Border patrol nabs fake UPS truck skirting checkpoint
Border patrol nabs fake UPS truck skirting checkpoint
Reuters
8:50 p.m. CDT, May 22, 2012
By Mary Slosson
SACRAMENTO, May 22 (Reuters) - U.S. border patrol agents
found 13 illegal immigrants in the back of a fake UPS van after
they noticed the brown vehicle with yellow insignia trying to
circumvent a highway checkpoint, the agency said on Tuesday.
The agents arrested the passengers, identified as Mexican
citizens without legal immigration documents, at an inland
checkpoint on Friday on the dusty Highway 111, about 50 miles by
car from the U.S.-Mexico border.
The driver of the replica mail delivery van, a 21-year-old
U.S. citizen, was also arrested for attempting to smuggle
illegal immigrants, the border patrol said.
"After further investigation, agents determined that the van
was not a legitimate UPS van," the agency said in a release.
In recent years, increasingly crafty drug and people
smugglers from Mexico have turned to "cloning" vehicles to try
to evade tightening security along the U.S.-Mexico border.
They include making vehicles look like delivery vans and, in
one instance, a beer truck. In 2010, authorities in Arizona
found a vehicle disguised as a police patrol car, complete with
sirens and flashing lights, which they believed was being used
by brazen bandits to rip off drug loads in transit.
Photos provided by the border patrol show a large Ford cargo
van painted dark brown, with a slightly crooked UPS logo affixed
to the back door and the company logo written on the side of the
van. Darkened windows would have hidden anyone crouched inside.
Border patrol nabs fake UPS truck skirting checkpoint - chicagotribune.com
