 300 sedan and fit the eight of them in the car. Records show the vehicle was so packed that Osuna Armeta placed three women in the group inside the trunk.
Border agents followed the Chrysler to a home near the West Frontage Road of Interstate 19 in Rio Rico. They allegedly saw Sorkin come out and talk to the driver. Agents moved in and got the migrants out of the car, but Sorkin allegedly told them he was just giving directions to someone who parked at his home. Court records show Osuna Armenta contradicted Sorkin and told agents he needed to retrieve his backpack from inside the house where he had been staying for the past week after illegally crossing the border.
A second man at the home, later identified as Gavarone, came out to speak with agents and consented to them searching the home; the agents allegedly saw two additional undocumented migrants trying to exit the back door.
Records show agents took the migrants into custody and located the black pickup with a trailer nearby. Solis came out of that home and initially told agents he did not own the truck. He later admitted ownership but said he only drove to the brush to pick up wood and that no one approached his truck while he was there.
A federal criminal complaint filed March 1 in U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona charges Solis, Sorkin, Gavarone and Osuna Armenta with conspiracy to transport and harbor illegal aliens. The suspects made an initial appearance in federal court on Monday. Depositions for five undocumented migrants being held as material witnesses in the case are scheduled for March 29 and April 1.
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