A concerned citizen’s tip Tuesday led Border Patrol agents to the discovery of a Weslaco stash house where agents found 49 people in the country illegally.
The tip resulted in Border Patrol agents conducting surveillance at the residence that day and observing a white Yukon arrive there at about 12:10 p.m. and park in reverse in the driveway.
The driver, Brandon Marsel Martinez-Zaragoza, a Mexican citizen born in 1994, was later arrested and charged with bringing in and harboring people in the country illegally.
During the surveillance, agents observed Martinez go into the residence and then exit moments later and motion for a woman to exit the vehicle and enter the residence, according to the complaint, which said two additional people also left the Yukon and went into the residence.
Martinez then got into the vehicle and left for the grocery store, but before reaching his destination a deputy with the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office pulled him over for failing to signal a turn, according to the complaint.
Border Patrol agents then questioned Martinez as to his immigration status and to his alleged involvement with smuggling.
The complaint said Martinez admitted to being in the country illegally and gave agents consent to search the residence where agents found the 49 people.
During an interview following his arrest, Martinez told investigators he crossed through Reynosa on March 15 and planned to travel to Houston but could not afford his smuggling fees so he took a job picking up people for $50 per person and transporting them to the stash house, according to the complaint.
“Martinez claimed he was getting paid in cash and someone would hide his payment in plant pots, which he would later pick up,” the complaint stated.
He was scheduled to make a first appearance Thursday in McAllen federal court in front of U.S. Magistrate Judge J. Scott Hacker.
