CA: Task force arrests dozens of suspected immigrant smuggle
Task force arrests dozens of suspected immigrant smugglers
By Angelica Martinez
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
3:05 p.m. April 24, 2007
CHULA VISTA – Roughly 60 people suspected of being linked to immigration smuggling operations were arrested by the U.S. Border Patrol and other agencies in a task force operation in inland San Diego County, officials said Tuesday.
Authorities made the arrests between Feb. 18 and April 14 in the Border Patrol's central San Diego Sector, which encompasses the terrain along the border from the Otay Mountains east of San Ysidro to Campo, Chief Border Patrol Agent Darryl E. Griffen said at a news conference at the Lower Otay County Park.
The roughly 60-day enforcement by authorities was in response to criminal cartels that officials said had shifted to that region.
San Diego-based Border Patrol agents break down the 60 miles along the local border with Mexico into three sectors to better manage the area. Griffen said recent border enforcement in the western areas pushed immigrant smugglers inland.
“As a result of these enforcement actions, those criminal cartels have shifted to the central corridor,” Griffen said.
In response, authorities created Operation Block Island, in which the Border Patrol partnered with the U.S. Attorney's Office, the U.S. Marshal's Office, the California National Guard and the California Department of Motor Vehicles.
During the operation, border agents worked with Caltrans and the DMV and set up four checkpoints. Authorities made about 4,900 arrests of illegal aliens and seized 58 vehicles, Griffen said.
The Border Patrol also presented 44 cases of smuggling and immigration crimes to the U.S. Attorney's Office that it accepted to prosecute, he said.
Griffen said that among the criminal aliens turned over for prosecution were border crossers who had been convicted of such crimes as sexual assault on a minor, assault with a deadly weapon and distribution of a controlled substance.
Authorities also turned over 15 people to Mexican authorities as part of a binational program for prosecuting smugglers.
More than 140 of the people arrested are suspected of possessing fraudulent or forged California IDs or driver's licenses, filing false documents to obtain a driver's license and committing identity theft, officials said.
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