EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – A Pinal County resident is facing federal charges after mobilizing law enforcement officers and resources in two states in a failed alleged migrant-smuggling scheme.
U.S. Border Patrol agents in Douglas, Arizona, on Friday notified their counterparts in Lordsburg, New Mexico, about a beige 2000 Mitsubishi Gallant trying to circumvent highway checkpoints in areas of heavy smuggling activity.
A border agent spotted the Mitsubishi with Arizona license plates going north on New Mexico State Road 80 and started to follow it, federal court records show. The driver began to swerve the Mitsubishi across the center line of the road, slowed down and stopped when the agent activated his patrol vehicle’s emergency lights.
But the Mitsubishi sped off once the agent got down to conduct an inspection; records show the agent followed the suspect vehicle but terminated the pursuit when speeds became unsafe. A second Border Patrol agent set up a vehicle immobilization device farther down SR 80 in a spot where no vehicles were present on either side for at least 2 miles.
The device designed to avoid rollovers deflated three of the Mitsubishi’s four tires, bringing it to a stop. The driver, identified as Jarell Deangelo Zink, and a companion were arrested allegedly trying to hide inside the vehicle. Border agents called in a truck with a mounted camera and horse units to track four unauthorized non-citizens seen exiting the vehicle and running into the desert brush, records show.
Once in custody, Zink allegedly told investigators he was released from prison recently and needed money. He said he was transporting unauthorized migrants from the border to Phoenix because “everybody else was doing it,” according to a complaint affidavit filed on Monday in U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico.
Zink allegedly said he got nervous when the first Border Patrol vehicle got behind the Mitsubishi because he and his companion “were smoking weed” and the car’s interior strongly smelled of marijuana.
Authorities also questioned the companion who said Zink invited her on a trip “to pick up some people.” Federal authorities have not identified the female nor charged her.
Zink appeared before a federal magistrate judge in Las Cruces, New Mexico, on Monday on a charge of conspiracy to transport illegal aliens. His detention hearing is scheduled for Thursday.
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