Illegal immigrant arrested in Huachuca City truck theft

Fri, 03/12/2010 - 00:53

By Bill Hess
Herald/Review

HUACHUCA CITY — U.S. Border Patrol agents apprehended an illegal immigrant Wednesday night who was accused of stealing a Huachuca City public works truck and abandoning it south of the Border Patrol checkpoint on Highway 90.

According to a Huachuca City Police Department report, the 1999 Ford F250 had been stolen about 10 p.m. near the landfill, and the department received a call stating it had been found a quarter-mile south of the checkpoint.

It was determined the suspect was trying to walk around the checkpoint through the desert, and he was tracked by Border Patrol agents from the Naco station. He was apprehended and turned over to the Huachuca City Police Department, as was the vehicle, which the report stated had keys in the ignition.

The suspect was identified as Sergio Gonzales-Vasquez, 21, who was taken to the Cochise County Jail facility in Sierra Vista early Thursday. He was being held without bond and was charged with burglary of a nonresidential structure, vehicle theft, trespassing into a structure and criminal trespass. He also has a Border Patrol hold on him.

In other incidents involving the Border Patrol:

• A Naco station agent saved the life of an infant in Sierra Vista Wednesday afternoon, agency spokeswoman Colleen Agle said. The agent, who does not want to be identified, heard screaming from a home several houses from his residence, as he was preparing to go to work, Agle said. Upon arriving, he found a woman holding a lifeless-appearing child under the age of 1, Agle said. The agent discovered there was something lodged in the infant’s throat, dislodged it and then the baby began to breathe and started crying, she said. Sierra Vista emergency crews responded to the scene and the child was turned over to their care, Agle said.

• Naco station agents arrested an illegal immigrant from Mexico who was identified as being a member of the Sureno-13 gang, Agle said, adding he is being held pending further processing.

• On Tuesday, Douglas station agents arrested three men, all from Mexico, in separate incidents, who had criminal records involving sex-related crimes, she said. One had a conviction for lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14 and had an active arrest warrant out of Redwood City, Calif., she said. He is being held in the Cochise County Jail pending extradition, the Border Patrol spokeswoman said. The two other men, one with a conviction of rape of a child and the other for sexual battery, are being held for prosecution for illegally entering the United States, Agle said.

• On Wednesday, Douglas station agents arrested an illegal immigrant male from Mexico who had been convicted of kidnapping and he is being held for federal prosecution, she said.

• In another Wednesday incident, Border Patrol agents of the Tucson Sector rescued an illegal immigrant who fell about 20 feet off a mountainside north of Sasabe, she said. Assistance of a Customs and Border Protection helicopter was
required.

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