February 11, 2009 4:43 PM
- Text
3 Guardsmen Face Immigrant Smuggling Rap
(CBS/AP)
A trio of National Guard soldiers assigned to help stop illegal immigration in South Texas instead ran an immigrant smuggling operation using cell phone text messages, according to court records filed Monday by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Laredo.
In a series of text messages uncovered by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents after Pfc. Jose Rodrigo Torres was arrested on Thursday, the three soldiers allegedly negotiated the details, price and number of people who would be smuggled north, the complaint said.
"Tell them ill only do 1 run no more than 20 people $150 a person and i want 2 leave 1930 hrs and ill go 2 San Anto if they want," Torres typed to Sgt. Clarence Hodge Jr. hours before Torres was arrested along Interstate 35 near Cotulla, Texas, about 68 miles north of the border, according to the complaint.
A message later that day from Sgt. Julio Cesar Pacheco instructed Torres that a trip was a go, with a promised payment of $3,500 for the delivery of 24 illegal immigrants.
"24 will b tuff 2 fit but ill try," Torres wrote in response, the complaint said.
The 24 immigrants, at least five of whom were Mexican nationals, did fit in the van that was waved through a Border Patrol checkpoint before later being stopped along the highway.
Torres, 26, of Laredo, told federal investigators that it was his seventh immigrant smuggling trip. Torres implicated 36-year-old Hodge, a Fort Worth resident, as the soldier who waved his van through the checkpoint.
According to interviews immigration authorities conducted with some of the immigrants, Torres told the group to stay down and be quiet inside the vehicle. One woman, a Mexican national, told investigators she paid $1,500 to be taken to Dallas.
Investigators say Hodge pointed to Pacheco, 26, of Laredo, as the man who recruited and paid him. Hodge told investigators he had been paid for helping smuggle a load of immigrants in May but the men had not worked out payment for the most recent load.
In a series of text messages uncovered by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents after Pfc. Jose Rodrigo Torres was arrested on Thursday, the three soldiers allegedly negotiated the details, price and number of people who would be smuggled north, the complaint said.
"Tell them ill only do 1 run no more than 20 people $150 a person and i want 2 leave 1930 hrs and ill go 2 San Anto if they want," Torres typed to Sgt. Clarence Hodge Jr. hours before Torres was arrested along Interstate 35 near Cotulla, Texas, about 68 miles north of the border, according to the complaint.
A message later that day from Sgt. Julio Cesar Pacheco instructed Torres that a trip was a go, with a promised payment of $3,500 for the delivery of 24 illegal immigrants.
"24 will b tuff 2 fit but ill try," Torres wrote in response, the complaint said.
The 24 immigrants, at least five of whom were Mexican nationals, did fit in the van that was waved through a Border Patrol checkpoint before later being stopped along the highway.
Torres, 26, of Laredo, told federal investigators that it was his seventh immigrant smuggling trip. Torres implicated 36-year-old Hodge, a Fort Worth resident, as the soldier who waved his van through the checkpoint.
According to interviews immigration authorities conducted with some of the immigrants, Torres told the group to stay down and be quiet inside the vehicle. One woman, a Mexican national, told investigators she paid $1,500 to be taken to Dallas.
Investigators say Hodge pointed to Pacheco, 26, of Laredo, as the man who recruited and paid him. Hodge told investigators he had been paid for helping smuggle a load of immigrants in May but the men had not worked out payment for the most recent load.
- 1
- 2
- Next Page »
Latest Now in National
- Hutaree militia members face trial
- The nations weather
- Whitney Houston death may be mystery for weeks
- Murder trial of ex-U.Va. lax player enters week 2
- More human remains found at Calif. ranch
- Trial opens 2 years after feds break up militia
- Pastor's daughter accidentally shot at Fla. church
- Induced labor allows dying man to see daughter
- Stars pay tribute to Whitney Houston at Grammys
- US Airways jet makes emergency landing in NC
- Whitney Houston's death overshadows Grammy Awards
- Coroner: Autopsy on Whitney Houston completed
- Search resumes at recycling center in Powell case
- Evening News Online, 02.12.12
- Squatters cite old law to claim homes
- Whitney Houston always remembered in her hometown
- Whitney Houston cause of death under investigation
Latest CBS News Headlines
on Facebook Most Discussed Stories
on CBS News
- Kuwait central bank chief resigns
- Israeli settler: Outpost to stay 2 more years
- Tropical Latin theme lightens up post-Grammy party
- Russia studying Syria peacekeeper proposal
on Facebook Most Discussed Stories
on CBS News
