A multi-agency effort Monday that included the Texas Department of Public Safety, the sheriff’s office and county constables assisted Border Patrol in three traffic stops and a knock-and-talk at an Alton residence that resulted in three harboring arrests as well as the arrests of more than a dozen people in the country illegally.
On Thursday, suspects Iris Susana Meza-Ruiz, a Mexican citizen born in 1987, her husband, Mario Alberto Rodriguez-Hernandez, a Mexican citizen born in 1986, and a man who dated the couple’s daughter, Mauricio Garcia-Montoya, a U.S. citizen born in 1999, made their first appearance on charges of bringing and harboring people in the country illegally.
The operation began after a concerned citizen reported a suspected stash house in Alton, prompting Border Patrol to respond and initiate surveillance.
“Shortly after, agents observed a black in color Cadillac Escalade, containing a female driver and a male passenger, arrive at the residence. Moments later, agents observed several subjects exit the residence and unload bags from the truck of the Escalade,” the criminal complaint stated.
After that, agents said the Escalada, a Honda Civic and a Ford pickup truck left the house.
“Agents subsequently requested assistance with the investigation from local law enforcement officers,” the complaint stated.
Authorities first stopped the Escalade after a DPS trooper spotted it and stopped it for following a vehicle too closely, according to Border Patrol.
Agents approached the vehicle and identified the driver as Meza-Ruiz, who said she was in the country illegally, and the passenger, Rodriguez-Hernandez, who also said he was in the country illegally, according to the charging document.
Authorities say Rodriguez-Hernandez provided them consent to search the house in Alton.
Meanwhile, Border Patrol followed the civic to a business in Mission where Hidalgo County constables approached the vehicle’s occupants.
The complaint said the driver and passenger of that vehicle both admitted to being in the country illegally.
The Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office, along with Border Patrol, found the Ford pick-up at a gas station in Mission and approached the vehicle.
Authorities identified the driver as Garcia-Montoya.
“Garcia-Montoya stated that the passenger was his girlfriend and that he had just picked her up at her residence in Alton, Texas,” the complaint stated.
However, according to Border Patrol, she denied this and told agents she was from Ecuador and had been smuggled into the country.
After the traffic stops, all of the agents converged on the Alton residence and after a knock-and-talk, authorities found 10 more people who were in the country illegally.
Border Patrol said a review of Meza-Ruiz and Rodriguez-Hernandez’s text messages revealed communications between all three suspects regarding the coordination of the drop-off and pick-up of people in the country illegally.
While the married couple allegedly admitted to their roles in running the stash house, Garcia-Montoya told agents he didn’t know why he was under arrest.
He told investigators that he contacted a friend when he returned to the Valley and was allowed to stay at the house and said he had no knowledge whether the people in the house were in the country illegally because it was none of his business, according to the complaint.
However, in addition to the text messages Border Patrol says implicates the man, one of the people in the stash house told investigators that he crossed the river in a raft last Saturday and was lead through the brush for three hours to a location where Garcia-Montoya picked him up, the charging document alleged.
