Bowie man arrested for harboring illegal immigrants
By Carol Broeder/Arizona Range News
Published: Wednesday, March 26, 2008 6:48 PM CDT

From the case files of the "too greedy and stupid to be allowed to exist":

Robert Tapia was arrested last Wednesday on charges of harboring illegal immigrants at his home in Bowie.

On Tuesday, March 18, a Border Patrol agent followed footprints to Tapia's home.

After questioning Tapia and being denied consent to search the home, agents obtained a search warrant for the property.

Agents stopped a vehicle being driven by Tapia and served him the warrant. The Border Patrol's Special Response Team executed the warrant.

Inside the house they found 15 other individuals, all of whom admitted they were not citizens of the United States and that they did not have permission to be in the United States legally.

Material witnesses Erik Gerardo Gomez-Perez and Eleazar Galvez-Rodriguez, who were in the house, said their group crossed into the U.S. by walking through the desert rather than through a port of entry.

Gomez-Perez said that Tapia had found them in the desert and offered to temporarily house them in his home and later transport them to their final destination.

Gomez said that Tapia was going to charge the group of illegal immigrants $10 a day to stay in his home for a week and an additional $500 each to transport them to their destinations.

After Miranda warnings, Tapia admitted that there were illegal immigrants in his home and also admitted knowing that the group had illegally entered the U.S.

Tapia had his preliminary hearing in federal court in Tucson and was released Friday, said Sandi Raynor, public affairs officer with the U.S. Attorney, District of Arizona, in Phoenix.
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