Border Patrol detain 9 suspected illegal immigrants

* By Elaine Marsilio

CORPUS CHRISTI — Corpus Christi U.S. Border Patrol agents took nine suspected illegal immigrants into custody Thursday after three women and six men bailed out of a vehicle traveling near Alice, a Border Patrol spokesman said.

A Border Patrol agent tried about 11 a.m. to stop a 1995 Mercury van on Farm-to-Market Road 70 and Farm-to-Market Road 665, officials said. As the agent’s vehicle got closer with activated emergency lights, went off the road into a brushy area and people started to bail out, Border Patrol spokesman John Lopez said. Lopez said the agent was suspicious of the van, but couldn’t say what specifically caused that suspicion.

Backup was called and when agents reached the van, officials found three suspected illegal immigrants inside the van, Lopez said. Six others were found in brush nearby with the help of Border Patrol agents, vehicles and a helicopter, he said.

Eight of the suspected illegal immigrants are from Honduras and one other is from Guatemala, Lopez said. They were all taken to the Corpus Christi Border Patrol station for processing, he said.

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