Sheriff's Department finds illegal aliens
By Jon Johnson, Assistant Editor

Mar 30, 2007

If a person was to make the unwise choice to become a human smuggler, that person should probably follow basic traffic laws during the commission of their crime.

Graham County Deputy Eric Mayhew pulled over a white Dodge pickup for following the vehicle in front of it too closely on Monday and quickly discovered 19 undocumented aliens stashed throughout the vehicle. Friday, March 30, 2007

Mayhew called for backup and was assisted by Graham County Detective Mike Wear as well as officers from the Safford Police Department.

Ten illegal aliens were crammed into the truck, piled up in the extended cab portion and nine more were hiding under a carpet in the rear pickup bed. All were taken to the Graham County Jail for holding until the Border Patrol took custody. The truck, registered to Ricardo Rascon of Tucson, was impounded at the county yard.

Graham County Sheriff Frank Hughes said a lot of times the vehicles are purchased and its registration will not be renewed by the smugglers.

Hughes said the Valley was seeing more and more loads of illegal immigrants and drugs making their way through.

"Safford is on one of the routes they like to take," he said. "There are major highways heading north, south, east and west."

He said the Sheriff's Department was being especially vigil in its attempts to thwart the problem, which is growing increasingly dangerous.

"The people transporting the illegal immigrants are much more violent than before," Hughes said. "We are taking action to stop this scourge."

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