Last week, Blythe Border Patrol agents responded to a request for assistance from the La Paz County Sheriff’s Office and discovered a smuggling event. Two smugglers were attempting to transport nine migrants from Phoenix to Los Angeles when they were stopped by the sheriff’s office on Highway 72 near Bouse, Arizona.
A record checks conducted on the migrants revealed that one of the smugglers, Efrain Noe Velasco-Palacios, is a convicted sex offender. Velasco-Palacios was convicted in Bakersfield, California, in 2015 for lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14 and sex with a child three years or younger and sentenced to 52 months in prison.
Velasco-Palacios was formally removed from the U.S. and returned to Mexico in May of 2018.
Velasco-Palacios will face prosecution for reentry of a previously removed alien with an enhancement for being an aggravated felon, which could result in a longer sentence if convicted.
All of the vehicle occupants were unlawfully present in the United States and they were arrested.