Thread: Arizona Cops Find 97 Migrants in Refrigerated Truck

Arizona Cops Find 97 Migrants in Refrigerated Truck

Thursday, August 27, 2009 8:36 AM

PHOENIX - Arizona police pulled over a refrigerated truck and found 97 illegal immigrants in the back among near-freezing produce, police said on Thursday.

The officer stopped the truck on a highway a few miles (km) north of the border city of Nogales late on Wednesday, the Arizona Department of Public Safety said.

An inspection found 97 adults and children from Mexico and Guatemala crammed into the trailer, which was heavily chilled to one degree Celsius (34 Fahrenheit).

No one was harmed. The immigrants were handed over to Border Patrol agents, who processed them for deportation.

"These people were treated like cargo. They were crammed inside this truck and subjected to near freezing temperatures," said Matthew Allen, the special agent in charge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency investigations in Arizona.

"Fortunately, due to the swift action of the law enforcement agencies involved in this case, none of these people came to any harm," he added.

Arizona straddles the principal route for smuggling illegal immigrants and drugs from Mexico.

Last year border police caught 705,022 people crossing the border from Mexico, the lowest total since the mid 1970s.

http://www.newsmax.com/us/migrants_refr ... 52962.html

I read this and I said again?!? I think this is actually an old story and the following is the updated story that should have run...

Published: 08.27.2009

Driver of truck carrying 97 illegal entrants near Tucson indicted
By Brian J. Pedersen
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
A California man caught last month driving a refrigerated truck that held 97 illegal immigrants was indicted Wednesday on six federal alien smuggling charges.
Luis Antonio Mendoza, 26, is charged with five counts of transportation of illegal aliens for profit and one count of conspiracy to transport illegal aliens for profit, according to the indictment filed in U.S. District Court in Tucson.
Mendoza was arrested July 29 after an Arizona Department of Public Safety officer pulled over the truck Mendoza was driving north from Mexico near Rio Rico, court records show.
Mendoza told the officer his truck contained 17 pallets of mangos, which were to be kept in a refrigerated area with a maintained temperature of 34 degrees, court records show.
When DPS officials opened up the truck they found 97 illegal immigrants.
Mendoza then told authorities he thought there was only 15 people in the back of the truck, and that he’d been hired to drive the truck to Eloy and would be paid $300 per person for his work, court records show.
Mendoza is scheduled to be arraigned Sept. 10 before U.S. Magistrate Judge Bernardo Velasco.
Contact reporter Brian J. Pedersen at 573-4224 or bjp@azstarnet.com.
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/hourlyupdate/306634.php