3 charged for human smuggling after impressing border agents in Yuma, says Feds

Yuma, AZ (Azfamily) – Three men are now facing federal accusations of leaving border agents and transporting undocumented immigrants to a stash house in a Yuma district.

The human smugglers managed to fly under the radar by hiding as US border patrol agents and used cloned vehicles identical to those used by customs and border protection.

The residents of the neighborhood said that Stash House is a short -term rent and that they had no idea it was used to hide dozens of illegal immigrants.

According to the federal complaint, Uriel Perez-Carda’s, Jovani Sanchez-Cortez and Kevin Valdez Ramirez smelled people from Mexico through a gap in the border wall and used a white Ford-pick-up to transport them.

The truck was equipped with cloned border patrol plates and was modified to resemble one of the office’s K-9 vehicles.

Agents first discovered the truck back in December. At that time, the investigators placed a tracking unit on it, which eventually led them to a stash house where at least 24 individuals hid.

Investigators also discovered green clothes similar to border patrol uniforms.

Border Patrol agents in Yuma said they could not comment on this active case, but the police in San Luis said that this shows that creativity used by man smugglers today.

San Luis Police Lt. Emmanuel Botello said he is afraid that this type of crime will be more frequent with President Trump’s immigration recovery as it will be more challenging for asylum seekers and refugees to enter the United States legally.

“It will certainly happen more often, because we will have many people who come in and know the current administration we are in, the border patrol is very active right now, and Isagents are also very active,” he said.

Botello said it has been a while since they have seen a case like this, but it has happened before.

“When we are at the border, we have made people pretend to be border patrol agents or pretend to be some kind of immigration authority. It’s about making some profit, it’s about making a quick money, ”Botello said.

Two of the suspects are American citizens while the third is a Mexican citizen. All three are facing federal allegations of human smuggling.

From Thursday, it is home that is used as a stash house still listed as a short -term rent. The homeowner did not want to be interviewed but said that he was not aware that this happened on the property.

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