EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Two alleged smugglers who tried to avoid arrest by driving at 95 miles per hour over a dark road in an SUV with the lights turned off are facing multiple felony charges.
A federal grand jury in Arizona this month charged Yoni Nemias Diaz Velasquez and Luis Estrada Gutierrez with several counts of conspiracy and transportation of illegal aliens for profit. Estrada faces an additional charge of illegal reentry after deportation.
The charges stem from an incident in which Border Patrol agents observed a Nissan Pathfinder come out of an unmanned highway checkpoint on State Route 86 at high speed and swerve around slower traffic in the pre-dawn hours of Sept. 25.
Border agents caught up to the vehicle and turned on their patrol unit’s flashing lights; the driver of the Pathfinder failed to stop, turned off the lights and allegedly continued to weave through traffic at high speeds.
Court records show border agents called off the pursuit at an access road to Interstate 10 out of caution. They requested assistance from agents further down the road, who set up a tire deflation device in an area with no visible traffic.
The device caught a tire on the fleeing vehicle, but the driver kept going. Records show the Pathfinder swerved to the wrong side of the road, nearly struck the barbed wire fence of a property and ended up in gravel pit off the shoulder.
Border agents reported seeing several individuals make their way out of the disabled vehicle and run. They apprehended seven, including the driver and his companion, and all turned out to be illegally present in the United States.
In an interview with federal investigators, Diaz allegedly said he was recruited by smugglers via social media to pick up five migrants near the Mexican border and drive them to Phoenix for $1,400 each. He admitted being the driver of the Pathfinder and allegedly stated he would have kept going had his vehicle not been disabled by the Border Patrol, a criminal complaint alleges.
After interviewing the migrants, investigators turned their attention to Estrada. The migrants allegedly identified him as the “foot guide” who had brought the group across the border and taken them to a pickup site. Court documents allege Estrada admitted to his role as a smuggling guide, said he would be paid $800 for his troubles and acknowledged previously being deported from the U.S. at Nogales, Arizona.
The two suspects face arraignment on Nov. 14 in U.S. federal court in Tucson, Arizona.
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