Pennsylvania National Guardsman And Fort Hood Solider Accused Of Smuggling Migrants From Mexico

LAREDO, Texas (AP) — A Fort Hood soldier and a Pennsylvania National Guardsman stationed at the Central Texas installation have been charged with smuggling two men into Texas from Mexico.

Court records show Fort Hood soldier Ralph Gregory Saint-Joie, 18, and guardsman Emmanuel Oppongagyare, 20, made initial appearances before a federal magistrate Tuesday in Laredo. Both were held in custody under $75,000 bonds pending detention hearings next Tuesday.

A car Oppongagyaye was driving with Saint-Joie as a passenger, both in Army uniforms, approached a Border Patrol checkpoint in Hebbronville, about 150 miles (241.40 kilometers) south of San Antonio.

A criminal complaint says that as agents performed an initial inspection, Oppongagyaye told them he and Saint-Joie were driving to San Antonio from the border town of Zapata, Texas.

When the car was referred for a secondary inspection, two Mexican nationals were found in its trunk, according to the complaint. Oppongagye told the agent that a man he met through Saint-Joie paid him $100 and promised an undetermined amount of money to pick up a man and a woman in McAllen and drive them to San Antonio.

Messages to the defendants' court-appointed attorneys were not immediately returned. The migrants were being held as material witnesses.

(Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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