Thread: VA: Police Discover 13 Undocumented Immigrants During Traffi

Updated: 7:19 PM Mar 11, 2010
Police Discover 13 Undocumented Immigrants During Traffic Stop
Shenandoah County
A federal investigator says a man, whom police stopped on Interstate 81 in Shenandoah County last week, was driving 12 undocumented immigrants from Arizona to New Jersey.
Posted: 6:55 PM Mar 11, 2010
Reporter: Michael Hyland

Several men are in federal custody after being stopped in the Valley.

Pablo Eliosa Lara is accused of knowingly transporting undocumented immigrants for financial gain.

Virginia State Police stopped Lara last week on Interstate 81 in Shenandoah County.

A federal investigator says Lara was driving 12 undocumented immigrants from Arizona to New Jersey. Some of them were looking for work.

This isn't the only recent instance when people have been accused of transporting undocumented immigrants and have been caught in the Valley.

Late last month, a man was sentenced to 36 months in prison for a similar crime.

In this most recent case, investigators say Lara has been caught several times near the U.S.-Mexican border.

According to an affidavit, Lara was allowed to leave the country. An investigator says Lara also admitted to transporting undocumented immigrants one time before.

State police serving Shenandoah County say these cases aren't common. They say they only occur once or twice a year.

Lara is due in court next week.

http://www.whsv.com/news/headlines/87399717.html

Pablo Eliosa Lara is accused of knowingly transporting undocumented immigrants for financial gain.

Guess they'll have to let him go? You can only charge people for transporting illegal aliens.

March 13, 2010

Arrest reveals illegals

Stopped van was carrying 12 people

By Sally Voth - svoth@nvdaily.com

HARRISONBURG -- An illegal immigrant from Mexico was arrested after a state trooper found a dozen passengers crammed into a van during a traffic stop last week on Interstate 81 in Edinburg.

Pablo Eliosa Lara, alias Hector Morales, faces a charge of illegally transporting aliens, according to online U.S. District Court records.

A state trooper stopped Eliosa Lara on I-81 in the Edinburg area on March 2, according to an affidavit filed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent. It says he had 12 people in the 2002 Chevrolet Ventura he was driving.

Eliosa Lara's arrest came about a week after another man was sentenced in a similar case. Oliver Leonel Sanchez Ortiz, 23, of Mexico, who was caught last fall with 11 illegal immigrants in an SUV on Interstate 81 near Edinburg, was sentenced in federal court in Harrisonburg on Feb. 24 to three years in prison.

Eliosa Lara told investigators during an interview at the Rockingham County Jail that he'd been paid $1,000 to take the immigrants from Arizona to New Jersey, the affidavit says. It says this was his second time doing so.

Some of the passengers told ICE agents they had made payments for the journey to people in both the U.S. and Mexico, according to the affidavit. Two of them said Eliosa Lara had told them they couldn't get out of the van before getting to New Jersey.

"The occupants had to use plastic bags to relieve themselves instead of being allowed to leave the van to use the restroom," the affidavit says. "The movement and transportation of illegal aliens by smugglers is often done during the late evening hours or in the early morning under cover of darkness in order to avoid detection by law enforcement officials. It is also common for illegal aliens who are smuggled or who have crossed illegally through the U.S./Mexico International Border to have very little or no property. When this group was encountered, the agents on the scene observed that the occupants had very little or no property with them.

"Agents also saw a bag filled with urine in the van which corroborates what the witnesses revealed."

In the Sanchez Ortiz case, a state trooper saw a bottle of urine in the car, Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan Souders said. The immigrants in that case had paid to be taken across the border into Arizona and were headed to New York.

Eliosa Lara had been voluntarily returned to Mexico six times, the affidavit says.

Court records say that Eliosa Lara, who was born in 1986, is scheduled to appear in federal court on Tuesday.

www.nvdaily.com