Thread: Texas: Yacht Owner Charged with Smuggling Immigrants

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GULF OF MEXICO
Yacht Owner Charged with Smuggling Immigrants

May 22, 2006 06:53 PM

Two Valley men are accused of smuggling half a dozen immigrants in fancy yacht.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested yacht owner Mark Daniel Bryant and deckhand operator Baldemar Valadez Jr. on Sunday.

ICE agents say six Mexican nationals were smuggled into the U.S. through the McAllen area. They were then taken to South Padre Island.

Agents say the men boarded the "Poca Mas" yacht at the Sea Ranch Marine on the Island early Sunday morning.

When the boat arrived in Corpus Christi a few hours later the immigrants and the two boat operators were arrested. Agents also seized the yacht.

Bryant, the yacht owner, was arrested in the Willacy County area as he headed back south with the boat. Valadez was arrested along with the immigrants several hours later, after the yacht reached Corpus Christi.

Bryant and Valadez appeared before a federal judge Monday morning to face charges of immigrant-smuggling plot, which included picking up the migrants at South Padre Island on Sunday then transporting them to Corpus Christi.

"This case shows how desperate alien smugglers are in their attempt to circumvent immigration law by using a luxurious yacht to disguise the illegal activity taking place," said Alonzo Pena, special agent-in-charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in San Antonio. "Using a yacht to smuggle aliens does not diminish the risks to the aliens being smuggled. Alien smugglers routinely demonstrate how little regard they have for their human cargo."

The migrants say they paid the smugglers $1,500 each. Three of the immigrants will be allowed to stay in the United States as material witnesses.

The smugglers were trying to circumvent inland Border Patrol checkpoints about 60 miles north of the border.

All that and they only deported 3 people. INS is trying to look serious by publicizing a few arrests (very few!!).