A man’s distinctive pink hair helped Border Patrol agents identify him as the suspect they accuse of being the caretaker for a stash house in San Juan where agents on Tuesday discovered 52 people in the country illegally.
Federal prosecutors charged Antonio Adolfo Perez, a United States citizen born in 2000, with bringing in and harboring people in the country illegally.
On Tuesday, Border Patrol received information about the San Juan home and arrived there, along with the sheriff’s office, and saw a man sitting in the driver seat of a gray Jeep Wrangler parked at the residence, according to a criminal complaint.
The man was identified as Perez and Border Patrol agents said he told them he was there to pick up a friend.
Agents detained him pending the investigation, while sheriff’s deputies knocked on the front door, the complaint says.
“A male subject opened the door, freely exited the residence and eight (8) other subjects followed him. Agents entered the house and discovered forty-three (43) additional subjects inside the house,” the complaint stated.
While agents said Perez admitted to dropping off food at the location and being reimbursed for doing so, a material witness bolstered Border Patrol’s case by identifying Perez due to the man’s pink hair.
The material witness, who is a citizen of Mexico, told agents that a man with pink hair who drove a gray Jeep came to the house almost daily to provide everyone food, according to the complaint.
“(He) identified Antonio Adolfo Perez through a photo line up as the man with pink hair that drove the gray Jeep and the person who would bring food for them,” the complaint stated.
Perez was scheduled for a first appearance Thursday in federal court, records show.
