Thread: NC Truck driver enters guilty plea

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/met ... 62666.html

Jan. 11, 2007, 12:08AM
Truck driver enters guilty plea

DALLAS — A North Carolina truck driver pleaded guilty Wednesday to hauling six illegal immigrants in his rig along with more than 45 pounds of marijuana.

Daylon Ray Owens, 63, was arrested in October after witnesses at a Dallas truck stop saw people getting out of his trailer.

Owens, of Kittrell, N.C., faces up to 60 years in prison and up to $2.5 million in fines when he is sentenced April 4.

http://www.hendersondispatch.com/articl ... news06.txt

Kittrell man pleads guilty to drug, immigrant smuggling charges


Jan 27, 2007

From STAFF REPORTS
A Kittrell man pleaded guilty in federal court in Dallas earlier this month to smuggling undocumented immigrants and marijuana.

Daylon Ray Owens, 63, faces a minimum of five and a maximum of 60 years in prison for his crimes. He has already agreed to forfeit his tractor-trailer and may also be fined up to $2.5 million. Owens, who has been in detention since the fall, will be sentenced on April 4.

According to various sources, including a plea agreement signed by Owens, the trucker picked up three duffel bags containing bundles of marijuana on Oct. 3 in El Paso, Texas. Later that day, he picked up undocumented Mexican immigrants from a hotel in El Paso, Texas.

The next day, people at the Flying J Truck Stop by Interstate 20 in Dallas became suspicious when they noticed six men, a woman and a child leaving Owens' vehicle. An off-duty Dallas police officer was on hand and detained the driver. The undocumented aliens were taken into custody at a nearby fast-food restaurant.

A search of Owens' 1999 Peterbilt truck turned up the suspicious duffel bags, which were found to contain 238 pounds of marijuana. Owens told law enforcement officers that the drugs were “a separate incident” from the illegal aliens and that he had intended to deliver the marijuana to an individual in Miami, Fla., whose identity had not yet been given to him.

Owens resided at 6575 Raleigh Road at the time of his arrest. He was convicted in 1987 of fraud involving the burning of a home, burning other property and passing a worthless check; he was sentenced to four months in prison.

Drugs and immigrants. Throw the book at him.