Rosarito Beach police detain smugglers with 6 Chinese citizens

Aim was to reach the United States, police said



A total of 10 people were detained. /Rosarito Beach police


Written by Sandra Dibble

10:02 p.m., Sept. 11, 2012

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ROSARITO BEACH — Police in this coastal community on Tuesday said they detained six Chinese citizens who were hoping to be smuggled to the United States. Also in custody were two of their alleged smugglers - one Mexican and a Chinese man described as the owner of a restaurant in Tijuana.

Following the detentions, two other Chinese citizens who allegedly tried to bribe police to release the detainees were also taken into custody, police said.

Francisco Castro Trenti, Rosarito’s public safety chief, said his officers were responding to a call Tuesday about two vehicles on Popotla Boulevard when they discovered the group.

The driver of one of the vehicles, a Jeep Grand Cherokee with California plates, was identified as Jesus Ivan Olmedo Rodriguez, a resident of Rosarito Beach. He allegedly said that he had been contacted by Jose Chew Yee in Tijuana days earlier to provide someone who could smuggle several people to the United States, Castro Trenti said in a statement.

Olmeda said that on Tuesday, he and Chew Yee agreed to meet at a specified location, the statement said. There, Chew Yee ordered three men to get out of his Grand Marquis and step into the Grand Cherokee being driven by Olmeda, police said. The purpose was to lead them to the Popotla fishing village, where they were to contact the person who would take them to the United States, presumably by boat.

A half-hour after the detentions, two Chinese men appeared at police headquarters and offered money for the release of the detainees. They were detained.

The unusual incident marked the first public notice in several years of undocumented Chinese citizens in Baja California hoping to cross to the United States. For a period during the 1990s, detentions were common.

Rosarito Beach police detain smugglers with 6 Chinese citizens | UTSanDiego.com