Border Patrol charge two with transporting illegal immigrants
By Staff report

Friday, June 13, 2008

FORT PIERCE — A man and woman, both Mexican citizens, were arrested Tuesday morning near the Martin-St. Lucie county line on charges of transporting illegal immigrants, according to a U.S. Border Patrol affidavit obtained Thursday at the U.S. District Courthouse.

Jose Jiminez-Sanchez, 32, and Wendy Carolina Ramirez-Afanador, 26, were arrested after the van Jiminez-Sanchez was driving was pulled over by a Border Patrol agent near mile marker 112 on Interstate 95.

According to the agent, seven passengers in the van — one from El Salvador, one from Guatemala and the rest from Mexico — admitted they were in the country illegally. They told the agent they paid from $700 to $1,800 to be driven to various locations. Authorities said Jiminez-Sanchez had been deported three times and arrested in March 2007 for transporting illegal immigrants in Kansas.

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