A man from Mexico, Jorge Zazueta-Miranda, was sentenced last week by US District Judge Rosemary Márquez to 90 months in prison after pleading guilty to Assault on a Federal Officer with a Dangerous Weapon on June 23, 2023.
Zazueta-Miranda’s sentence is to run consecutive to a previous Illegal Re-Entry of a Removed Alien conviction and sentence from New Mexico.
According to the Department of Justice, on April 1, 2020, U.S. Border Patrol agents near Douglas observed two yellow, cloned “construction” trucks with construction company logos on the sides. Agents stopped one truck, which contained 19 undocumented non-citizens.
The second truck, driven by Zazueta-Miranda, failed to stop and sped up. Zazueta-Miranda drove at high speeds through the city of Douglas to the airport area, then continued along the border road into the rugged desert area. A Border Patrol agent attempted to intercept the truck, but Zazueta-Miranda deliberately turned towards the agent’s vehicle and collided with it striking the rear quarter panel. Zazueta-Miranda backed up and then drove towards a break in the U.S. border wall, striking a second agent’s vehicle.
Zazueta-Miranda and several undocumented non-citizens jumped out of the truck and fled through the break in the border wall, successfully fleeing into Mexico. Agents recovered a latent print from the driver’s side door belonging to Zazueta-Miranda. A witness, who had been abandoned in the second cloned construction truck, identified Zazueta-Miranda, by a photo, as the driver, and an arrest warrant was issued.
Almost two years later, on February 9, 2022, Zazueta-Miranda was arrested in New Mexico after being caught near the New Mexico – Mexico border.