YUMA — Border Patrol agents working in Dome Valley noticed a vehicle traveling east on Old Highway 80 early Tuesday morning, possibly to evade the Interstate 8 Immigration Checkpoint.
When the Wellton Station agents performed an immigration stop of the vehicle, a white Chevrolet Silverado, at about 6:30 a.m., they found three illegal aliens from Mexico lying in the rear of the SUV, said a release from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
The driver, a 25-year-old male U.S. citizen from Stanton, Calif., was wearing a reflective worker’s vest in an attempt to blend in with local work traffic while driving around the checkpoint. He was arrested on a preliminary charge of alien smuggling.
The three Mexican nationals are 20, 23 and 35 years of age.
Old Highway 80, a frontage road just north of Interstate 8, is commonly used by smuggling organizations to evade detection at the checkpoint east of Yuma, the CBP release said.
On Wednesday, CBP tweeted out a stunning video showing illegal aliens surrendering to agents in the Yuma Sector:
#USBP #YumaSector camera operators observe a group of 123 illegal aliens surrendering to agents after crossing vehicle barriers near Yuma last Friday. Yuma continues to apprehend an average of 100 – 200 Central Americans per day. @CBP #NationalSecurity #SouthwestBorder pic.twitter.com/U0S8cjNvsv
— CBP Arizona (@CBPArizona) January 30, 2019
