Despite the fact that America’s southern border is wide open, illegal aliens are turning themselves into Border Patrol agents by the tens of thousands, and some are being offered court dates as far away as 2031, many illegal immigrants are still choosing the more expensive and dangerous path of being smuggled into the U.S. so as to avoid any contact with the authorities at all.
One recent smuggling attempt was unsuccessful when, on Saturday December 23, 2023 at approximately 12:49 a.m., members of the Safe Street Task Force of the Tombstone Marshal’s Office conducted a traffic stop on a 2017 Hyundai on Sumner and Fulton Street in Tombstone, Arizona.
Task Force members discovered that the driver, Felipa Cruz Avila, a 42-year-old from Somerton, and her passenger, Robert Stambaugh, age 38 from Phoenix, both US citizens, were transporting five undocumented aliens.
Avila and Stambaugh were booked into the Cochise County Jail on felony Human Smuggling charges and the five aliens were turned over to US Border Patrol for processing.