Third time's not a charm?


By LARRY HENDRICKS
Assistant City Editor
Saturday, September 01, 2007


Highway patrol officers have nabbed three truckloads of undocumented aliens being smuggled through Flagstaff on the way to Oklahoma in the last four months.

The trucks are registered to the same person.

Now, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are in the process of building a criminal case against the trucks' registered owner, a Phoenix resident, according to officials at the Arizona Department of Public Safety.

The case began developing in early May, said Sgt. Rod Wigman of the DPS Flagstaff office.

At the junction of Interstates 40 and 17, an officer stopped the driver of a 1996 Chevy extra long pickup truck with camper shell because it had excessive tint on the windows. Inside the truck were 16 undocumented aliens.

The driver, also an undocumented alien, told the officer they met a man in Phoenix with the truck and were told to make their way to Oklahoma.

That same month, officers stopped another truck that had the same registered owner near the Pulliam Airport exit. There were 15 undocumented aliens inside and were also heading to Oklahoma.

The trucks were impounded for 30 days, then the owner was allowed to pick up the vehicles without having to make a personal appearance. The undocumented aliens were picked up by ICE agents and deported.

Then, on Friday near the Newman Park exit on I-17, the same officer stopped one of the same trucks with the same license plate. This time, there were 17 undocumented aliens inside on their way to Oklahoma. The driver escaped and is still not in custody, Wigman said.

"But the driver did tell the sergeant that he had come across the border with the other 16," Wigman said.
Because of a policy change, the registered owner must now personally pick up his truck after the 30-day impound, Wigman said.

In previous years, local law enforcement officials have said INS and ICE staff shortages have prevented agents from coming to northern Arizona and pick up and deport undocumented aliens caught by law enforcement. Typically, they were let go.

But recently, ICE has agreed to travel to northern Arizona and pick up undocumented aliens.

"ICE is trying to investigate the mules," Wigman said, adding the undocumented aliens caught Friday will be released to ICE, interviewed and then deported.

The purpose of the interviews is an attempt to build case against the Phoenix resident to whom the trucks are registered.

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