Crime Log: Border Patrol arrests man trying to smuggle immigrants

A Mexican man was arrested Friday morning for smuggling six Chinese citizens across the border, and then attempting to flee from Border Patrol agents, the Tucson Sector Border Patrol said Friday in a press release.

Around 8 a.m., agents assigned to the Nogales station activated their lights and sirens after observing “abnormal behavior” from the driver of a Dodge pickup truck that was traveling north from the border, the press release said.

When the vehicle stopped, the driver attempted to flee on foot, but was later located with the help of a Border Patrol helicopter.

Inside the vehicle were six illegal immigrants who were citizens of China, the release said.

The driver of the vehicle, a Mexican citizen, is being held on smuggling charges, and the six illegal immigrants were processed for removal.

Border Patrol agents discovered the body of a 27-year-old man Monday night near Douglas after responding to a cell phone call from the man’s cousin, who had been traveling with him in a smuggling group.

Agents responded to a remote hiking trail near the area where the caller and his cousin, both from Veracruz, Mexico, had been abandoned by their smuggler earlier that night, a press release from the Tucson Sector Border Patrol said. The man told agents his cousin was having difficulty breathing and was left behind because he was holding up the group.

The body of the man was found around later that night, the press release said.

Paramedics believe that dehydration and hypothermia may have led to his death.

During the first month of Fiscal Year 2009, the Tucson Sector has recorded a total of eight illegal immigrant deaths, the press release said.

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