Thread: Alien Smugglers Use Ambulance Service to Get Past Checkpoint

C.B.P. News Release

Alien Smugglers Use Ambulance Service to Get Past Checkpoint

(Thursday, April 16, 2009)

Marfa, Texas – A clever smuggling scheme in Presidio County, Texas, came to an abrupt end March 5, 2009, with the arrest of a Presidio man who had been using an ambulance service to transport illegal aliens past a Border Patrol checkpoint.

Lionel Armendariz-Cabezuela, 38, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents following a six-month investigation by the Border Patrol and ICE.

Agents of the U.S. Border Patrol’s Marfa Sector had received a report that a person had feigned an illness in order to be transported to the Big Bend Regional Medical Center in Alpine from Presidio. The trip includes passing through the Border Patrol checkpoint south of Marfa.

During the course of the subsequent investigation, agents discovered there were several cases where persons transported to the hospital refused treatment upon arrival at the hospital. In some cases, those people were then picked up and transported out of the area.

Armendariz has been charged with alien smuggling. Allegedly, someone in Mexico could contact a person in Ojinaga who would assist them in crossing the Rio Grande River where they would be met and taken to a location in Presidio. They would be coached in how to call for ambulance service and then fake an illness, either chest or abdominal pain. Reportedly the cost to the illegal alien for the effort was $3,700.

Ironically, Armendariz became ill while being interviewed by agents at their office in Presidio and had to be transported by the same ambulance service to the hospital.

Armendariz has pled guilty to the charges.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is the unified border agency within the Department of Homeland Security charged with the management, control and protection of our nation's borders at and between the official ports of entry. CBP is charged with keeping terrorists and terrorist weapons out of the country while enforcing hundreds of U.S. laws.

Contacts For This News Release
Bill Brooks
CBP Public Affairs
Phone: (432) 729-5217

http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/newsroom/new ... 162009.xml

Illegals are tricky!

Illegals are tricky!

It's a never ending constant to how low can you go.