A 24-year-old woman trying to flee from U.S. Border Patrol agents crashed her car into a sport utility vehicle near the entrance to the Walmart on Alton Gloor Boulevard Saturday afternoon, a federal criminal complaint states.
Leydi Lizbeth Uscanga-Rivera, a Mexican national, tried to run from the crash scene but witnesses to the accident told the agents they had seen her running toward U.S Expressway 77/83, according to the federal criminal complaint. She was arrested shortly after.
Uscanga-Rivera had just driven from the Rio Grande area near Riverbend Resort on Military Highway 281. She was transporting four undocumented immigrants, the federal criminal complaint stated.
Uscanga-Rivera appeared Monday before U.S. Magistrate Ronald G. Morgan who set a $25,000 cash bond on her. She was remanded to the custody of U.S. Marshals. Her next court appearance is scheduled for Aug. 31.
According to the federal criminal complaint, Border Patrol agents were conducting static observations near Military Highway 281, when they spotted a silver car driving toward the river levee. They immediately saw the car driving away from the river levee and making its way back to the highway.
Agents located the car Uscanga-Rivera was driving near the entrance to the Riverbend Resort and attempted to stop the vehicle, but she drove off, the federal criminal complaint reads.
Uscanga-Rivera kept driving on Military Highway until she drove her vehicle on Alton Gloor Boulevard.
“The silver sedan continued driving north until it attempted to turn into the Walmart parking lot and bailed out near the Whataburger restaurant after colliding into a silver Ford Explorer,” the federal criminal complaint states.
Uscanga-Rivera and the four undocumented immigrants she was accused of transporting were checked out by EMS personnel and then transported to the Brownsville Border Patrol station. The driver in the SUV that Uscanga-Rivera’s vehicle struck did not seek medical treatment.
According to the federal criminal complaint, Uscanga-Rivera was identified by the undocumented immigrants as their smuggler.
