Border Agents: Smuggler Put Man In Duffel Bag
Driver Is From Denver

POSTED: 9:44 am MST November 8, 2007


DENVER -- Border agents say a Colorado man returning from a trip to Mexico had more than cheap souvenirs when his car was searched in El Paso, Texas.

Customs and Border Protection officers found a man hiding in a zippered duffel bag in a car driven by a Denver man.

The discovery came during a stop at the Paso del Norte port of entry on Tuesday. The large duffel bag was in the back seat of the Ford Escort.


The driver, Martin Enriquez Hernandez, 42, of Denver, has been charged with alien smuggling.

The man in the zippered duffel bag, Jesus Ivan Payan Estrada, 26, of Chihuahua, Mexico, was taken into custody on re-entry after deportation charges.

Customs officials said Estrada in the bag is 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighs about 160 pounds.

"It is certainly unusual and something we rarely encounter at the El Paso port," Polly Figueroa, acting El Paso port director for Customs and Border Protection told the El Paso Times.

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