Five face deportation after agent tracks car

UNION-TRIBUNE BREAKING NEWS TEAM

1:03 p.m. September 11, 2008

SAN DIEGO – Five people have been detained and are facing deportation to Mexico after they were discovered on a local freeway, the U.S. Border Patrol announced Thursday.

Two men, two women and a boy were spotted Wednesday evening after an agent became suspicious of them in an unincorporated area north of Escondido, said Mark Endicott, a U.S. Border Patrol spokesman.


The agent saw the group's sedan on northbound Interstate 15 at Deer Springs Road. He followed the vehicle, an Infiniti Q45, about 20 minutes as it drove on the freeway. At one point, the agent saw that one of the passengers was dropped off on the freeway shoulder, Endicott said.
The sedan then exited the freeway at Gopher Canyon Road and sideswiped a vehicle before heading south on I-15, he said.

Agents said the sedan struck two more vehicles near Balboa Avenue before it lost control and veered into a guardrail in the median.

Two people, including the man driving, ran from the car, Endicott said.

The driver and the passenger who ran were arrested moments later. Three other passengers were also apprehended near the vehicle, Endicott said.

They suffered minor injuries. All five are believed to be Mexican nationals. The driver faces human smuggling charges, Endicott said.

There were no reports of anyone hurt in the collisions, he said. The extent of damage to the crashed vehicles was not available.

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Breaking News Team: (619) 293-1010; breaking@uniontrib

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