Border Patrol agents assigned to the Yuma Sector Border Patrol Special Operations Detachment and the Yuma Sector Integrated Targeting Team intercepted a human smuggling attempt in which the driver was a previously convicted sex offender Monday evening.
At approximately 9:30 p.m. on Monday, four Mexican nationals illegally crossed the United States and Mexico International Boundary just west of Yuma. The four subjects loaded up into a blue 1996 Ford Explorer in the westbound lanes on Interstate-8. Agents performed a traffic stop on the vehicle and arrested all five subjects.
During processing, agents identified the driver as a 31-year-old male United States citizen from Thermal, California. He has numerous criminal convictions out of Riverside County, California to include taking a vehicle without the owner’s consent, possession of a controlled substance, battery on a spouse, as well as lewd and lascivious acts with a minor under 14.
The subject will be charged with bringing in and harboring certain aliens.