EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – A judge has set a March 13 hearing for a man who allegedly tried to drive through a U.S. port of entry with eight migrants in the bed of a pickup truck.
The vehicle was in line for inspection at the San Ysidro, Calif., port of entry earlier this month when U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers conducted a surprise sweep with a dog trained to sniff out drugs, explosives and human cargo.
The canine alerted its handler to a black Ford pickup with California license plates driven by Luis Alberto Garcia Capistran, a Mexican national seeking entry under a U.S. visa.
Court documents show the officer called for the Anti-Terrorism Contraband Enforcement team, pried open a cover on the bed of the pickup and detected several individuals inside.
The team escorted the vehicle to a secondary inspection area where other CBP officers completely removed the bed cover and pulled the people hiding under it.
One was a Mexican man who served nine years in prison on a charge of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute heroin in the Northern District of California and has been deported from the U.S. on at least two occasions.
Three others were Chinese nationals headed to Los Angeles, Arkansas and New York.
Ranbin Lin, a native of Fujian, China, told authorities he gave Mexican smugglers a $50,000 deposit to get him across the border and would pay another $24,000 once he was reunited with his ex-wife in New York. He allegedly recognized Garcia as the man who picked him up at a hotel in Tijuana and took a picture of him prior to getting him and others onto the bed of the pickup, court records show.
Lin Lin, another native of Fujian, allegedly told investigators he paid $35,000 to Mexican smugglers to get him from Mexico to Arkansas, where he was going to work.
Jungie Lang told authorities his wife made the arrangements with Mexican smugglers, so he didn’t know how much she paid. He said he only was going a short distance to Los Angeles, court records show.
Garcia faces federal felony charges of aiding and abetting and bringing in aliens for financial gain. He has a March 13 preliminary hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Steve B. Chu in federal court in San Diego.
Marcelino Reyna Ceron is being held without bond to face federal charges of attempted entry after deportation.
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