DPS nabs suspected smugglers during raid Friday

Friday, April 16, 2010 7:18 pm

Arizona Department of Public Safety officers made a series of arrests on Friday of suspects believed to be involved in human smuggling.

DPS spokesman Officer Robert Bailey says the case began April 8 when an officer tried to stop a pickup on a Phoenix freeway that turned out to be carrying five undocumented immigrants and two smuggling suspects.

DPS officers raided an Avondale home on Friday morning, and police initially said they had captured a smuggling kingpin.

Bailey says that turned out to be incorrect, but information they found led them to another house, where a vehicle left carrying six undocumented immigrants and a smuggler.

Officers then went back to the home and arrested six more suspects. They found three undocumented immigrants, one a 7-year-old girl who was on her way to Chicago. The girl had no relatives with her.

http://azstarnet.com/news/state-and-reg ... 36e3a.html