Deputy arrested on border

Sep 27, 2007 08:09 AM PDT
Erica Heartquist reports

A Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Deputy is under investigation; accused of human smuggling.

The feds say Octavio Cruz got caught trying to drive an illegal immigrant through the De Concini Port of Entry, late Tuesday.

"These are the people that are supposed to be protecting us? I mean, what's going on?" said one Santa Cruz County resident.

Another woman, who also lives in Santa Cruz County told News 4, "It's pretty scary because they should be protecting us, not them doing illegal things."

The reactions are all the same from people News 4 spoke with: they cannot believe Santa Cruz County Deputy Octavio Garcia is now on the other side of the law. He was arrested for human smuggling.

"We're very disappointed with what's happened but we'll be conducting an internal investigation because we really want to know what happened," said Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada.

According to the criminal complaint dated September 26th, the illegal immigrant claimed he: "...was told that the person who was to smuggle him into the United States would pick him up at the casino near the border."

The report goes on to say: "...at the casino the defendant approached him, asked his name and then told him to get into the vehicle."

According to the report, the man: "...identified defendant Octavio Garcia as the person who attempted to smuggle him into the United States."

Garcia has been with the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Department for five years.

Before that, he worked with the Nogales Police Department. Up until two months ago, he was a school resource officer who requested to work patrol.

Now, he's in a lot of hot water.

"Just like anybody else an officer is innocent until proven guilty but this is obviously a set back if that happens to be the case," said Sheriff Estrada.


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