Driver dies, 29 entrants hurt in wrecks
By Stephen Ceasar
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 11.11.2008

A smuggler died and 29 illegal immigrants were injured in two separate vehicle crashes over the weekend in Southeast Arizona.
U.S. Border Patrol agents also discovered a tunnel under the DeConcini Port of Entry in Nogales, seized nearly 1,500 pounds of marijuana and rescued a dehydrated pregnant woman.

Several hurt in crashes
At about 6:50 p.m. Friday, Border Patrol agents tried to stop a truck with suspected illegal immigrants on Arizona 82 east of Nogales, said Rob Daniels, a Border Patrol Tucson Sector spokesman.
When the driver didn't stop, agents radioed ahead for other agents to look out for the vehicle. Agents briefly lost sight of the truck and after locating it again found it overturned with one person dead, said Daniels..
The smuggler — who was driving the vehicle — was a 19-year-old U.S. citizen, he said.
Eight illegal immigrants were taken to a hospital for treatment, and two remain hospitalized.
Among those hospitalized was a person believed to be a guide. He faces smuggling charges, said Daniels..
Agents also responded to a crash Friday evening near Willcox, Daniels said. Agents found a van with 25 illegal immigrants that had driven off a 10-foot drop into a wash.
Twenty-one of the people in the van were taken to a Willcox hospital. Two of them remain hospitalized, Daniels said.
This year, at least 22 people have died in crashes involving illegal immigrants in the region, compared with nine in all of 2007, records show. Twenty-one deaths occurred in 2006, seven in 2005 and 38 in 2004.

Tunnel found
Agents discovered a tunnel inside the Grand Avenue drainage tunnel under the DeConcini Port of Entry in Nogales early Sunday, said Mike Scioli, a Border Patrol spokesman.
The tunnel was dug into an offshoot route within the main drainage tunnel and was hidden by a foam cushion, about 50 feet into the United States, Scioli said.
Agents had planned to enter the tunnel but heard voices inside and decided against it — sending in a robot instead, Scioli said.
The tunnel was cleared, and no one was arrested,, Scioli said.
The tunnel is the third found since Oct. 1, the beginning of the fiscal year, said Scioli.

Drug seizures
Border Patrol agents discovered two abandoned vehicles containing a total of 65 bundles of marijuana, weighing about 1,480 pounds, near the village of Pisinimo, on the Tohono O'odham Nation, early Sunday, Daniels said.
The two vehicles were reported stolen in El Centro, Calif., and Las Vegas.

Woman rescued
Agents also caught a man Saturday morning who told them about a severely dehydrated pregnant woman who had been abandoned in the desert, Daniels said.
The crew of a Customs and Border Protection helicopter quickly found the 21-year-old woman, he said.
Agents took her by helicopter to Peña Blanca Lake northwest of Nogales, where she was transferred to a medical helicopter.
She was taken to a Tucson hospital, where she is being treated for dehydration and difficulties with her pregnancy, he said.

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